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?

If it really was that busy, why exclude the minority of children from schooling just because their parent works in the "wrong" job?

Schools did not exclude, they applied the criteria decided by government.

I don’t see how teachers can say it’s the most stressful job either though by that logic as they haven’t done every other job to compare it to.

@Topgub

Ask the government! It wasn't teachers who decided on safe distances or capacities or key worker status, you are blaming the wrong people. We opened to as many as we were allowed to, I had spreadsheet after spreadsheet of who could and couldn't come in.

Disclaimer. I'm a retired secondary school teacher. I never heard complaints about the profession as a whole until lockdown, and parents had to 'teach' their own children and struggled, so some turned on teachers. Of course there have always been the long holidays/short days critics, but anyone who really thinks about it knows these are spurious criticisms. I was always in school for a week either end of the summer holiday, sorting out, planning & preparing work etc. Similarly at half terms, days enjoying the silence. Schools cannot operate effectively unless teachers put in additional hours. Rarely do teachers leave until 5 pm, and they're usually in work an hour before school starts. You cannot just walk in front of a one hour session without planning & preparing for the session, and mainstream teachers have about 22 of these sessions each week. You have to accommodate students who are going to be achieving A*s alongside students with learning disabilities, this can't be done without a lot of work. I know that unless you are a graduate with a love of children, you will not cope as a teacher. I know there are some duffers, like in every profession, but in every school I worked in there were only one or two whom I would not have trusted with my own children.

I don’t see how teachers can say it’s the most stressful job either though by that logic as they haven’t done every other job to compare it to

Teachers as a group have never said this. I have seen two individuals in print make this claim.

I do think there’s a tendency to just give an OP a hard time. I saw a post earlier today where the poster was concerned with a decision her child’s teacher made and I did find the responses from teachers ridiculous - accusations of it being the OPs fault for choosing to send her child in and cries of ‘teacher bashing’.

But I’ve also had a hard time on threads myself when I ‘admit’ to being a teacher.

I don’t think that teachers are the most disliked group on mumsnet. There is criticism of every profession on here. However there is a small group of teachers on mumsnet (who are not representative of teachers in general if the ones I know are anything to go by) who are very touchy about anything they even perceive as criticism. Some of the education threads during Covid were full of abuse from certain posters (who were teachers or at least claimed to be) towards anyone they perceived as criticizing education or schools, never mind teachers.

so any discussion at all starts a whole host of “teachers bashing” accusations. It’s a bit much - mumsnet is a parents website. Of course we will discuss education

Lol remember the daffodils that was cringe

No I don't think so.
There's a lot of vitriol directed towards NHS staff on here. I think anything public sector is wide open to criticism.
I'm an NHS ahp and DH is a teacher and we both get plenty of open criticism.

I have to admit I don't think teachers help themselves on here sometimes. The heatwave has been a perfect example of this, it is very woe is me.
I actually have a lot of respect for teachers in general and know how difficult it can be.

GP’s seem to be up there

any public sector worker tbh

I have to admit I don't think teachers help themselves on here sometimes. The heatwave has been a perfect example of this, it is very woe is me

I've been through 9 pages of AIBU to find one thread about teachers and the heatwave. The poster asked merely about why there are rules for schools being too cold, but not too hot. That is all. Hardly woe is me, it's shocking working conditions.

Oh, not that old line again. I don't remember ANY teacher or union representative being vocal about the need to re-open schools for everyone.

I remember there being only the opposition.

Like the fact that my DSs school is open only until noon tomorrow. It's crock-shit that teachers have no say in these decisions.

That doesn’t say teachers weren’t at a greater risk of catching it! Just that teachers weren’t any more likely to get seriously ill and need hospitalisation if they did catch it 🧐 That report isn’t really saying that much at all. I did like the bit where it said we were quick to get vaccinations (when finally offered at the end of the queue after the whole world and his wife) and that we maybe took covid precautions more seriously than some. 😉

YABU. For me, definitely not.

Of all of DS' teachers (about 20 so far), there has been one who was at breaking point and it showed, and one who was a nasty vindictive witch. But that means 18 have been great, doing their best, and have my wholehearted respect.

My eldest Dsis was a primary school teacher for 30 years. Most parents liked, appreciated and respected her, a few were 'a bit off', one father pinned her to a wall by her throat.

Parents in general reflect society in general, as do teachers.

But generally hated....no.

Oh, not that old line again. I don't remember ANY teacher or union representative being vocal about the need to re-open schools for everyone

In general, so what?

Are you talking about after lockdowns? It was all about safe re-opening.

Like the fact that my DSs school is open only until noon tomorrow. It's crock-shit that teachers have no say in these decisions

Teachers don't get to decide this. Ever. It's down to LAs, possibly different for non-LA schools.

Should have said for non-LA schools, it's still not down to teachers, but might be governors, etc. or whatever academy schools do.

Many many teachers have worked outside of the profession and can give an accurate assessment of the high stress/low autonomy to affect stressors malstrom that is teaching.

This is exactly what springs to mind when I see teachers questioning why there is so much animosity towards them. On MN it could be concentrated because it’s probably the profession with the most contact with the vast majority of members. It used to be midwives but I’m not seeing that as much these days.

It’s the cavalier attitude that no one should disagree or question anything you say. It’s the constant misery Olympics that you have to be the most stressed, the worst paid, the most overworked, etc. When most of you have never had any other career to compare it with. And when someone said “well it’s not really like that” when you’ve posted a totally ridiculous comparison it’s always the same “have you been a teacher?”. Have you been anything else? I have many family members who are miners (I don’t live in the UK). Now that’s a profession that could be likened to driving backwards down a mountain with no brakes. It’s dangerous. Hard work. Lonely. Long spells away from home. Health hazards galore. Even those of us in office jobs in the private sector face situations you can’t even imagine. I’ve been made redundant 4 times in the 30 years I’ve been working. And I consider myself lucky. Others have had it worse. Companies going bust and disappearing overnight owing you wages. Companies being bought and sold and employees being thrown out like yesterday’s rubbish. The constant “restructuring” (in other words, getting rid of anyone whose face doesn’t fit). No job security. Things you’ll never experience.

No one says it’s easy being teacher. No one says you’re not stressed. No one says you’re overpaid. But as soon as someone suggests that other industries might be just as stressed, overworked, underpaid, you can’t take it. Always the race to the bottom. Just for once you need to accept you don’t have it worse than everyone. Worse than some, maybe. But most of us are sick of the whinging about how awful it is. Leave if it’s that bad.

This. I'm glad mumsnet teachers aren't representative of the majority of teachers in real life.

Your last point especially. My DD who is disabled was kept in during the lockdowns/remote working. The comments directed at me were VILE. Just because she isn't vulnerable medically from covid, it doesn't mean she is not one of the most vulnerable members of society who needed to be in yet I was killing her teachers just to be selfish. I'm thick skinned and it was just awful.

The small groups of kids and teachers in and it was the healthiest 3 months of school ever during the March-July period.

No, I don’t think teachers are the most disliked profession. I don’t think they are even disliked as a whole either.

Same as with NHS workers and many other professions, there have been acute incidents in education recently which has pushed their work into the spotlight. As with many topics on MN there has been some hysteria and vitriol, on both sides. That helps no one.

Taking one thread out of context is not representative.

In the spirit of the op can I point out that some of us parents did not, in fact, struggle with teaching our own children? And in fact for some of us, that was a turning point for our children who had until that point been given no education by the schools? I had to spend my teenage years supporting my siblings to learn too. I have two kids now, one who had done well in schools, and one who distinctly had not. I’m afraid that experience changed my view on teachers considerably.

By the education sector’s own research, what little evidence based research there is, the people who have the most influence on education are parents, not teachers. I think teachers need to remember that just as much as the parents they all-too-frequently condescend to. Too many could do with being a little less arrogant and self-important. Class is closely linked to education, and academia too if it comes to that. Too many teachers do get too sucked in to their own jobs and forget that parents have to work too - I think this is the nature of schools now, with the amount of extra work required outside, too many have too few links outside of schools.

There are the many issues of an education system which has always been subject to faddy progressive fashions, and is currently enthusiastically embracing a load of bullshit about schooling being about social relationships and egotism rather than knowledge and learning. I get that that’s a reflection of British culture, but in embracing that, schools are the reverse of what they’re supposed to be about.

I could write a book here! Unfortunately I’m limited to a snapshot comment, like the hundreds of thousands other parents who comment on the internet everyday.

I think a certain sort of teacher who posts a lot on MN is disliked here. IRL most parents (not all, but the majority) like and support teachers, who they recognise are doing a good job in difficult circumstances. Most (not all) teachers are doing a good job.

However, on MN there seems to be a selection of teachers who really don't like teaching or children or families and of course no one wants to think those people are caring for their DC 5 days pw or have such an important part to play in DC's future. It distresses people to wonder about how many of "those" teachers are in our schools.

Also, the insistence that all teachers are good and hard done to. Some teachers are really truly awful, just like some people in any job are awful. It would help everyone in "teachers" would acknowledge that.

Plus the chip some have about their pay. A first year teacher is on a good salary for a new graduate and there is good career progression to really very good salaries for those who want it. I am a teacher BTW.

The one that got me during the pandemic was teachers complaining about teaching a class online, while also home schooling their own children. As key workers, the schools were open for teachers' children so it was entirely their own choice to home school their own kids. I was also a key worker, and we were expected to use the schools so we could work effectively.

The teachers made their own choices not to use the schools and then complained vociferously about the consequences of those choices.

I think you’re right. I was just reading some comments and it made me realise I often see my teacher friends complaining and saying how hard it is, but I don’t see other friends complaining about their jobs. I don’t mention my job on my socials, I have a very busy job and pretty stressful but I don’t mention it. I also see the teachers complaining more as we get closer to the summer holidays. How exhausted they are and can’t wait for 6/7wks off. Meanwhile the rest of us carry on, mainly without complaint. But yeah in real life I don’t see any teacher bashing