Primary Schools have always relied on their Principals to be curriculum leaders. Each has to be a head teacher cum best teacher with an extraordinary knowledge of teaching strategies and a deep understanding of curriculum issues. It has always been so and the expectation remains today. However, during the 20th Century, this ultimate teacher-professional became weighed down with requirements beyond the essential learnings of the day, and was forced to perform the most menial of necessary school tasks. Each was constantly sidetracked by professionally wasteful managerial demands. Indeed, time management of unwelcomed and uninvited necessities required special abilities.
There was no clerical support in primary schools for almost all of the 20th Century no matter what the size of school or its attachments, such as Secondary Departments, Pre-school Centres, Manual Arts/Domestic Science Centres. The head of primary teachers, beyond ensuring that teaching performances of all teachers was up to the task, was also required to complete all official books, records and all required returns; to maintain a diligence in terms of office procedure that few executives of any business were expected to complete; to do it all alone, without secretarial or professional assistance. There was an amazing array of time-demanding tasks.
In the school grounds they were expected, sometimes with the help of community members, to mow the school grounds, maintain gardens and dispose of all rubbish. A friendly pig-farmer was considered a gem for taking the lunch left-overs until this practice was deemed to be unhygienic…for the pigs. Burning papers, frequently in a make-shift incinerator, was part of the normal afternoon routine. In smaller schools, many head teachers also experienced the indignity of having to perform the weekly duties of a sanitary contractor, unwillingly supplementing a meagre salary on a per-pan basis.
DITTY OF EXTRANEOUS DUTIES
[Tune: I Never See Maggie Alone.]
I do the banking, the clerking,
Along with all the marking -
Oh, I never do teaching alone.
I do the project-plot weeding,
I’ve started guppy-breeding,
But I never do teaching alone.
The Union tells me
One job to do …..
I’ve got a few
That don’t bring in a sou!
The art-and-crafting, the sewing,
And now the grounds need mowing -
Oh, I never do teaching alone.
I take the fife band on Monday -
There’s no such thing as one day
When I ever do teaching alone.
The hockey coaching on Friday -
It really will be my day
If I ever do teaching alone.
When there’s a school fete
How can I shirk?
Though it may irk,
I do all the work!
For Penny Sale-ing and raffling
To find the time is baffling -
Oh, I never do teaching alone.
I am a garbage disposer,
A job that’s on the nose, sir -
Oh I never do teaching alone.
I am a milkman, first-aid man,
I’m Jack-of-every-trade, man,
‘Cos I never do teaching alone.
And when St. Peter
Says “Who are you?”
What can I do -
I haven’t got a clue!
Though some would call me a teacher,
I’m really no such creature
For I never do teaching alone.
