Wilson Waffling

Education is, by nature, cyclic. When talking to my students as they prepare to leave university to start their first jobs, I like to give them various pieces of advice. Apart from to make friends with the caretaker/cleaners and admin staff - the number of times this has ended up being beneficial to me is immeasurable - I tell them to have a career plan and work towards it. It is very easy, when working within education, to get permanently 'stuck' in the cycle of events and as Christmases, SATs and Sports Days roll pass you suddenly find yourself like me, old and grey and looking at the NQTs thinking how young they all look! When I moved to higher education I had great hopes for my career, one of which was to attain the accolade of my doctorate. However, as the years have gone by, I have realised that I have fallen into the cyclic chasm I frequently warn the departing students about and that my doctorate itself is becoming transparent, intangible and practical non-existent.