Text B. Teacher burnout at 50-plus is holding back our students

'Teacher burnout at 50-plus is holding back our students' said Nicholas Tyldesley, head of history at Birley Community College in Sheffield.

Teachers should retire at 50. It is surprising that the Department for Education has not been actively promoting this strategy. At a stroke it would allow fast trackers to escalate through the promotion scales; it would let teachers connect more effectively with the youth culture of their students and it would facilitate the adoption of e-learning and new technologies.

In managerial terms creating a profession on short-term, limited contracts would let keen young teachers develop their talents before being burned out in the process and lingering on beyond their sell-by date. Mr Chips would be forced to enter the real world to try something else before final retirement. Like army officers, the police and pilots, teachers in the blackboard jungle need to be physically fit and intellectually sharp to survive the day to day harassment. Deja vu has no place in a fast changing world. So why aren't we taking such a bold step of purging schools of exhausted cynics who moan about workloads? The impending crisis of too many ex-workers claiming a pension and extended life expectancy makes talk of early retirement politically incorrect for new Labour.

We live in a youth culture yet paradoxically we want to encourage the active aged who doesn’t wish to retire. Studies show that mature, experienced staff are an asset to an organisation and can indeed be taught new skills. Active minds delay the onset of a general physical slowdown.

However, much one can agree with the trend for keeping people in the workplace beyond the current age limits, an exception still ought to be made for teachers.

The classroom does not allow for day dreaming, reflection or reducing input - you still have to hit the ground running for an hour's lesson whether you are a newly qualified teacher or long serving staff. After a few years the sheer grinding admin of attendance checks, dental forms and creating new schemes of work can beat the most enthusiastic down, as marking time eats into evenings. The lack of social life for so many teachers is a sad indictment of the job description.

Age does not automatically guarantee respect in the eyes of the young, and the challenges to authority are greater than ever before. The standard school is based on a historical model of adult control and hierarchy that is increasingly under critical scrutiny. It is an ineffective organisation to deliver education and the arguments of the doyens of the liberal 60s will be coming back into fashion.

There will be a backlash to the current practice of putting students through the testing hoops, simplistic measurement of achievement and of teachers as technicians, not charismatic performers.

Only when the structure of schools alters to take account of distance learning, e-learning and life-long learning can we think about the contribution of experienced teachers.

Until then we should face reality and accept that teacher burnout at 50-plus is holding back our students. It would be nice if teachers were offered a golden goodbye for long-term service.

(www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/may/29/publicvoices1)

4. Which word-combinations from ex. 2 were in your text? Paraphrase these word-combinations and use them in sentences of your own.

5. Translate into English.

1) Для некоторых учителей с большим стажем работы характерны истощение и профессиональное выгорание. 2) Учитель – это призвание и призыв к непрерывному творческому саморазвитию. 3) Задача учителя - определить методы работы и создать положительный воодушевляющий климат на уроке. 4) Одним из важных факторов стимулирования педагогического творчества является предоставление учителю самостоятельности и возможности творческого самовыражения. 5) Педагогика - не механический процесс передачи знаний, а творчество, в области которого сложно выставлять оценки. 6) Критерии оценки задают цели, на которые будет ориентироваться педагог, следовательно, упрощенная система оценки может привести к занижению целей. 7) Объем учебной нагрузки учителей устанавливается исходя из количества часов по учебному плану и программам. 8) Дистанционное обучение через Интернет значительно расширяет образовательные возможности.

6. Sum up the arguments from TEXT A and TEXT B in a report about the pros and cons of being a teacher.

TEXT 2. PERFORMANCE PAY 'BENEFITS' TEACHERS

1. What do you know about PRP – Performance Related Pay? What professions does it work best for?

2. Read the text, define its main idea.

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