So, former Education Secretaries and Mr.
Gove (goodbye) and all you toe-the-party-line Ofsted Inspectors, you are wrong. Planning is complete and utter waste of
time.
As a qualified primary school teacher, I used
to spend a considerable amount of my time long, medium and short-term planning. I get long term planning, I even can
put up with medium term planning but daily session plans? Really? Come on! An
utter waste of time!
This opinion flies in the face of what we
were taught at university and on my PT courses and pretty much most of the
advice you read about training and going to the gym and eating clean: fail to
plan, plan to fail.
Well, I’ve decided it’s nonsense. All of it!
You don’t need to plan; you need to assess!
,
If you can think, if you can fundamentally
understand your subject, if you have confidence in your own abilities (and they
haven’t been eroded by unqualified parliamentarians with their own agendas, Ofsted
Inspectors with the government’s agendas, scared bosses with Ofsted’s agenda or
people telling you the only way you can lose weight is by counting stupid
points) and you know how to assess (on the hoof and formally) then
you absolutely do not need lesson, session, gym or diet plans!
All you need to know is where you are and where you are
going and you absolutely have to understand fundamentally how to get from a to
b and if you have strayed from the path, why. That is all the planning you need.
When a child doesn’t get today’s
mathematical concept, as a teacher, you need to know why. You need to have a fundamental
understanding of how children learn and why they get stuck. Is this child struggling because of a
gap in their knowledge that prevents them from understanding today’s work? If so, bashing away at your carefully
planned lesson not only will not yield results, it may further confuse the
child and risks alienating them entirely from the subject and from you.
Teachers know this, I’m not telling them
anything new. I’m just questioning
why the plan is there in the first place when you absolutely know (especially if your sessions are
challenging) 1 in 100 actually goes to plan!
It’s the same with training. When a client can’t do an overhead
squat, as a trainer, you need to know why. You need to have a fundamental understanding of how the body
moves and why you might get stuck!
Is this client struggling because of a basic lack of mobility in their
ankles or shoulders that prevents them from achieving a decent overhead
squat? If so, bashing away at your
carefully planned session not only will not yield results, it may injur the
client and reinforce incorrect movement patterns and risks alienating them from
the exercise and from you!
Perhaps it’s nothing to do with a gap in
knowledge or a lack of mobility.
Perhaps it’s to do with a distraction, miscommunication, a lack of
breakfast, a morning argument, a windy day…
Once you can assess where the child or your
client or you yourself are at, at that given moment, you can use your own actual
brain to decide, on the hoof, how to proceed!
A combination of accurate and regular
diagnostic assessment and a fundamental understanding of your subject as well
as the knowledge of where you aim to be and when, is enough planning!
It’s similar with losing weight and eating
clean. If you struggle to lose
weight, you need to know why. You need to have a fundamental understanding of how your
body uses different macronutrients, why you eat a certain way, why you need to eat
a different way and what happens to your body mind and spirit when you don’t.
You don’t need someone telling you what to eat and when to eat it and
how many points or calories to consume if you understand nutrition and your
mind! Where are you at? Where do you want to be? Understand on a deep basic level how to
get there and the journey writes itself!
Now, if you are a gym-goer or a serial
dieter, you can arm yourself with this knowledge through reading and research
easily. But if you struggle to
assess yourself competently, get a trainer! They can do all of the above!
The reason my move away from the teaching
profession and into personal training is so rewarding is I get to trust my gut
instincts, without writing every last bit of it down, and my clients get to
trust me!
Why don’t teachers get to do this? Mr. Gove? Oh, hang on, your opinion no longer counts. Shame it ever did!
