Mail to a teaching agency ...

Dear Chris

Thanks so much for your email.

I've been waiting for suitable Music teaching opportunities which appear to be getting thinner on the ground (maybe I've been looking in the wrong places?).

As luck would have it, just on the day of embarking on a long-awaited trip to India, Kuala Lumpur and Taiwan, to look for possible opportunities abroad - I get this from Synarbor!

Thanks again,

I look forward to hearing from you on my return in early May - regarding appropriate permanent appointments - in schools with a strong headteacher.

Kind regards

Yeu-Ing Mo

Secondary & Primary Music Specialist
~~~~~~~~~

NOTE to the reader: This is a fantasy email. I don't know why I wrote it. Self-amusement, I guess, as I have no real intentions of rejoining the education system in the UK or abroad. After about 5 years, it's obvious it doesn't suit me ... certainly not for a long while.

Addendum (15 March, Kannur, North Kerala):

I told a porky. This was an actual email I wrote back to Synarbor. Did I not have anything better to do that day? Teaching secondary music in the UK sucks. I wasn't cut out for it. I never went into teaching to do crowd control and attend endless meetings after school. I know I am an excellent one to one piano teacher, and class teacher, from having taught in a British school in Tanzania. The Head of Secondary told me so. I was the best Music teacher Braeburn Arusha had had in 14 years - since the school opened.

Around five years of full-time classroom teaching in state schools in the UK is probably enough for one lifetime. Though I would consider a part-time primary school job in the UK, or private piano teaching in Dar es Salaam. You know, somewhere lovely by the sea, like ...