By: Blonde One
As you may have gathered by now, we Blondes have embarked on new employment options. Blonde Two is successfully writing and I am teaching in a new school. There are many implications alongside this statement: we don’t see each other as often as we did when we worked in the same school, we are much happier with our new employment despite not seeing each other so often, and lastly we are both a bit freer in the evenings for a bit of Dartmoor walking.
Recently we tested this third implication thoroughly as we got ourselves up onto the moors for a little bimble. The light spring evening contributed to the most definite spring in our step, and we decided that the planned bimble could be extended to a walk. We had a fantastic walk which included several tors, a visit to the Dartmoor Christmas Tree, a coffee stop, some beautiful birdsong and several stops to play with the camera. It was so lovely to Get Outside on a school night that we didn’t really want it to end. However the call of the Jail Ale and Fish Pie eventually became too loud to resist and we retreated to Widecombe in the Moor’s Old Inn for our supper.
So we have discovered that even ‘on a school night’ we can easily Get Outside for a dose of Dartmoor.
Teaching what? Do you feel restrained from writing about teaching, as doctors would be about doctoring? Is there a sort of teacher’s equivalent of the Hippocratic oath? Given the pair of you write so frequently it seems wasteful to ignore the experiences that occur during eight hours out of every twenty-four. Perhaps teaching is dispiriting, but even that would make good copy. I’m not talking scandal or gossip. Transmuting the daily grind into rare metal is a worthwhile aim. Or am I interfering?
Your comments are interesting Roderick, for many reasons. It’s hard to reply in a short message. At my previous school it was very hard to talk about it on the blog for reasons that are best left for a private conversation! As to the 8 hour comment you would have needed to replace the 8 with 13!!! My new school is a fabulous place that if I blogged about too much I would probably feel the wrath of the entire state school population of teachers. I am a very happy Head of English now working in a school that actively promotes my passion for Outdoor Education.
Eventually you’ll do a poll: The Top Ten Novels Written By Brits. Let me be the first to respond with Middlemarch. Often one has to explain that George needn’t necessarily indicate a male author, but you’d know all about that.
Thanks for your response. I note the earlier problem.