How much gas is left in the tank?

Today, almost half a million teachers across England and Wales go on strike.

So will rail workers and civil servants. Next week it will be nurses, midwives, physios. Firefighters have also just voted to take industrial action, postal workers last month.

Half a million people on strike, all demanding more pay.

But more pay isn’t because of wealth. More pay isn’t because of greed or selfishness. More pay is because of energy.

Having been a teacher for a large part of my adult life, I can tell you hands down you don’t do it for the money! (A friend of mine and I once worked out that we were averaging £1.57p per hour when you calculated the number of hours you actually did in the job – as opposed to the ones you’re paid for.) And whilst I haven’t ever been a nurse, I would like to imagine that same drive of care, compassion, community are the values which bring people into the vocation.

When teachers strike today, they are not being selfish by “not thinking about the welfare of the children”. They are being selfless by recognising that – unless things change, the long-term welfare of children, teachers, parents and all stakeholders will suffer.

For those not aware of what’s happening inside schools right now, things are very bleak. Most schools in England don’t have enough teachers to teach all of the subjects they need. And the exodus is growing as the demands from DfE increase. Rising costs mean that some Headteachers are having to choose between heating the school or buying learning resources. Teachers are buying food, pencils, books for their students with money from their own pockets. 

Even more significantly, no-one is feeling well in this current state of learning. Not even those who are making decisions directly impacting the learning communities – for we see civil servants also striking today – standing together as fellow humans also just struggling to work within systems which do not serve the wellbeing of those within them.

When a plant is wilting, we don’t diagnose the plant with “wilting plant syndrome” and tell it to perk up, sort itself out and do a better job… we recognise that the conditions around the plant are not allowing it to thrive. When the vast majority of key workers in a country choose to go on strike as a final ‘cry for help’, you don’t blame the workers, you look at the conditions surrounding them which are making them so desperate they are forced to take to the streets to ask for help.

Jacinda Arden’s parting words as she resigned from her role as Prime Minister last week says it all: “I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple.”

Money is the fuel which allows us energy to do well and be well together. When we’re being forced to work more for less, the effects ripple well beyond the bank balance. If we can’t afford to pay our bills, despite working all the hours we can, it can’t work. If we return home wounded after working to the point of exhaustion – because our workplaces are underfunded and over-demanding, it can’t work. If our quality of life is diminished and our capacity to flourish is severed, it can’t work.  We need to recognise that it is ‘how’ our systems our functioning that is making us unwell, not the people within them. We need to remember that we are the system and our actions have the power to change everything.

I am human. Politicians are human. We give all that we can, for as long as we can, and then it’s time. And for me, it’s time. (Jacinda Ardern, Jan 2023)

Teachers are not quitting today. Nurses are not quitting next week, neither are firefighters nor any other friends in this space. Instead, they are striking; raising the alarm to let us all know that there’s not much gas left in the tank, and if we want to keep our country moving and thriving, we need to change the conditions which are preventing so many from being well and doing well for others.

ThoughtBox stands shoulder to shoulder with all those who are being brave enough to ask for help, and will continue to dedicate our work and mission to supporting systems change in education to allow school communities to be well, feel well, live well and learn well together.