Cooking the Books
Oct. 23rd, 2011 04:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cedar_groveFrom The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.
There is no minimizing the hardships that arise beyond our control…
I talked a little bit the other day about work and how much politics is getting in the way of the satisfaction of teaching – and how I've been looking a little on the edges of the box (not quite outside of it) to take advantage of every opportunity possible. Reading this today made me think of something. Yesterday I was looking online at the TES (Times Educational Supplement), and their classified section that list many teaching jobs nationally and internationally – and the one thing that struck me was that there were more teaching jobs available in Saudi and other areas of the middle east, and that most of them were funded by the oil companies – specifically Shell. This would be all well and good if I wanted to find a job in that area of the world… and whilst I was almost tempted by a job in Saudi still, in the back of my mind there was the fear of all the unrest in those parts of the world right now.
My first headteacher, one of the most caring and kind men I've met in a long time, before he came to run that school had been a teacher out in the Middle East, actually working for the royal family out there, educating some of their children. That was a long time ago now. I've been teaching for over 14 years. What brought him back to the UK was the death of his wife. She was killed when a bomb exploded. Even way back then… that region wasn't exactly the safest place to be.
Also… was talking with a very dear friend yesterday too – and worrying at the fact that sub posts are getting to be more and more rare, and the need for work and worry over that. She too works in the public sector, and is facing the same kinds of worries – will there be enough work to keep us all on – but… digression… in talking about the fact that sometimes the half term (one week) school holiday periods are so often different in Leicester than in other parts of the country she made a very kind (and practical) suggestion that if I told the agency (which is national) to think of me for work during those weeks in the area in which she lives, I could stay with her that week if there was work available, if I wanted to make a bit more cash instead of going a week without, if I stay in the country. I'm honestly touched.
What didn't leave me feeling at all touched was a news item earlier today, as I was passing through the living room to get something, where the financial reporter was bragging about how the government had managed to bring down the deficit budget on public spending. Hmmm, wonder how that might have happened…. Could it be because they're laying off teachers left and right, and closing care facilities, and making social workers redundant… let's think about this for a minute. Just goes to prove that you can make numbers reflect any bulshit that you want them too.
Our life experiences will have resonances within our innermost being, so that we will feel the rapture of being alive.
--Joseph Campbell
There is no minimizing the hardships that arise beyond our control…
I talked a little bit the other day about work and how much politics is getting in the way of the satisfaction of teaching – and how I've been looking a little on the edges of the box (not quite outside of it) to take advantage of every opportunity possible. Reading this today made me think of something. Yesterday I was looking online at the TES (Times Educational Supplement), and their classified section that list many teaching jobs nationally and internationally – and the one thing that struck me was that there were more teaching jobs available in Saudi and other areas of the middle east, and that most of them were funded by the oil companies – specifically Shell. This would be all well and good if I wanted to find a job in that area of the world… and whilst I was almost tempted by a job in Saudi still, in the back of my mind there was the fear of all the unrest in those parts of the world right now.
My first headteacher, one of the most caring and kind men I've met in a long time, before he came to run that school had been a teacher out in the Middle East, actually working for the royal family out there, educating some of their children. That was a long time ago now. I've been teaching for over 14 years. What brought him back to the UK was the death of his wife. She was killed when a bomb exploded. Even way back then… that region wasn't exactly the safest place to be.
Also… was talking with a very dear friend yesterday too – and worrying at the fact that sub posts are getting to be more and more rare, and the need for work and worry over that. She too works in the public sector, and is facing the same kinds of worries – will there be enough work to keep us all on – but… digression… in talking about the fact that sometimes the half term (one week) school holiday periods are so often different in Leicester than in other parts of the country she made a very kind (and practical) suggestion that if I told the agency (which is national) to think of me for work during those weeks in the area in which she lives, I could stay with her that week if there was work available, if I wanted to make a bit more cash instead of going a week without, if I stay in the country. I'm honestly touched.
What didn't leave me feeling at all touched was a news item earlier today, as I was passing through the living room to get something, where the financial reporter was bragging about how the government had managed to bring down the deficit budget on public spending. Hmmm, wonder how that might have happened…. Could it be because they're laying off teachers left and right, and closing care facilities, and making social workers redundant… let's think about this for a minute. Just goes to prove that you can make numbers reflect any bulshit that you want them too.
