Fitting in and connecting

While it is okay for teachers to talk fondly of the previous school they served at, making constant comparisons and bragging about their past achievements may not necessarily be well received by their new colleagues.

WHETHER it is perceived as an advantage or disadvantage, people don’t always stay in the same place of work they started out with throughout their service.

They get promoted to another department, are transferred to a different state or even get posted abroad. Sometimes it is a result of personal choice and at other times just a directive from higher authorities.

Teachers are particularly familiar with the “farewell” ceremonies which happen when there is confirmation of a colleague’s imminent transfer to another school.

There is the little staff club committee meeting to discuss when best to have the ceremony, the budget for the ‘farewell gift’ which of course has to be appropriately proportionate to the soon-to-be ex-colleague’s years of service in the school. Then it is done; a few speeches with pantuns thrown in, sometimes tears are shed, a general farewell round with the group of teachers and then they are off to a brand new start in a new work-place.

The roles of the players in the farewell scene are very often interchanged.

Sometimes you may be the one who is going away to a new posting in another school or department.

New postings

Each year, teaching staff in almost every school welcome new colleagues who have come in from another school for all the same familiar reasons.

Some of these new additions to the staff blend in very quickly into their new surroundings, adapt to whatever changes there are and within a short period, it seems as if they had always been there right from the beginning.

There are others though, who never seem to get over that period of adjustment and fitting in.

Among these are the ones who even after almost a complete year of being in their new school, still make constant reference to their old school or work place.

Everything where they came from — from school assemblies to students’ grades to the colours of staff room walls – were much better, far superior and way more advanced.

They had better systems for everything; dealing with student discipline, managing substitute classes, keeping the toilets clean and so on and so on.

It gets to a point where you actually cringe each time they begin a sentence with “In my former school” or “back in ....”

You want to tell this person to shut up, and you are on the verge of saying: “If things were so much better/superior/ more efficient/ organised back where you came from, why didn’t you just stay there?”

But the rules of good manners and civility restrain you, so you learn to hold your tongue, manage a wan smile and excuse yourself as quickly as you can.

What matters is that the teacher is now in a different school and has to work with new colleagues.

Past glories

As tiresome as it is to constantly be on the receiving end of a new colleague’s account of how much better it was “back there”, it is even worse when it is accompanied by references to their personal past achievements.

No one likes a braggart, and there is a difference between wanting to sincerely share best practices with the intention of helping to improve current situa- tions, and the need to blow one’s own trumpet, in order to appear higher up compared to one’s colleagues.

And the message that often comes across implied or otherwise is “Look at me, I’m better than the rest of you.”

To be fair, we do know that it is quite normal for teachers to talk fondly about their former schools and at times, we can take a cue from what is shared especially when it is totally relevant and applicable to the present situation.

We have all done it at one time or another, and to a large extent, the experience that one can bring from one’s past work experience can at times contribute significantly to better practices all round.

We learn to see how things are done differently in different places, adopt or adapt, modify to suit and match our own needs.

After all, most of what we build in our own schools or departments are upon the foundations that someone else has laid.

Perhaps this school in Johor where your new colleague has come from does have a better way of tracking student truancy.

Maybe our other new colleague’s ex-principal in Perak had a particularly innovative and effective method of promoting bilingualism in his school. Or, it could be that your new colleague herself has had phenomenal success in bringing up co-curriculum standards in her former school.

We are all part of the education network that connects us all together in one giant educational community.

Also, it is highly unlikely for someone new to come along and make no comparisons whatsoever between their former work environment and their present.

The reasons for wanting to compare past and present experiences vary.

It could be just a personal desire to muse or reminisce on the way things used to be or it could be a sincere wish to share and contribute meaningfully to the present situation.

And of course it could be just driven by the need to appear somewhat better than the people at present. But mostly however, it is some combination of all three at different times.

What may be good to remember when you are the new arrival in the place of work is that not everything you did in your former office needs to be shared.

Time and distance also have ways of magnifying or downplaying memories.

The insignificant can take on momentous new meaning they never had in the first place, and what really was important may just fade away into the background.

It might be unfortunate, embarrassing even, if after having announced your glorious former accomplishments all over the school, someone from the past actually turns up and puts things in the right, offering a rather not-so-glowing account of your stint at the previous school.

We are after all continually creating experiences and perhaps some of our experiences can be an archive of rich resources for colleagues who have only just begun to tread the same path.

Although memories and history itself is written or rewritten from varying perspectives, with each pair of eyes remembering it differently, perhaps for the sake of those who come after us, it is important to remember and record our memories with as much accuracy and honesty as we possibly can.

Happy 60th Merdeka Day everyone!

No one likes a braggart, and there is a difference between wanting to sincerely share best practices with the intention of helping to improve current situations, and the need to blow one’s own trumpet, in order to appear higher up compared to one’s colleagues.