The 'Subject Teacher'

For someone who went to university with the intention of becoming a secondary school teacher I chose a couple of dumb subjects to major on - Geology and Political Institutions.  I chose them because, when I had to make a decision at the end of the first year of a four year course, they interested me, and from that standpoint they were a huge success.

When it came to teaching I therefore had to chose other subjects from my chequered school and university careers, with the result that I mainly taught Maths, not because I was any good at it - I had hated it at A level - but because that was one subject where most schools were short of specialist teachers. In some ways, I think that teaching a subject which I too had not enjoyed made me empathise with, and adapt my teaching to the general dislike of the subject amongst pupils.

The experience enabled me to find the courage to risk teaching in a succession of subjects about which I knew less and less. Most timetablers thought geology was close enough to geography, so I taught that, and then I branched out into history, environmental studies, English, and religious education, information technology, physics and French, 

I had to work hard to keep myself ahead of my pupils as I worked my way into each new subject. In one or two instances my pupils overtook me. This was certainly true of computer studies, introduced in a hurry when computers became available in sufficient numbers to teach a whole class. I recall two students who were miles ahead of me, who later set up their own consultancy business.

My only worry is that my lack of detailed subject knowledge in so many subjects did my pupils harm.