The moment I stopped calling myself an ex-teacher

For a long time after I left teaching, I introduced myself by what I used to be.

'I was a headteacher.' 'I spent twenty years in education.' 'I'm an ex-teacher.'

I thought I was being transparent. In retrospect, I was doing something more complicated — I was anchoring my credibility to a role that no longer existed, because I hadn't yet worked out what I was instead.

Why the ex- label is a trap

When you call yourself an ex-teacher, you're telling people two things simultaneously. First, that teaching is your reference point — the thing you're defined by. Second, that you've left it. Which prompts the obvious question: why? And suddenly you're explaining yourself rather than presenting yourself.

The label frames the conversation backwards. It starts with the departure rather than the destination. It invites sympathy or curiosity about what went wrong, rather than interest in what you're building.

What actually changed

The shift wasn't about pretending I hadn't been a teacher. Twenty years of experience doesn't disappear — and it shouldn't. The skills I built in that time are real and they're valuable.

The shift was about what I led with. Instead of 'I used to be a headteacher', I started saying what I actually do now — the systems I build, the problems I solve, the people I work with.

The history is still there when it's relevant. But it's context, not identity.

The question worth asking

If you're in transition — whether you've already left or are planning to — it's worth asking yourself: when you introduce yourself, what are you leading with? And is that leading toward where you're going, or backward toward where you were?

You don't have to have the full answer yet. You just have to notice which direction you're facing.

That's the starting point. Not reinvention. Just reorientation.