Sir, – In reply to "The two types of teacher are easy to distinguish" (Secret Teacher, Education, March 12th), I have to admit: I did not originally want to be a teacher.
I also want to completely disagree with Secret Teacher’s argument.
Change of plans and adapting is part of everybody’s life, and how successfully you live depends on your ability to do this.
I did a B Comm, worked in industry, began teaching adults, worked in UK for eight years, and eventually back in Dublin, worked in further education college for 30 years. I loved my job.
To blow my own trumpet, teachers like me are essential to the system. We have a wider view of the world of work, and a wider variety of experiences which helps us to relate to our students.
Not all of our students will want to become teachers.
There is a problem with recruitment of teachers in Ireland but it is not what Secret Teacher proposes, rather it is the opposite.
We need to recruit teachers from a much wider variety of backgrounds, and with more variety of working experience, than we do at present, to reflect the changing nature of our students and our society.
We have only to look at the success of the movement “Now Teach” set up by Lucy Kellaway (a former financial journalist) in the UK. – Yours, etc,
MARIE HUMPHRIES,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.