A short answer to that is very little. So, is teaching a
good idea for a writer? It seems sensible. I am paid to be a writer and to pass skills
and craft on to other people. It may look like a good combination.
A career path for
graduates with a degree in English and Creative Writing
I often propose to my students that they are in an ideal position
to take a PGCE and teach at any level. Graduates leave us having a good knowledge
and understanding of English literature. They know how to write. As a visiting writer
to schools I’m often astonished at how little some teachers understand about
getting students to write. Our graduates would know differently. However, there
is a big BUT.
Not recommended for people
whose main purpose is to write
Teaching, particularly in the early days, takes a lot of energy
and in particular a lot of creative energy. There is little left for one’s own
creative projects. I had been teaching in high school for almost twenty years
before I found I had enough creative juices left after all the school work to write
fiction. And then only in the holidays and at the weekends.
Teaching as a
creative act
This doesn’t mean that teaching is a barren, unfulfilling career. There is so much about lesson preparation that
is like writing. You have to get points across convincingly and in a way that
keeps the learner engaged. You use a similar process in designing a lesson arc
as you do in designing a story arc. There is a similar feeling of satisfaction when
you think you have it right. You get feedback quite quickly and you sometimes
learn that you hadn’t got it as right as you thought you had. Often, though, your students do learn and thereby
conform that your design was appropriate. At least here you have 25 (primary)
to 250 (secondary) guaranteed “readers”.
A concrete example
I’ve just been getting ready for a class I’m giving tomorrow.
I’ll be meeting twenty-three students and we’ll be working on “showing, not telling”
and dialogue. I’m armed with three creative writing activities in case they’ve
brought no work to share in the workshop part of the lesson. We’ll also do some
close reading of some of the set texts to see how those writers show and tell
and how they use dialogue. I’m going to talk about their assessments and I’m
going to get them to bullet-point a reflective piece they have to provide and then
talk to partners about this. I’m confident I’ve more than enough material – always
better to have too much rather than too little. I’m looking forward to the class. I have a parallel
one on Wednesday – so preparation has actually been for two classes.
Constant cycle of
action research
Action research consists of defining a problem, thinking of
a solution, trying it out, evaluating the outcomes, and proposing a new solution
based on the evaluation. We do this constantly as we both write and teach. If
we regard the text to be written or the lesson to be given as “the problem” it is
easy to see that both teachers and writers are engaged in this cycle continuously. Both are reflective practitioners. Teachers
and writers who take part in this cycle carry on growing.
Creative writing in the
academy
Perhaps it is slightly easier for the writer who is an academic
than for the schoolteacher writer. We have less contact time, even if the time
in the classroom is a little more intense. We teach for fewer weeks a year. We’re
expected to research and research here can mean writing though a critically reflective
element would also be expected. We juggle teaching, admin, conference visiting
and writing, the latter dividing itself into creative and critical, and often
also community engagement and academic enterprise. We work long weeks. Yet we perhaps
have left over a little more brain space and a little more creative energy than
our colleagues in primary and secondary education.
I do feel very privileged to be allowed to call part of my
job what I would probably do even if I wasn’t paid and that I used to fit in at
weekends and school holidays.
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