The Hardest Job In Teaching.

For many years I taught both Spanish and RS to GCSE level with the language to 'A' Level.
It has now been about 4 years since I last had to teach Spanish - and what a mighty relief!

We do not take languages seriously in the UK and the greatest disservice ever done to the beleagured souls engaging in this dreadful job came at the start of my career - the need for an 'O' Level qualification for university matriculation was removed.

Modern languages were downgraded at a stroke. Children, for the most part find them hard; vote with their feet when options are permitted; dislike the amounts of work and learning involved; recognise that a modern language is not actually vital!

The consequence was that the hardest of all subjects to teach had a basis which effectively allowed children to treat it with contempt.

Today, as an RS teacher alone, I would consider this subject - in which I have no qualifications whatsoever - to be less than half the difficulty level of teaching French & Spanish.
Our society has created a major disadvantage for itself - this is the tip of a rather larger educational iceberg.
Our businesses are at a major disadvantage when foreign clients always expect to deal in English because our people cannot speak their language.
Time for a complete rethink!