Why I am a self-employed teacher, or why I will never ever work for a company ever again. Ever.*
The Bulletin (Issue 19)
You might think that I’d say something about how you can make more money as a self-employed teacher, and yes, that’s true. You might think it’s because I’m too opinionated to make a good employee, and yes, there’s truth in that statement too, but the primary reason is neither of those.
I’m a self-employed English teacher because I’m a communist at heart.
What? What kind of commie writes about business models for teachers? Well, I fundamentally think the means of production should be in the hands of the workers, a key plank of any card-carrying commie. It’s just the rest of the Marxist dogma I have problems with… I don’t really think the state or party can be trusted to re-distribute wealth fairly. But they don’t have to if you’re self-employed.
If you are a self-employed teacher, you are the worker and you are the boss too, you get paid directly by your students, there is no middle man, no owner-oppressor-capitalist-university-pig-dog-lackey taking his cut. Sure, you have to pay your taxes, make your state pension payments, but everything else is up to you — fair pay for your labour. In economics this is called “gravy”.
And there is security in self-employment. Work for a company and you are in effect selling your labour to one buyer — your boss. That’s cool if you are fine with everything about the company and they are fine with you, but the moment you step out of line, or the company decides they don’t need your services anymore, you are in trouble.
Contrast that with my wife and I, self-employed teachers with 150 students between us coming in for one lesson every week to our family-run English school. Sure, we could lose a student here or there, but it’s unlikely we’ll ever lose all 150 at once. We, as self-employed English teachers, are selling our labour to 150 customers. The company employee is selling his or her labour to just one customer — the employer.
Who has more secure employment? Who has more freedom? Who has more fun?
Self-employed English teachers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chain (schools)!
Have a good week, I’ll write again next Wednesday,
Patrick
*OK, you should never say never. I could conceive of taking a job, but it would have to be as a result of some catastrophe, like a favour to a dying friend, or the loss of my mental faculties.
Teaching tip
Don’t correct every mistake by students. Sure, correct them when they are first practising the new language point to be taught, so they get a perfect model to work from, and feel free to correct when they make egregious errors, especially in the new target language, but if it’s some minor error not related to the new forms you’re practising, let them be. If an error doesn’t interfere with understanding, let it go. Far better to have someone speaking fluently but with some errors than the alternative which is a student so scared of making a mistake, they would rather say nothing, a common problem in the Japanese classroom.
Recommended
The David Hockney exhibition on at the Contemporary Art Museum in Tokyo until November was stunning. If you happen to be free, in the Kanto area and in the mood to see a 50-canvas representation of trees in Yorkshire, you should go. Features loads of his paintings too, like this rather good self-portrait.
Also recommended
I like to read Noah Smith’s Substack Noahpinion for thoughts on global political economics and such. Here’s his latest on the G-20 summit and what it means.