Teachers - most disliked profession on mumsnet?

[OhReally18]

In the last few days, I've seen a lot of teacher bashing on mumsnet. Even teachers giving other teachers a hard time. Seems like it could be one of the most disliked professions on mn. Is this a true reflection of how the rest of society feels?

I've been teaching in primary for a good few years and I have never experienced bad feelings towards teaching in real life, just on here and social media occasionally. Maybe the odd envious comment about holidays but that's it.

It's by no means harder than other professions but teachers are portrayed as lazy, moany, hard done by, ungrateful, the list goes on...
Is this fair? Surely it's no different to other professions?

This is what I mean. How does saying that teaching us hard mean teachers feel other jobs aren't?

@noworklifebalance do you mind me asking if you've taught a class of 32 four and five year olds? It really can be like that!

Lol you’ve never seen a thread on GPs have you?

There are plenty of people who think they know what being a teacher’s like because they’ve been to school. There are even more who thinks they know what being a doctor’s like (and could do it with their eyes closed) because they’ve seen an episode of Casualty.

Home visitors get trashed a fair bit too.

@Dilemmaemmaaa totally agree with you on every point you've made. I feel very similarly now I have my own little ones and yes, mumsnet can be very harsh on all sorts of threads.

I'm married to a teacher and he works hard, but nowhere near as hard as he did during his 20years as an NHS clinician.
I've worked in a profession allied to medicine and I can't believe what is expected of NHS nurses. They work solidly for 12+hours. Get paid appallingly, run the show and take the flak for any mistakes. Yet all I see on here is criticism.

@OhReally18 - now this is much closer to driving a bus backwards down a rocky road through the Andes, because people may actually die. Although I don’t think it applies just to nurses

Twenty years into an investment banking career now, and am on the board of my bank, but thanks for asking.

No aggression needed though, just professionalism, diligence, people skills and an incredible facility for numbers.

CanaryShoulderedThorn I remember one thread where an MN teacher earnestly claimed being a teacher was harder than nursing because nurses don't have 30 patients at the same time, and teachers have to "perform" for their class six hours a day.

I’ll caveat that by saying, I do see how stressful teaching is especially with children who come from challenging backgrounds - it must be extremely difficult and emotionally draining.
PPs who say that it’s what you signed up to, it’s part of the job - yes it is, but it doesn’t mean that the status quo should never be challenged, pay should not increase, training not improved etc

Doesn't help that for the last 15 years there's been a steady erosion (via MM & the government) of respect for teachers.

Education has been an easy target for political blame and bashing.

Add to that that many teachers (I'd say more in secondary) have an utter nightmare of an experience and, well, it's all one big mess, frankly.

I personally wouldn't go back to teaching if offered the moon.

I think a fair number of working parents lost respect for the teaching profession during the pandemic .

For instance, while I carried on working full time and caring for and educating my children at home in the first lockdown, the only contact we had from school was a weekly email filled with photos of the teachers enjoying gardening /teaching their own children etc. It was astonishingly tone deaf. And yes I know "not all teachers" etc but it didn't reflect well on the profession.

In contrast the children's hobbies were all up and running delivering online classes within a couple of weeks.

I don't think there is a hatred of teachers or teacher bashing. I see way more threads from teachers about teacher bashing than I've ever seen teacher bashing

I think it's posts like your driving down the andes that don't help. Don't get me wrong teaching is hard, but many jobs are hard and require skill, and it's this almost constant insinuation that no one understands, that it's an impossible job. Constant on teachers are on their knees posts. A lot of jobs involve the skills used in teaching, and it can be grating when you read a post that suggests no one could possibly understand

Lots of professions that people come into contact a lot get flack, because most people will deal with a lot of teachers in their time, and they aren't paying for the service. You can't just sack off your child's teacher and pay another one like you could a shit accountant. Most people won't deal with 20 odd sewage workers. It's purely because people deal with a lot of teachers in ways that they don't deal with other professions. Other professions people deal with similarly, GPS, social workers, HVs, police, dentists get similar flack.

This

My experience (and the experience of many others I know) was that they did pretty much fuck all during the first lockdown. It was a difficult period for us and the Facebook posts from teacher friends were difficult to swallow.

Much better experience in the second lockdown though.

I was reading a post on Twitter last night where a railway worker was complaining about about to sit in a hot train for 6 hours, then comes along a teacher who complained about hard hard her job was, no toilet break, no lunch break, no air conditioning etc. The poster got absolutely hammered, and rightly so, one poster was a Firefighter who was working 15 hour shift in this heat, wearing full kit putting out a massive grass fire. And this teacher still could not understand why she was being slated, even from other teachers.

I think the first lockdown (along with the teaching unions) has damaged the reputation of the profession, to be honest. I know the vitriol has always been there but that for many was I think a turning point.

@mackthepony better tread carefully if your SPAG here is anything to go by 👀

@PearTree120
That's because during the first lockdown, schools were explicitly told NOT to teach either those at home or at school as it wouldn't be "fair" that the two groups received different experiences. That changed during subsequent lockdowns

It's not that GPs, GPs' receptionists, nurses, etc. don't get a hammering.

They just don't get several threads a year about how shit they are. Year on year on year. Nor do they tend to get the blanket generalisations "teachers who...." when the numptoid poster is started a thread about one particular incident involving their child".

Stand by for the parents who can't wait for their children to go back to school after the holidays. The children they chose to have.

That was the case at my son’s school. Second lock down was much better and my son was taught.

Schools should never have been allowed to close in the first place

Are you taking the piss? Surely this comment is a wind up.

Oh, and please don't regale me with those whose children have special needs, those who are short of cash, I'm aware of that, and they have my sympathy. It's the ones who can't be doing with their own children.

I think Teachers stand out as the profession that moans the most but still remain in the profession. In most other professions, people that don't like it leave and go into another line of work.