To think teachers' kids have all the advantages

My mum is an early years teacher. All her games with us and her grandkids were educational!

My mum was a junior school teacher. Even our birthday parties were educational. She used to play a game where children were given a card with a country name on, for example and they had to find the matching capital city hidden somewhere in the house. I think she used old birthday cards cut in two, so you could also match the picture. Children seemed to like these games!

It was always a teacher's kid in primary who got to play Mary or Joseph in the annual Nativity play.

And who got starring roles in other school events.
And it carried on into secondary, where their parents weren't teachers - obviously due to the sense of confidence and experience from being the chosen ones in primary.

I am the daughter of teachers; in my house education was valued, it was assumed we would do our best and take A levels and probably go to university (at a time when fewer people did so). This may have had as much to do with my parents’ character as anything though. There was always space and time for us to do schoolwork, but a friend who was also daughter of teachers said there was nowhere quiet in her house and no “atmosphere of work” (her words) like at mine.

I was a teacher and I always expected my DC to do their best and work hard. Their academic abilities are varied but I feel that they all did the best they could.

A teacher by definition has a degree and most likely a postgraduate qualification; maternal level of education is a key factor in a child’s progression. And any teacher must surely value education and hopefully pass that view on. But lots of other parents are educated and value education. The highest-achieving friends of my DC are children of engineers, doctors, project managers, lab technicians, people who work in sales, comms or marketing. Equally some DC of teachers achieve less well in academic terms.

The reference to tests info baffles me – are you talking about parents who teach their own DC? That’s a nightmare in every way IMHO. OTOH knowledge of GCSEs is handy – but usually limited to one’s own subject. I can tell you all about how to pass a GCSE in MFL, but biology GCSE would be a closed book tbh. And any parent can access the GCSE spec and find out what is needed. That just takes the internet and the interest to do so. But if you are implying that teachers pass on the answers to their DC (pretty hard to imagine how, unless they were teaching them) then no, that does not happen. Teachers don;t know the advance content of GCSes any more than any parent does.

That's a humungous generalisation, OP. I've taught for 23 years, 17 in the same school and I've taught dozens of colleagues' kids. They are rarely poorly-behaved but academically they are as much of a mix as all the others.

I work in a PRU and we get a surprising number of teachers' kids.

Most of the teachers I know admit parenting or even tutoring your own kids is nothing like teaching other people's. Teachers obviously know how to support their kids best with academic work when the children are compliant, but they face the same issues as the rest of us when it's not going so well. Which some find really hard to deal with because they're supposed to be experts..

Basically what @whiteroseredrose and @Portonic said.

I'm the child of teachers and while we were not hot housed at home (I don't think my parents had a clue what homework I had for example or whether I'd done it) there was a very clear expectation that we would work hard at school and achieve to the best of our ability. Teachers and schooling were to be respected and valued. If you got in trouble there was pretty much no way my parents were siding with us (I can think of only one exception to this, when a teacher swore at me - then my mum went ballistic!). You never got a day off sick unless you were properly ill.

My mum is an early years teacher. All her games with us and her grandkids were educational!

Also agree that teachers kids are a tiny bit neglected due to the nature of the job and it can be disappointing that your parents can never be a daytime school events.

Nah,

I heard some awful things being said about a teachers children last week. They attend the school she teaches at.

it was some parents who were saying it in front of their children - who know the teachers children too.

I felt really sad for the kids. It isn’t their fault their mum works at the school. And yet they’ll obviously be struggling with teasing and bullying because of it.

Worst still - the teacher in question isn’t well liked by parents and children alike which probably makes life even more miserable for her children!

No it’s not all down to nurture but the OP is talking about a general pattern.

I doubt that every teacher knows every bit of the curriculum. My mum certainly didn't know much about what I did in science. But she was very big on homework and effort and she read to me when I was in my cradle. I owe her everything academically for instilling all that into me.

I am a teacher.

My dd is literally the opposite of me. She is underachieving in set 3. 70 percent attendance. Serious mental health issues.
Hates the fact I work at her school. Though is used to it a bit more now.

Guess there are always outliers.

Do you really think it's to do with valuing education and visiting museums?

I have two dc.

One loved reading and could read before starting school. She's predicted top GCSE results and did the higher papers. She is involved with the youth Parliament, very engaged in learning. She brought home a library book a few days ago about Anglo saxon churches just because she found it interesting.

The other will barely scrape 5s. Doesn't like reading, hates school work, can't wait to finish work and work on a building site

They were both taken around the same amount of museums and NT places. They were both read to everynight, they both read to me most nights. They both did extra curricular activities, they both saw me working and studying.

I don't think it's all down to nurture.

Never taught my own and never had inside knowledge to help them. Successful in their own field and refused to go to university despite offers and good a levels.
Think they’d argue I wasn’t always at school events to watch them during the day despite others such as grandparents going in my place.

I think the points on value around education are really what's behind it, but I also think there is an additional pressure on teachers kids to do well, especially if they attend the school their parent teaches in!

I get that your post was fairly humorous @mommandme but don’t you think that must get really stifling for her?

With regard to cheating, no, really frowned upon!

Being quite assertive, respectful, on the ball, and curious - that behaviour was reinforced (not saying that would always work, but good if it does).

This^

I’ve taught lots of teacher’s children. They’ve all been very varied academically but the one thing they have in common is that, bless them, they’re always a wee bit neglected.

Not in a serious way at all but in a ‘parents work very long, inflexible hours’ way.

But if you ask my kids, they don't. Teacher's kids have all the disadvantages.

My daughter would say...

• she can't get away with anything (I would say she can't bullshit me that she's doing / done enough revision for the exams, or that she's doing what everyone else is doing)

• teaching at the same school means if she plays up, or doesn't hand work in, I get told more quickly than when other parents would.

• she can't get away with anything. I always know when the reports are due out / there's parents evenings / what she's supposed to be doing. At secondary, other parents doing check SMHW or go to parents evening as much...

• All of her old stuff ends up at school. Don't need that book any more? Great, I'll put it on the bookshelf at work.

But her biggest beef is that holidays are always educational. Her other friends with teacher parents are the same. Never two weeks lazing on a beach doing nothing. When she studied GCSE history (Nazis) we had a trip to Berlin etc... or even a holiday to Greece will involve going to the historic sites.

She would say there's more negatives than positives!

Is it because the teacher parents (or grandparents/relatives, for that matter), know how to teach or is it because they are able to find out about upcoming tests/similar tests or because they know the ins and outs of what is required to achieve certain grades (in line with the curriculum). Or both?

Do they cheat, is what you're asking, isn't it? Of course they don't. A teacher would get into huge trouble slipping a test to their own kids before it was sat. But they can probably get hold of old test papers to help them revise and fill in any gaps in their learning. My OH primary teacher can also help our DC (now secondary) with their homework to a level I can't as non-teacher. So it's not preferential treatment, just additional support.

And if it makes any difference, my DC are not top of the class! They do fine, but they're not the cleverest.

They also have parents who work very long hours for less pay that other people who work similar hours.
They also have parents that probably cant attend any school events during school hours and may not be able to do regular drop offs and pick ups.
So its not all good

Family member is a teacher. In fact, we have many generations of teachers in our family.
One child is doing well, not the absolute top of the year but ahead of most. This child works hard in school, reads lots at home but otherwise doesn't do much academic work at home. Only primary at the moment so no homework issued really.
Other child quite obviously dyslexic, works on lots more things at home with parents but still probably behind their peers.
Both children know that they need to work hard to achieve things but it just comes easier to one than the other.
Both excel in other areas out with school and get a lot of confidence and enjoyment doing that.
I think a lot of "doing well" probably has to do with having the right attitude. If their parents help them see how valuable it is to work and pay attention.
Most importantly they are being brought up to be kind, helpful and confident in themselves without putting others down.

I'm an ex teacher (although still work in education, not formally as a teacher and with little children instead of secondary).

I really value schooling and education and think that runs off on my own kids. We spend time making the most of homework, we talk about what they're doing in lessons at school. If they're doing a certain topic, I might look for opportunities to deepen their understanding - like visit a museum, town. They talk to me if they didn't understand something in lesson (usually in my subject - I'll do this with friends kids too). I help them revise effectively, I make sure they've always got the right equipment.

My kids have always done well at school. Doing well at school doesn't necessarily reflect true inherent intelligence and I know hundreds of children who were bright but didn't get the same support at home.

I had teacher parents and I think it was valuing education that made me do well and having respect for teachers helped too. I was brought up in an environment that valued gaining knowledge and we did quite a bit out of school like museums etc
my mum didn’t teach me her chosen subject directly at home so it definitely wasn’t that. If anything she had less time to help me with homework because she was always working in the evenings

I'm the child of a teacher and headteacher, albeit a long time since i was at school. We were never helped with homework or formally taught ANYTHING at home. We were never organised or supervised in the way I have had to supervise my DSs.....
But our parents obviously valued education and we were praised when we tried hard at school- academically or in sports, drama, music etc.

I come from a family of teachers. DM was a retired teacher and looked after my DC for 1 or 2 days a week.

Her games involved letters and numbers so both could nearly read before starting school.

We have also done the 'right' things to encourage a love of learning, because family know what the right things are!