ABSTRACT
I was useless at ball games. Something to do with being very shortsighted, I suppose – I reckon the refractive index of my spectacles was sufficient to displace the ball several centimetres away from where it really was. Well, that’s my excuse anyway. The consequence was that I was always a marginal figure when it came to informal soccer games, trotting along in the wake of the action, willing the ball to go anywhere but near to me. I was thinking of that when I wrote this piece about the qualities we have in mind when we recruit teachers. Just as the only qualification for being in a football team is the ability to play well, I guess the only real qualification for being a teacher is the ability to teach. That’s obvious – but we don’t always behave as if it is.
