RYAN WILSON
Learning experience
School yourself in the ups and downs of being a teacher in Ryan Wilson’s illuminating memoir, Let That Be a Lesson: A Teacher’s Life in the Classroom, as he puts pen to paper about his most memorable moments, how the kids encouraged him to come out and how times are changing for LGBTQ+ staff and students
Words Thomas Stichbury
CHALK IT UP: Ryan Wilson says teaching is in his blood
IMAGE BY LIZ SEABROOK
Ryan Wilson passes with flying colours and earns an A-grade for his debut book, Let That Be a Lesson: A Teacher ’s Life in the Classroom, about his experiences as a teacher, and a gay one at that. If anybody has read Adam Kay’s This Is Going to Hurt, about the highs and lows of being an NHS doctor (tune into the TV adaptation starring Ben Whishaw in 2022), Ryan’s terrific tome strikes a similar funny, feel-good and frank tone. Has he thought about who might play him in a hypothetical TV series? “Oh gosh,” he exclaims. “Erm, because I’m from Northern Ireland originally, I will allow the outrageous fantasy that would be… Jamie Dornan. In reality, it’d be someone older and bigger.”
Educating readers about his time in and out of class over the course of his 10-year career, Ryan, 38, shines a light on his youth growing up in the shadow of Section 28 and the long-term ramifications of that. He also reveals how his students inspired him to come out, the changing landscape for queer teachers and kids – especially now that LGBT-inclusive education is mandatory in UK schools – and, ultimately, the joys of teaching. Although Ryan has taken a break from the profession and is currently working as a radio producer, he hasn’t ruled out returning.
“I miss being in the classroom,” he says. “It doesn’t happen every lesson… but when it comes together, whatever weird alchemy that exists in teaching, all the fates align, they’re [the pupils] sparking off each other, asking questions, getting into it, coming up to you at lunchtime to ask about a character in a book, or they’ve gone off and read another book by the author, it’s a real high. I’ll go back to it some time. I think it’s in your blood.”
What inspired you to get into teaching?
My dad was a teacher. He taught music, and I had these memories of him going off to school with his little briefcase and coming back with these stories of disastrous choir practices and staffroom gossip. It seemed so cool. It’s a really tragic thing to say, that I thought teaching was cool, but I did – for my eighth birthday, I got a blackboard and chalk [laughs]. I idolised my own teachers at primary school, and from as early as I can remember, I wanted to teach. I didn’t want to do anything else.