To wonder why someone would want to be a secondary school teacher?

It's like anything else I suppose. I'd hate it but I really don't like teenagers other than my own.

I work in a call centre doing customer service and I enjoy it but many people would hate it, I see it on here all the time people saying how soul destroying call centre work is. Good thing we're all different!

Yup I caught that too! Yikes!

I'm sure a lot of it depends on the kids you teach and their parents. I know I couldn't do it and I work in midwifery in the NHS!!

All my friends who were secondary school teachers quit. One even became a vicar. Others are making much more for far fewer hours as private tutors, or running some kind of teaching class based around a hobby a or sport.

I guess the ones who don't quit are scared to, or convince themselves it's not that bad. But I feel the ones you mention, who are 45+, are more worried they're too late to retrain and no one will hire them rather than being financially secure.

There'll be one in particular who'll take over this thread if she spots it.

But I think there are more teachers who probably don't post about their jobs because they don't have a problem with them.

Which is the same for everything really.

I love it.

I get to do academically hard thinking preparing my A Level lessons.

I have creative autonomy to make engaging resources.

I spend more time with teenagers than adults, an teens are great - they haven't yet decided who they are so they are very malleable.

My colleagues are intelligent, kind
and morally sound.

There are some really enjoyable bits - most teenagers are lovely, and more parents are supportive and appreciative than not. And the actual being in a classroom teaching part can be quite fun! I had a lovely lesson today with a Year 11 class I hadn't seen since teaching them at the end of Year 10 and we're at the stage where we know each other well, they were making me laugh and it was just a fab hour.

I work in a really great department and my SLT are fairly decent, my headteacher was super supportive when I had some stuff going on last year, gave me emergency time off paid several times when she didn't have to, and I know lets everyone have their kids Christmas performances and first days of school etc off, which definitely gives a bit more goodwill. The holidays are really nice!! I've been there most of a decade and am a bit emotionally attached to the kids now.

I will admit that I've had to go part time to maintain a work life balance though. And I listen enviously when DH comes home from his private company office job and tells me about how they had lunch ordered in and fancy biscuits and things!! It's a good day when someone's remembered to buy milk at our place.

It's a hard slog
The kids are brilliant
The passionate witty teachers j work with are the best
Even thd shit days aren't as bad as some boring office jobs I've done
Thd holidays are incredibly good
You are part of a mini community making a difference

No idea, a lot of the ones you see posting here say they are utterly miserable

My oldest son is starting uni this Sept and wants to be a secondary teacher. Oddly his teachers along the way have mostly advised him to do something else due to attitudes from parents as well as kids.

I'm worried we are slowly destroying our teachers and the teaching profession.

My husband is an exceptional secondary school leader - I don't know how the fuck he sticks with it. I told him it would be awful thirty years ago when he started and he never listened, he just ploughed on being all idealistic.

Now he comes home every day and cuddles our dogs for half an hour in a heap on the floor, he is completely worn out by it all.

It's the complete lack of fucks given by I creasing numbers of kids and parents that is doing him in.
Today there was a kid standing around in a corridor - he's all like 'you need to get into class now' and she's bleating 'ooh no i cant, a girl in that class might give me a mean look.' She had her phone on her and her mum was busy whatsapping her telling her to hide in the toilets or come home.

He can't deal with the lameness of it all anymore, it's absolutely soul-destroying.

Even y13 love a sticker!

It’s really bloody hard. I’m just starting year 19 and it’s not the job it used to be. It’s just got worse and worse. Expectations from everywhere - ofsted, SLT, pupils, parents - are just totally unrealistic. The tories just destroyed education. I’ve probably got another 20 years to go, which makes me feel awful, but I can’t afford to retrain and start again on an entry level wage. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to young people today. There’s a reason why there’s a recruitment crisis.

I'm a primary school teacher and there's no way I could teach in a secondary school. Young children are hard enough to control but at least a sticker or a reward can help motivate their behaviour. Teenagers - no way. Even if they tripled my salary - not a chance. 😂

All the above - holidays, lovely kids, pension etc, but also a high level of autonomy and control (couldn't sit at a desk all day, thrive on lots of social interaction) and job security. I've seen so many friends in other sectors go through redundancies and although it does happen in teaching, it's rare. If you want it, it's pretty much a job for life.

Plus, I genuinely love my job. I'm lucky enough to work in a great school and it's fabulous about 80% of the time, which I reckon is as good as it gets in most jobs (unless you are e.g. a wine taster, chocolatier etc, and have found the holy grail).

My mum was very, very wrong about the getting home at 4 and being able to do what I wanted in the holidays though.

Dh has had 20 years of me saying:"I can't do this until I'm 68."
"Well what would you do? You could train adults. "
"Could I talk about books and poems?
"No. "
"Not that then. "
"Project manager. You do that all the time. "
"Could I act stuff out? Could I talk about history?"
"Erm, no. Not really. "
"Not that then. "

And so it goes, until I realise that maybe I do want to teach. But possibly late 80s early 90s, when you were allowed to stand at the front of the class and tell them stuff.

It's never boring - you're never counting the clock down.

It's often really good fun.

It's academically satisfying (I'm a maths teacher - I love playing with algebra all day long, I get to bang on about it to other people, and if I'm really lucky, some of them love it as well!)

You can create a school community that's more idealistic than "real" society.

Working with teenagers makes me optimistic for the future (well, not all of them...)

Disclaimer: there's a whole bunch of shitty bits about teaching and reasons people wouldn't want to go into it! But I think they've been fairly well covered on MN over the years.

I'm a secondary teacher and love my job. I would never do anything else. I love my subject, I love my classes and I love the holidays with my own children. It's tough yes and the marking, late nights and admin can feel relentless at times but I wouldn't do anything else.

Blimey, what a weird reply before you changed it with the edit 😳😳

I loved my subject - that helped. I laughed every day when someone (student or colleague) would say something witty. I knew I was making a difference to people’s lives.

Sure it’s tough at times but, for me, the pros outweighed the cons.

I'd rather be a prison guard.

This too.

All of the above.

Just rolled into bed after another long day at the chalkface and wondering if I really can stick it out for another 10+ years. Have considered getting out but when you read other threads on a variety of topics you realise that the pay, flexibility, pension, & holidays are just too good to give up compared to the issues other have to manage.

I fell into it a lifetime ago because I was wc and did an English degree, then had no idea what to do with my degree. Teaching was a stop gap until I could work out what to do for real. And as my (left school at 15) mum pointed out, I'd be home by 4 and have all those holidays to plan what else to do. And the starting salary was good in relation to my peers.

Then I got addicted to it and it's pretty much ruled my life since. I have a teacher's dh and teacher's kids. We all revolve around The Job.