To privately not have much respect for a lot of teachers

[parsnipandmushroom]

Obviously I would never communicate this to a child, but when the "teacher knows best" lines emerge on here I often think 'no, they don't.'

I've known so many teachers make numerous basic errors with resources, and give children the wrong information. This wouldn't actually bother me much but coupled with the complaints about pay, working hours and stress, I do often think 'stop whining.'

So I am not accused of being a troll - I only mean some teachers, and so I'm not accused of drip feeding information, I am a teacher.

AIBU?

You do realise WetAugust that private sector schools generally pay their staff more and the teachers who work there generally do so because they know they don't have behaviour management problems that might be found in the state sector.
And very often accomodation and meals are part of the deal too. Often worth another £7000-10000 per year in fact (as of about 3 years ago when I last looked)

Because generally little Maximus/Cordelia has had it drummed in that they better shape up and appreciate their expensive education.

Many state sectors are dealing with children of very diverse backgrounds.

Private schools have longer holidays, smaller class sizes, selected pupils, no Ofsted....

What a ridiculous pointless thread.

Some teachers are good and some bad. Just like every other breathing adult in employment.

And some parents are quite frankly a disgrace who stick up for their vile children and refuse to allow schools to discipline their littie darlings.

Of course those same parents then whinge that their teens are out of control and blame the schools.

WetAugust your post is really disrespectful to the majority of teachers. Just because I don't teach in the private sector doesn't mean that Teaching isn't my vocation or that I don't work very hard for my students. Not all teachers can (or wish to) work in the private sector. I'm sure that there are good and bad teachers in both sectors - please don't tar all of us in the state with the same brush. I don't assume private to be any better than state, merely different. The two sectors are very unmatched in funding, input (parental etc.) and style and cannot be compared easily.

Hi Grays,
If you click the link it takes you to the comment we made, but that's the only one.

The problem is when you get a teacher who makes your child unhappy, you are stuck with it for a year. That's a very long time in a small child's life. If you have a crap GP you can ask to see someone different and similarly for other situations.

And the teacher is in a position of power where they can attribute your child's unhappiness to "the fact that they are a car crash of a parent with a frankly chaotic domestic set up" as a pp said.

So the quality of teacher matters so much, but your ability as a parent to influence the situation is usually zilch.

I understand that many teachers feel put upon, defensive, over worked and under appreciated. I hope the ones who find it too much find something they enjoy more because I don't like my DC spending significants chunks of their developing lives in the care of people who are too unhappy to consider that they may need to improve.

(Well, other than these ones in response to your erroneous assertion that we had already posted... )

Spot on BoneyBack.

Teachers in the private sector are also often driven there because they can't hack the state sector. Then find its a "frying pan fire" scenario.

Did you not see the documentary about Glenalmond College a few years ago?

Fabulous new head of science, housemaster to boot, takes up role there - lived on site, on duty 24/7, his wife hated it all.
She was isolated and miserable - they left after about a year IIRC.

They had no life and their family life was suffering (they had a little baby I think).

Have read most of the thread but just incredulous that some people still think teachers do 6 hour days!!!! 10 hour days most days at the brilliant school where I work. I love teaching, absolutely love it and work with people who feel the same. It's a hugely rewarding job but it is exhausting and relentless.

Obviously there are some crap teachers, just as there are crap police, nurses, shop workers etc.

I am on the fence with teaching. I think there is a mixture of problems in the UK. I have been slammed on here before for saying that I don't think teachers as a whole do themselves any favours. I stand by my observations that there are far too many teachers who show up for the day dressed far too casually. Its not about wearing a formal suit but if you want someone to take you seriously don't wear leggings to work. I'm an auditor and if I want my client (who is often 'just' the AP Clerk) to take me seriously I dress the part. It is amazing what a difference it makes. When I graduated it was people who got lower grades that went into teaching which also doesn't do much to help with the image of teachers being those who 'can't'.

OTOH I think there are far too many parents who need to start parenting and stop expecting teachers to do their job for them. Get involved and muck in. Be part of the solution if a problem has been identified instead of looking to blame others.

My DD is in an American school and I am shocked at the standards. Family friend who is known locally in England as an excellent teacher observed DD's class and said she wish she could have filmed it to show her NQT's in the UK. She was bowled over by the quality of the teaching and staff ratio. At elementary school the teachers stay behind until 6pm on a rota basis to help the DC in the after-school club with their homework. If the kids don't understand their subject or are gifted, this time is used to provide extra tuition on a 1-1 basis or the G&T program for the bright sparks.

I grew up in East London with both parents as teachers. They worked face to face with their classes during the school holidays because the school was local and kids from their classes were always IN OUR HOUSE, and some came on holiday with us, just piled into the back of my dad's transit.

So my post was 'disrespectful'? Well that really makes me laugh
The teachers that neglected my child's educational needs to the extent that we sued the school - and won, weren't terribly 'respectful' to him.

So I am quite justified in saying that I have absolutely zero respect for your so-called 'profession'

Eh, WetAugust? So only private school teachers are dedicated? Don't be ridiculous. Do you not think we do any after school stuff in the state sector? I run 2 clubs a week with an extra one from feb-may for Y6 preparing for sats. I also give up 2 evenings a year for school discos, 3 for parents evenings and 1 for open evening. Plus 2 Saturdays a year for school fayres. That's not excessive but it's over and above the two or three after school activities I'm running every week.

Can I also just point out that I have worked in another industry in the private sector. I did without doubt, work more 'at the desk' hours in that job. I didn't get paid overtime in that job either although it was often required. Like teaching, that job was sometimes stressful and always busy. However, without a doubt, the absolute crystal clear difference is that teaching is emotionally draining on an epic scale. Not just if you hate it but even if you love it and are good at it. It wipes you out, it really does. It is utterly exhausting. So, I don't think it's helpful to say, 'we'll I also work those hours in my job.' Because undoubtedly you do but unless you have spent some time teaching then you cannot realise just how emotionally exhausting it can be. And why why would you? That's why so many NQTs drop out after a year or two. Nothing prepares you got that and if your heart isn't in it, it will lead you to despair.

Boney . Excellent conflation. You must be a teacher.

Aren't you making a rather sweeping generalisation there WetAugust?

You are referring to one experience, one anecdote.

So hardly objective.

It's not possible as a parent to be part of any solution as communication is do very poor and teachers inability to admit ignorance do very high.

Teachers appear to only want partnership-working of the outreach variety with them taking the 'expert' role and parents taking the 'grateful' role. Often the reverse of this, having happened two years earlier would have prevented the problem in the firstplace, particularly wrt SEN.

wetaugust I am of course sympathetic to your son - he (and you) clearly had the worst experience if you ended up suing but thankfully it sounds like it's so extreme that it's not one that most (or even many) students or their families will encounter. I'm afraid you are still not qualified to judge us all the same though. I had a surgeon that screwed up a simple operation so much that I spent nearly a year out of work recovering. I still went back to A&E when I fell and broke my arm - one (or a few) doesn't give a fair representation of the many.

Yanbu.

Although my dc have been lucky enough to have wonderful teachers who I absolutely take my hat off to, my ex was a teacher and he is an absolute fool. He constantly gets words muddled, and makes up/mispronounces words, not to be funny but because he thinks that's actually what those words are. I worry that there will be a generation of kids in his town who will be using his strange dialect.

Only one what I'd call bad experience over five years, so not bad going really. On the whole mine have been well taught. Some clearly like dc more than others. But those that didn't seemed to teach well none the less. Can't fault the level of commitment. I'd have to disagree with you op. The majority of ours I secretly admire and wonder how they keep turning up.

Your situation sounds dreadful WetAugust and I hope your son is doing better now. I'm sure you feel very resentful of his former teachers.

I can assure you though that many teachers are dedicated, caring and determined in their efforts to get the best out of their students.

WetAugust, I'm assuming from your post that your child has additional needs which the school failed to meet. It may well be that you encountered a poor teacher but I'd hazard a guess that you also encountered the bullshit that is 'inclusion at any cost' (although technically at as little cost as the LA can get away with)

SEND is woefully underfunded and mainstream teachers are woefully lacking in the necessary training required to really ensure that children with a SLD or an ASD can reach their potential.

Even if some of us do work in "bog standard" state primaries! God forbid! I wish you could come to my school and see the fantastic work that goes on there and the super progress that the children make. We have several children at our school who were moved from private schools because they weren't thriving there.

This is my first night of not doing planning/reports for two weeks. Shame I clicked on this thread