Mumsnet Mums Obsessed with Teachers

[Sazzle7510]

Why?

Why do you feel you can comment in workload, pay, conditions, holidays when they are simply nothing to do with you?

Someone's mentioned her neighbour who's a teacher. Spent a lot of time in her back garden.

Why shouldn't she?

The thing with remote teaching in a state school is that you can plan and mark after dark when your kids are homeschooled, played-out, happy and in bed. Bar the emails from confused remotely-educated students. Why is it your business when she's managing her job commitments?

How bizarre, judgemental, nasty some of these comments are.

And, by the way, in the state sector we haven't being teaching via Zoom or Microsoft Teams becsuse, in my area, 34% of children live in poverty. There aren't enough devices in every family for one child to have one for a whole lesson, let alone four a day.

Teachers love your children. They have delivered food parcels to FSM. They are planning for Sept to get everyone confident, up to speed, planning extra. They are cleaning classrooms, portaloos, door handles, lunch tables because some of your kids have gone back to school. And some comments in here are just rude and horrible.

Teachers can't help that the government said no work for Year 11 counts past March 30th, which was half someone's workload. And pastoral support frankly doesn't take as long as marking 30 essays on Romeo and Juliet. For starters.

And they're leaving the profession in droves. Well done, Women of Britain. Just like all the bitchy girls at school: you did it. You destroyed someone.

Erm. Stop generalising. I'm a Mumsnet mum and I've not complained about teachers at all.

We've had loads of support from our school and I don't give a shit what teachers are doing currently. I hope they are having time to sunbathe! It's a difficult and strange time for everyone.

Sweeping statements really piss me off.

I’ve sat here for a few minutes trying to fashion a response but I can’t. I get it, I really do. Everything you say is right but there are the positives that aren’t always shared here. The thank you email, the phone call, the little face that visits the outside window of your classroom just to come and wave “Hello”. These are the responses to hold on to.

Well done, Women of Britain. Just like all the bitchy girls at school: you did it. You destroyed someone.

Good post until this drama laden paragraph and then I just think oh shut up! And can't be bothered with the rest.

Ay? If you are upset with one single post someone made, reply on that thread. Instead of saying how all the women of Britain are bitchy school girls.

There was a thread yesterday in which the op, a teacher, had had a parent complain the teacher had been seen taking walks at lunchtime, and everyone unanimously agreed that parent was a complete idiot.

If mumsnet is destroying you you really need to step back.
Why are you having a dig at ALL WOMEN? What about the men? No i'm not impressed by my children's teachers and if i want to say so online then i can do so. Nobody is beyond reproach.

My dc are beyond school years now. Mumsnet will be ‘obsessed’ with teachers because on the whole the members have school aged children I’d imagine.

There does seem a lot of hate for them though on many threads I look at., I agree.

There are some bonkers parents on here, but to be fair there are lovely ones too! I think it’s just (as with everything) it’s the maddest voices that sound loudest. I think parents do on the whole appreciate teachers and treat us with respect. I’d like to think I have good relationships with all the families at my school. There is always one or two though who are never happy! And I do understand that those schools who have decided not to set much work and haven’t communicated their reasons clearly to parents, are stirring up frustration. I just hope those parents find the right way to ask questions about that particular school without making assumptions about all teachers.

Dial down the drama. Why start yet another thread? You know how it'll go

Come on. People hate estate agents but they're not constantly starting threads asking why people hate them.

Here, this is for you...

There are threads started repeatedly on many subjects.

It's a norm on MN. On other sites, creating a new thread when there is already one on the same theme, is bad form. Here it is welcome (except the odd, brief moment where a topical subject has so many threads it becomes nonsensical)

So I disagree with your assertion that it's an obsession.

And I dont think teachers are being singled out by any stretch. There is however a great deal of confirmation bias, so any thread about teachers feeds the narrative that it must be bashing

I've seen wholly neutral comments about the difficulties of finding a termtime job being interpreted by a teacher as a piece of teacher -bashing (underestimating the skills, who don't you do it if you think it's easy etc) without the hint of apology when pointed out that no, posters were asking for ideas on other forms of term time work.

And of course there's the general rules that people often post about negative experiences and only rarely about positive ones. It must be galling to read all the sports day threads and glib assertions that PE staff are all sadists, but there are of course multiple threads about this every non-lockdown summer. I assume teachers being wearily if dealing with threads perceived as negative is why there is rarely any defence of their picked-on colleagues, even though there must be many teachers, and plenty of parent who have wholly normal experiences of school PE.

Doctors receptionists, MILs, DH/DPs, rightwingers, transinclusive people, and probably a whole list of others regularly get a bad press on MN.

On teachers, we all know (teachers included) that there's a bell curve some are excellent, nearly all just fine, and some you wouldn't want to leave in charge of a hamster and you can't fathom why anyone has left them in charge of a class room. I think we can all guess which are the most nteresting to gossip about in RL and post about online

I doubt you are getting uni to win over an audience by deciding tha we're all "bitchy girls"

This is a site for women which, not so long ago, as trolled persistently by a 'you're all bitches' troll. I am not accusing you of being that troll. But you have, unluckily for you, struck exactly that note.

That troll, we surmised, was deliberately trying to ndermine women asking in ways that were not conforming to their idea of 'nice'

If you think someone is being unfair/wrong/bitchy p/whatever on a thread, then deal with it on that thread.

We don't need any more threads saying how horrible MN or MNetters are

For goodness sake, Mumsnetters are "obsessed with teachers" because people keep posting about them, including you.

Stop resurrecting a subject that's been done to death.

Not everyone badmouths teachers at all, it's just teachers are very defensive on here and if there is a sniff of criticism the long posts happen about how hard they work. There are also parents who will never be happy either.

As someone who works as support staff in a school I work with teachers everyday and whilst some are brilliant, really engage the children, seem to have a passion for the job, get good results, there are some shit ones out there. As is the case with any profession.

@AuntieStella

I doubt you are getting uni to win over an audience by deciding tha we're all "bitchy girls"

This is a site for women which, not so long ago, as trolled persistently by a 'you're all bitches' troll. I am not accusing you of being that troll. But you have, unluckily for you, struck exactly that note.

That troll, we surmised, was deliberately trying to ndermine women asking in ways that were not conforming to their idea of 'nice'

If you think someone is being unfair/wrong/bitchy p/whatever on a thread, then deal with it on that thread.

We don't need any more threads saying how horrible MN or MNetters are

Neither do we need any more threads saying how awful teachers are - but they will appear. Four yesterday.

Well said, OP.

It's not teachers' fault parents are being asked to look after their own children.

There you go OP another side of the coin with the comment below where teachers throw around 'parents don't want to look after their own children'

Have you only just noticed this @Sazzle7510?
This polarisation has been going on since the whole sorry business started.
There have always been people (not just women) who dislike the profession.
You're not going to change any minds with this self aggrandising stuff.
You're not being part of the solution here.

Slightly dramatic. Dial it back, don't call us names and realise that whether we like it or not, school has been a form of childcare for decades. People have to work.

Also, read the "any teachers had it easy the last 11 weeks" thread.

@Raaaa

There you go OP another side of the coin with the comment below where teachers throw around 'parents don't want to look after their own children'

That's not what I said. Misquoting and then adding quote marks is pathetic.

Not obsessed at all.

Currently very disappointed in the provision for my secondary school DC. Any parent in my position would be disappointed but I appreciate we've been unlucky and some teachers are doing much more.

I won't go into detail or ask for support because I'll be accused of teacher bashing or not respecting the profession.

The generalisations are pointless. Some teachers are working hard, some are not. Some schools are delivering a full timetable, some - from the parents’ perspective - appear to have shut up shop. Some teachers are pushing on with the curriculum so students are learning new material, some are arguing that the curriculum has been suspended; some teachers are marking, some are not.

If you’re not happy with your school’s provision, then contact your school and challenge what they are doing. None of us on here can do that for you. But equally it seems unfair on a parenting site to demand that parents stop sharing concerns about their children’s education and how it’s being managed by the government during this pandemic.

It's not teachers' fault parents are being asked to look after their own children

Are you a teacher?

I have nothing but support for teachers. I am so grateful for everything they have done for my children over the past 10 weeks. I have been fully supportive and appreciative of them for the entire school career of my children. Their teachers are amazing. But if one of my children’s teachers said this...

It's not teachers' fault parents are being asked to look after their own children

I would be looking to remove my children from that school. I have loved having my children at home with me. The reason I want them back at school is because I appreciate everything teachers do that I cannot replicate at home. I’m not a teacher, I would be awful at it. I don’t have their skills.

I think those parents are angry that many of their children aren't being taught. It's quite a legitimate reason to be angry.

And exacerbated by the fact some schools are clearly teaching so we know what is possible.

My DD's secondary school have been great.