Uncle Audley examines personal responsibility

Uncle Audley had just been reading another article about a failing school in the paper and was incandescent when he phoned.

“Why is it always the teacher’s fault the school has produced bad results?

When I was a boy and I did not do so well in an exam, the first thing my parents would say was whether I had personally worked as hard as I should have done.  There was no immediate assumption that I had been badly taught.

As a consequence of this, I learnt about taking personal responsibility for my actions.  It was down to me.  If things did not work out it was not a case of looking around for a scape goat.  I have taken this attitude through life.  I have never expected others to lay things on a plate for me.  I had to put the graft in.  It used to be known in days of yore, as the protestant work ethic. 

But, nowadays, if there are poor results, it is down to the teachers.  Let’s ignore the fact that pupils may be intellectually challenged.  In fact, the result may be a triumph for the teachers, given the human material they have to work with.

Easy, too, for parents these days to blame teachers for the shortcomings of offspring.  It doesn’t matter that children are often coming from dysfunctional families.  If a child is coming to school without having been properly fed, it’s small wonder that they cannot concentrate and learn properly.  If they come from a background where there are no books in the household, is it any surprise they have trouble reading?

Teachers now have a further burden, thanks to this Government.  They are often having to try and teach children who have little or no English.  Needless to say, Ed Balls and his team do not seem to grasp that these challenging conditions might merit more resources.

Anyway, my point is, my lad, that you need to approach business in the same way.  If things do not work out, do not look around for someone or something to blame.  Look at your own performance, be self critical, learn from your mistakes, put matters right and make sure you succeed”.

“Yes Audley” I replied to be met by silence – the receiver had been put down!

Date:3 June 2008

  Mail this article to a friend