I have been reading a lot about social mobility for a teacher-training related assignment, and I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be 'socially mobile' and what that looked like for myself growing up. I come from a working class family, grew up in social housing, fought tooth and nail for a place at the local grammar school and went to university to pursue my love of literature only to come home to unemployment and arguments with family over political differences. I have never forgotten where I came from, but I feel deeply a sense of loss of identity that cannot be mitigated by being ushered into the 'middle class' because of my decision to become a teacher which has left me no better off than my working class parents but with a very different perspective on life that often causes tensions with my loved ones. In education we talk a lot about motivating pupils, about social mobility, and aspirations, encouraging pupils to go to university because we take it to be an indisputable 'good'. But my reality has been that despite my love of learning and passion for my subject, I was unable to pursue the research and writing I loved because I did not have the financial backing to do so, because my family were not wealthy. And though I decided because of this to become a teacher instead, and find value and importance in the work, teaching is considered middle class while simultaneously being an incredibly poorly paid profession, and I often wonder whether I am truly helping pupils, or merely enforcing the status quo, by pushing pupils towards a social ladder that necessitates the 'failure' or, rather, undervaluing, of their peers, and more often than not, their family members. Anyway, I wrote a poem.