The love of teaching, for example, is not something you would expect in your first year out. Hard work, disciplinary uncertainties, yes, but a love of your chosen career?
The beauty of country schools is not due to a sense of adventure that teaching in a remote town can offer (although this does come in to play!). The real, quantifiable joy comes from getting to know your students as individuals. While there will always be discipline problems, regardless of where you teach, those human dimensions of appreciation, mutual respect and trust nurture a desire to learn.
Country schools are often strapped for cash. This can be viewed as a positive for the new teacher as he needs to rely on his own resources and ideas in order to create a program. You are also required to work as a member of a small team. Teamwork teaches you invaluable skills which will last a lifetime.
Yes, the ability to create programs where there were none and with very few resources can be a challenge at any stage of a teachers' career, but what a challenge. It is only through challenging ourselves that we truly enjoy delivering the content.
Teaching country children will open your eyes to other ways of life. It can sometimes feel as if you've entered another, more old-fashioned dimension. Some kids will be up at daybreak, working on the family farm before school and then again until sundown after school. As you might imagine, these kids are bristling with health. They seem somehow stronger than their paler, suburban peers.
Your teaching skills and personal pedagogy will develop in a natural, unforced manner. You are allowed the space to develop more to the point. Discipline is approached in a rational way; one which is both fair and balanced. Certain schools rely on the teacher-student relationship to be very disparate categories. Not so in a country school, where that human element is necessary to survive.
Another element that needs mentioning is the parent factor. Some schools shudder at the thought of parent involvement. Country schools embrace parents as part of their pastoral plan. Good relationships with parents, though not always possible, is beneficial for the new teacher - it teaches him to be confident in dealing with parents, and it benefits the students. Keeping an open line of communication creates a cluster effect, one which relies on support and encouragement, with the student being the centre of this cluster.
Young, emerging teachers should consider beginning their careers in a country school. It will change your approach to students, and to your craft - which you can hone in your own way.
