To be getting fed up with this hatred of schools and teachers.

[Pipbin]

In another thread (this is not really a thread about a thread) about schools some posters have made it very clear that they hate schools, see teachers as jumped up nazis and feel that everyone is feeling superior and looking down on them.

Am I alone is feeling upset and insulted by this?

I am a teacher and surely we both want the same thing, the best for your child?
We are not the enemy. We are on the same side.

I think the bulk of my DC teachers are beyond fantastic and are extremely dedicated.

However when DS had a very poor teacher it was a hellish year for him and left him far behind. Took longer than 12 months a couple of really good teacher and a lot of support at home to get his confidence and enthusiasm back.

DD1 had a bad year with one teacher affected her confidence and progress as did many other DC before and just after - then teacher went and did an acting job somewhere else came back and had another one of my DC to teach in different age range and she is great. I don't know if its the age range, my DC personality or if the teacher got her enthusiasm back but suspect all three.

It's a year in primary with a poor teacher is a long time - at secondary level a poor teacher can put DC off an entire subject. As a parent your ability to help them with a poor teacher is very limited - and watching their enthusiasm die off very hard to take.

However I think most vitriol is because parents just don't get what involved in teaching or the hours or lesson planning. They seem to think it stand up and talk off top of your head and leave at 3 pm with DC.

I'm a teacher currently on mat leave and I'm seriously considering not returning to teaching because I think the education system is toxic on many levels. My concerns are:
1, The changes made by a government which has no understanding of the real issues which schools face. For example at one primary I know they don't register the pupils until 11am as there will be so many lates recorded an Ofsted would be triggered. Teachers aren't responsible for ensuring parents get their children to school on time yet the school gets penalised.
2, The shrinking curriculum which appears to be wanting to test constantly to prove...what exactly?
3, Changes to GCSEs which is guaranteed to devalue the arts subjects.
4, Pressure on Heads to keep even the worst behaved pupils in schools otherwise too many exclusions (even if very much deserved) triggers Ofsted inspections where the inspectors DO very much have an agenda - and know which schools they want to put into Special Measures.
5, Work loads - I know first hand of someone who didn't get a minor promotion as they asked about work-life balance and the school told them they could not guarantee one.
6, The endemic bullying within schools where teachers are literally bullied out of the work place due to their faces not fitting. Sometimes the bullying is due to the fact teachers won't cheat and do the students' work for them.
7, A culture of many pupils and parents knowing their rights but ignoring their responsibilities - is it really Sir's responsibility to get Johnny his C grade or should we dare expect him to do the work himself?
8, The Daily Mail.

I could go on - but I'm boring myself now. Teaching is simply the best job in the world when you are in the classroom, teaching pupils who want to learn (regardless of ability) and are willing to engage with you. If you have time to prepare your lessons properly, mark all work carefully and give feedback thoughtfully you are on to a winner. Education should be enjoyable for the teachers and the pupils, progress shouldn't be hampered by so many problems which no one in power seems to be prepared to properly address. However as Education is in the state it is I am strongly considering being a SAHM and although it's a few years away yet really thinking about home educating my dd.

BTW I have a 2:1with honours in my teaching subject, have had classes which achieved the highest Value Added in the large department I taught in, been a Head of Department where they achieved the best Sats and GCSE results ever and have taught in both the independent and state sector.

That last point isn't me saying how great I am but rather I want to highlight that an experienced and competent teacher is now so sick of the erosion to our education system that they are ready to walk away without a backward glance.

RIP The English Education System; it was nice knowing you.

*'I know teachers who have never had a job outside education.'

Like me?

Your prejudice is showing there. I have taught all over the country, in vastly different schools. That experience is very useful. I also have a 2:1.
Am I a better or worse teacher than you, or just different?*

I'm not saying either of us is better. I think that your experience in education is as valuable, but different, to my life experience. What I was saying is that 3rd class degrees don't mean bad teaching.

Xenadog - interesting and informative post. Unfortunately too many people jump on the bandwagon of moaning about strikes without actually informing themselves about WHY teachers are striking. I know from my SIL and from teacher friends of mine that many of them are fed up with the system which I guess is what many parents are sick of too. But that's not the same as being fed up of teachers.

In RL I actually think very few people are just anti teachers per se.... There are obviously one or two on here, and there used to be a well known poster who posted regularly who just banged on about teachers working 9 til 3, but I haven't seen her around for ages though she may have name changed. Scratch the surface and you often find there's some totally separate issue people are pissed off with- maybe their own home or job situation and they're transferring their discontent.

Like I said earlier- you get good, mediocre and poor examples in any job - as well as good and bad parents. Teachers just get an unfair bashing that's all.

Despite thinking the teachers and the school generally is brilliant - I still moan about amount of HW and amount of parental input involved with it.

I also moan about amount of additional help the DC need - with practising maths and reading and picking up problems at home with handwriting that have been over looked.

I understand though that at school my DC is one of 30 and a lot of time is wasted between activities because that just the way it is with the numbers.

However sometime when they have spent 6 hours at school and I feel like I'm having to go over all the basics at home while a lot of the fun stuff is done at school I do wonder about entire school system.

doing, do you have any idea how many "government changes" have been introduced into teaching in the last five years and how much disruption this causes to children who are trying to learn and teachers trying to teach?

One of the main reasons teachers resist the changes is that they are introduced not only with little notice, but with no consultation with education experts. Michael Gove prides himself on not taking on board expert opinion when introducing yet another plan to drag us all back to the 1950s.

Let's first of all be clear that there are many excellent teachers and some awful ones too - just like in every other profession. They're not some diifferent species, just normal people with talents and faults like everyone else

I believe a lot of the problem is that whatever's considered "important" at the moment gets put onto school staff. Good manners, road sense, budgeting, social skills, you name it - sooner or later we hear "it should be on the curriculum." Breakfast clubs / homework clubs and all the rest also mean that children spend more and more time in school rather than with the family

This sets up unrealistic expectations and provides a handy target for the few inadequate parents who avoid responsibility for their own choices; as so often everything's always someone else's fault, though of course it's always the other parents who are like that

Individual staff may or may not earn respect, but surely children need to develop respect for education as a whole; the endless chipping away really doesn't help their attitudes to authority, with consequences we see only too often

I think there are loads of fantastic teachers out there & just like in any job there are some that are not so good. The problem is they are with the people we love the most & if it doesn't go well we feel it keenly. And (you are not going to like this) there appears to be a culture if moaning in teaching that results in people not wanting to listen. I really do think teachers have a tough job (i have many teacher relatives & am a governor) & so do other people, like psychiatrists, social workers.....I think teachers have a really important job, they shape our society, I just think that communication has broken down & teachers have some responsibility in that. (so do parents & politicians & society at large).

I would rather have a teacher with a 3rd who had a gift for teaching than an Oxbridge graduate with a 1st who didn't, especially at primary level. A good degree doesn't mean that much to me tbh, just so long as they are a good teacher. The two don't necessarily go hand in hand.

Individual staff may or may not earn respect, but surely children need to develop respect for education as a whole
teachers have to earn respect basically, and the good ones do just that.
i am certainly not going to teach my children to 'respect' bullies and inadequates who enjoy making children cry, or seeing them humiliated.
and yes that does happen.

Yup coz my views wrong...!?!

Again, I'm being told off that my view hasn't been built on experience that I should ignore what I've seen or how children I've worked with are taught coz you know better coz your a teacher.

So what? I've a degree too. You really are no better than me. Determined to keep going though til I say gosh no I'm totes wrong teachers are marvellous all the time and I swoon in your superior presence.

Won't do it to any profession. So dream on....

I only ever see "teacher hating" on MN.

In real life people tend to assume that I am far cleverer and noble than the reality. They seem to think that I am some kind of Mother Teresa figure with endless patience who is in it " for the kids".

In reality I like the long holidays and ability to walk out the door at 3:30pm.

Yes. Includes doctors nurses dentists lawyers solicitors journalists authors zoo-ologists any profession you care to mention.

I will question because I should if what I'm being told doesn't seem right for some reason. Because I fail if I do not.

I would rather have a teacher with a 1st who also had a gift in the classroom. To be honest you don't even need a "gift". Most people can learn how to teach. I was shockingly shite to begin with, now I am good enough.

Sadly, teachers will always be in the firing line from parents if the government or the school don't educate our children in the exact way we think they should. And of course each parent has a different idea of what that way should be.............Cue complaints, rage, disgust and yes sometimes hatred.

Teaching is not the only profession where people work unhappily under rules and guidelines that cause them grief and frustration. Theirs is also not the only professional where their work can feel unappreciated and their pay and conditions attract criticism. If that is unacceptable to a person perhaps they shouldn't be a teacher just as I could never be a traffic warden as paying to park is my bete noire- rubbish analogy but I couldn't think of another, sorry.

Philoslothy what do you teach that enables walking out the door at 3.30pm?!

I don't hate teachers. Dunno if anyone really does just hate this attitude on here that they can never be wrong! It's that I take umbrage at not the job.

Same as NHS on here. It's laughable.

There are loads of threads where teachers get grief, and loads of threads where NHS professionals get grief as well . . . ? There's one at the moment about whether someone should lodge a complaint about their GP - and a number of nurses and doctors are commenting about poor treatment by that GP.

I work when I get home and the children have gone to bed. I teach history and am a member of SLT.

I can understand why parents might get angry with teachers; if your child has a poor primary teacher that is a whole year written off.

exactly philo, you know it.

I know what Nigella?

that having a crap teacher in junior can waste a year

I do think it is more of an issue at primary, although I guess that if you get a poor maths teacher for GCSE that could have a heavy cost.

However I do think that unreasonable demands are made on primary teachers, I would never work that hard and therefore would be the kind of teacher who would prompt threads on here.

Philo, even if I were to start working later, there is no way I could walk out of the door at 3.30 ... staff meetings, after-school clubs, ethos group, governors meetings, sports fixtures, benefice group, seeing parents, putting up displays, tidying the classroom, sorting IT problems for the next day ... I finish at about 6, then can choose whether to carry my marking all the way home or do it at school.
Euphemia, in which country do you teach? Always interested to hear of a different system. Would you say that it is better for teachers, pupils or both?