Double standards as school teacher’s internet mistake leads to sacking
Leonora Rustamova, a teacher in West Yorkshire,was suspended recently when a book she wrote “Stop! Don’t Read This!” was accidentally published on the internet. The story, which includes underage drinking, hints of drug use and “pupil fantasies” was written by “Miss Rusty” specifically for and about the five male pupils in her class.
When I first heard the story a month or so ago I dismissed it as another young teacher with bad judgement who had overstepped the boundary or teacher/pupil relationships.
But I was wrong. Today I listened to the excellent Victoria Derbyshire programme on radio 5 live where the teacher in question, along with one of her ex-students, was interviewed. And I was literally bowled over. This is a quite brilliant teacher who, when faced with matter of trying to engage five disaffected 15 and 16 year old boys in their last few months of school, came to the conclusion that she had to do something quite exceptional to engage her students. These young men were only in school two days a week, and had faced exclusion after exclusion from a system that had all but given up on them. So she engaged with them, took it upon herself, in her own time, to write a story about them and their lives, including language and ideas that they could relate to. Yes it was a bit racey in places, yes it had bad language, yes it even involved passages where the boys fantasised about the teacher. But it worked ! These young men actually started to read on their own, in their own time – and engaged their parents in the book. I didnt know the education system had such daring, brilliant, caring teachers still in it.
And to be clear, all this was done with the support of the head teacher.
What went wrong was when she attempted to have copies of the book printed and bound to give to the boys as a memento of their time at school. The book was mistakenly published online, after her husband found a website that would print copies. As she had broken confidentiality rules (it is said that the pupils could clearly be identified in the book) she was sacked.
It’s clear that a small but vocal minority of narrow-minded parents and do-gooders got very hot under the collar when they found out about Miss Rusty’s unorthodox teaching methods – though I can find no reference to any criticism or complaint from the boy’s parents anywhere. Just a lot of people being outraged “on their behalf”.
So the system (desperately short of good teachers) loses a brilliant , creative hard working school teacher because of one mistake .
In a system of ever-tightening “rules of conduct” that the government requires schools to implement I am sure the school believed that they had no option but to sack her. Shame on them. Shame on the system.
What I find galling is that we have just been through weeks of listening to one MP after another admitting to “making a mistake” about their expenses. Most of them will walk away from this with not so much as a slap on the wrist. A teacher (or to be more accurate her husband) makes a mistake – (and with no complaint from the “victims”) and the teacher gets sacked.
One rule for the MPs another law for the rest of us.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Interesting twist in what would on the face of it seem like a standard “Teacher gets too close” story.
However even if the Head allowed this to happen, and the only reason it got out is due to an administrative mistake the idea was sailing very, very close to the wind.
Teachers have to be very careful in this sort of area and it is unsurprising that this furore has happened. They must have known there was a risk of this given what they were doing.
I have sympathy with this Teacher but there must surely have been other ways to engage with the pupils than this?
July 8th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Well as a former teacher, I’d like to hear ‘what the other ways to engage with dissafected pupils’ might be.
I worked in some tough schools and could usually reach 95% of the children I taught…of course it’s the 5% (and more) that are being completely failed by the system of education in England and if this teacher managed to grab their interest and engage with them to good effect, then that is fantastic.
I hope she is able to rebuild her life.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Mark – I thought this was as you say “another teacher gets too close” story – and yes I certainly think her methods were unorthodox – and maybe even – in todays climate anyway – “risky”. But I actually want our teachers to have THE FREEDOM TO TEACH – to use their skills, ingenuity, and experiences to get the most from the children (or in this case young adults) that they can. As an 11 year old child I remember my history teacher terrifying the wits out of us all as he rampaged around the classroom growling, shouting and throwing books around as he explained what a Viking assault on a Saxon village entailed (well minus the “adult” bits). I am certain there are a dozen rules that would have him thrown out of teaching today – yet he kindled in me a love of history I have never lost. More of that. Less of bureacrats issuing page after page of rules on every aspect of school life that will inevitably lead to those who show a spark of individuality falling foul of some technicality.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:43 am
As a sixth former I once covered a history lesson of 11 year olds. They were bored with the preset work. I asked them what they wanted to do, and they said a play. It was after end of year exams, and thought “that’s a good idea”. I told them their teacher would let them, and they were so excited. They wrote a historically accurate play on the Roman’s Battle of the River Medway, physics rigged up some lighting, and they performed it at the next open school open day. The history teacher backed me to the hilt on his return, and he had a very happy bunch of kids, even if it meant a further 3 lessons devoted to learning and producing a play. These things are needed, and need to happen.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Some kids I taught Shakespeare to once composed a rap about Lear which was subsequently banned for containing the word “horny”. Head of year didn’t share my liberal view on this matter.