The secret life of a teacher: what stops me walking away?

[Reyed Mia (Apprentice, DIU)]

The secret life of a teacher: what stops me walking away?

When you're not working it's not just the money you miss, it's the feeling that someone might actually notice if you didn't get out of bed one morning. Why is Tony Blair suddenly trying to carve out a space for himself in post-Brexit vote public life, when he clearly doesn't need the money and must know how furiously some will respond? He too apparently craves the luxury of being useful in a crisis, whether or not that's actually now within his grasp.

The army of born-again teachers Kellaway hopes to lead may also, of course, find being useful harder than it looks. If you're a lawyer used to people hanging on your every word in court, then facing a roomful of surly 13-year-olds who'd rather listen to anyone but you will not be easy. No doubt some late converts to the classroom, heads filled with romantic fantasies of starring in their own personal Dead Poets Society, will find out soon enough why almost half of newly qualified teachers drop out and why "giving something back" at the end of a long corporate career isn't necessarily as fun as it sounds.

But all power to Kellaway's elbow nonetheless, both for trying to make herself personally useful and for starting a long overdue conversation about the nature of work in later life.

In a world where retirement will be increasingly delayed and working life eked out for half a century it makes absolutely no sense to treat anyone over 50 as if they're coasting downhill to retirement, when the truth is they may have almost two decades of working life left in them. Why shouldn't people be able to reinvent themselves at this age, to rethink a career choice they might have made 30 years ago and long outgrown or to learn something new.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/25/over-50s-new-career-teacher