Next Monday 120,000 children will turn up in classrooms and find there is no teacher there for them. The teachers are deciding that they’ve had enough. They want to quit. Some will wait until the end of the academic year, but too many will just throw the chalk down and walk out.

This is a crisis. In response the Education Renaissance Trust is running seminars and in-school workshops for teachers and educators. The aim is to reconnect teachers with that initial spark which took them into the profession in the first place.

For many, the spark has seemingly gone out. We have discovered that despite frequent ‘outer’ reasons for disillusionment, the candle is best lit from within teachers themselves. And that which lights them up, above all things, is their coming to a fresh view of the spiritual meaning of their vocation - even if they didn’t call it that when they started their teaching careers.

‘Spiritual’ here does not necessarily mean religious. Often the teachers who participate in our courses don’t have any set religious beliefs, are not regular worshippers, nor are they particularly keen on formalities or ritual. And yet, with help, they come to appreciate that the person in front of them is a conscious being, with bright intelligence and a powerful creative force coursing through them. And with a bit more help they come to connect in practice with that power of vitality. Having connected with it, they start to introduce it into the heart of every lesson.

Teachers who reconnect in this way not only don’t want to give up; they want to discover more.

David Boddy, Education Renaissance Trust
(to read the full article, click here)

The Trust has been running teacher-training workshops, courses and In-service 'INSET training days since 1998. They have all been about the spiritual dimension of education - and how it can be brought to practical life for the teacher in the classroom on Monday morning. Participants have told us how these events have enriched their teaching careers, and frequently ask us when the next workshop will be!