MY EDUCATION WEEK:Maria Brett, Fourth-year student, Coláiste Mhuire Marino
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH
Last weekend in Kilkenny before I make the big move to Dublin and start knocking on school doors. I’ve been training at Coláiste Mhuire in Marino for the past three years, so it’s not exactly a new frontier, but I was a student then. I’m a jobseeker now.
Yes, I am aware that teaching jobs are not that easy to come by any more, but I’m from the Kelly Rowland school of career guidance. “Don’t let anybody stand in your way, girl!” If I could just get those sculpted arms and that high-gloss hair, what school wouldn’t want me?
I shouldn't be watching The X Factor: I should be shining my shoes and ironing my CV.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH
Slept through the Ireland-USA rugby. Pity: a missed opportunity to appreciate Tommy Bowe. However, lie-ins will be off the table from tomorrow. I have got to find a job and find it fast. There were 120 students in my year in Marino, and so far only 10 of them are working in schools. I’ll have to get up pretty early in the morning to be number 11.
Tonight, I take my life to Dublin and launch myself on Santry and its environs. I’m nervous, yes. But I’m also really excited. This is the beginning of my career.
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 12TH
New house in Dublin 9. Same housemates, all job-seeking teachers like me. The competition will be fierce! I started today on the internet, on educationposts.ie. First thing that pops up is the number of primary teaching posts available in the country today: 278. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Problem is, as a 21-year-old graduate with no teaching experience I’m at the bottom of the food chain. The schools have so many people to choose from before they get to me. There’s the redeployment panel for teachers who have lost jobs at their own schools. Then there are all the retired teachers still looking for subbing work. Plus I’m female, which doesn’t help. Must take up hurling.
I do wish the schools would give new graduates a chance, though. We have really been through our paces in teaching practice and are raring to go. I have all the latest educational thinking at the tips of my fingers – I am in the zone of proximal development, as Mr Vygotsky might put it.
Oh well, stay positive. Quick trip to the shops for the newspaper, stamps and envelopes and to print off some CVs. Hmm, €15 down already and it’s only Monday morning. My allowance is not going to spread too far if I keep this up. I’m still registered as a student of Coláiste Mhuire, as I have a year to complete to get my diploma. That means I can’t get social welfare, so I have to get a job. Meanwhile, my dad is helping me out, but that can’t go on forever.
Even if I wasn’t still a student, my weekly dole would come to €144 a week. I could get €180 a day doing substitute work at a school. I have got to find some work.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH
Feet on the street today. CVs are fine, but nothing beats the personal touch. I’ve been calling in to schools around Santry and beyond, trying to get a meeting with the principals. If they’ve seen me and have my CV on the desk they might be more inclined to give me a call when they need a sub. It also gives me a chance to see what the schools are like, what they might need in a teacher. Painting-and-decorating skills, maybe? I need to make myself desirable. I’m thinking of taking up cricket – how many teachers are likely to have that on the CV?
I have a few skills besides teaching that a school could use. I’m a trained lifeguard and could teach swimming. I can also play the guitar and could teach the pupils Coldplay’s entire back catalogue. Or Lady Gaga. Not wearing that meat dress, though.
I always wanted to be a teacher. Ever since I was six. My mum taught home economics at a secondary school in Kilkenny. I went for primary because I just love children. I always loved minding the little cousins, organising games for them, working in kids’ clubs. I just want to be in a classroom.
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 14TH
I still have some studying to do. I have two evenings a week at Coláiste Mhuire and a 10,000-word thesis to write before I get my diploma. I don’t start until next week, but I’ll need to get my head in order and choose a topic. It wouldn’t hurt to focus on something that will make me more marketable – literacy, maybe? I’m taking a module on world religions, and I would love to teach in a school where the cultures are mixed.
I don't really mind what kind of school I teach in, though. Catholic schools are no problem for me, and teaching religion doesn't clash with my beliefs. Some of my classmates were a bit uncomfortable with the religion module at college, but I suppose they knew what they were getting into. I watched the parents on the Late Late Showlast week arguing the case for people who are not Catholic. I can see their point of view as well.
Went into town today with the girls and visited a few city-centre schools. Nice reception but no leads. After several hours of traipsing around we thought we might go for lunch. After spending another €25 on stationery and bus fares, lunch is a modest burger-and-chips affair. Will this be my life for weeks, months or even longer?
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH
My friend has just left for a teaching job in Abu Dhabi. She says they’re delighted to have her over there. I’m glad she’s sorted, but it’s a bit of a shot of reality for me and the housemates. We had to have “that conversation”: what happens if we just can’t get the work here?
The way I see it, I have three options. I look for another job to pay the bills, say in a shop or a leisure centre, and just keep searching for a teaching job for as long as it takes.
My second option is to study some more, do an MEd specialising in educational psychology, which I’ve always been interested in, and then try to build a career as an educational psychologist. Problem is, by that route I’d never get near a classroom, and that would be a shame.
The third option is to go to Abu Dhabi or Dubai. Don’t know much about the place, apart from what I picked up from Sex in the City 2. I’m sure that was a faithful representation. Yes, I could handle that, and it would mean I could be teaching, and using my training straight away. We all agreed to give it some serious consideration.
There is, of course, always the option to marry a rich man and open my own school. Then I could give myself two months’ paid marriage leave – moneymoon, as they’re calling it – and then people could complain about me on Newstalk, as they were this morning. Teachers: people are always so fascinated by their terms and conditions.
All I know is I didn’t get into teaching because I wanted moneymoon or summer holidays or sick leave. I want to be in a classroom with a load of kids and I want to try out all that I have learned in the past three years. I want the fun and challenge and satisfaction of teaching. I want it now, and it’s frustrating that I can’t have it.
I am not the only graduate out there looking for work in uncertain times, however. Being a teacher doesn’t make me any different, I suppose.
Tonight I will put it all aside for a few hours at Culchie Central, otherwise known as Copper Face Jacks. It will be full of unemployed teachers like me, spending the few pence they haven’t already committed to envelopes and shoe shine. I won’t be talking about the redeployment panel or the cost of a stamp. I will be talking about Sunday’s Australia game and looking out for someone to share my moneymoon with me, in about a decade, when such a thing will be gone the way of the Gaga meat dress.
