to be annoyed about the end of the scool holidays?

[maxpower]

Only because I'm so sick of listening to and reading fb posts about all the poor teachers who are having to go back to work after 6 weeks off. There are many workers who don't get 6 weeks holiday for a whole a year never mind in one go. I've just read some drivel on fb about how - while I'm 'watching tv' - some self sacrificing teacher is writing a lesson plan to benefit my child. This the post stressed is unpaid. Oh woe is s/he. How about the 5+ unpaid hours I worked this week over and above the full time job I do? Oh and just to clarify, when I got home from work I spent an hour coaching my daughter for school entrance exams, when I discovered that all the amazing teachers she's had have not taught her about calculations involving 'parts' or indeed how to work out the area of a triangle.

So forgive me if I don't lament over how tough it is to have to go back to work (where the rest of us have been all summer long).

[DakotaFanny]

I have seen the post you're talking about OP and I agrree that it's horribly cheesy. If a teacher posts it themselves, I also think it is a bit meh! However, a non-teacher friend of mine posted it and I thought it was a really nice gesture.

[charliethebear]

Sorry I missed your last few posts, that person just sounds annoying tbh. But its nothing to do with teachers in general, its just one annoying person who happens to be a teacher.
It doesn't mean teachers cant be sad about going to work just because others might have it worse. Obviously they realise that much worse things can happen but people are allowed to express sadness at going back to work.

[BoneyBackJefferson]

MagicMojito

"It seems to me that OP is a bit put out by other people (regardless of their profession, for arguments sake!) implying that we should be sat here giving a thought for them and how hard they have it because we clearly don't know how lucky we are."

Yet others not in teaching do exactly the same thing (I've just had two weeks in sunny fuckwit land place of choice) yet they rarely have a thread about them, or people complaining about them.

[maxpower]

Charlie I can accept some truth in what you're saying. It's probably the number of references to it all in one go that's just left me a bit fatigued.

[poorbuthappy]

My note would read:
You teach, I'll feed.

[maxpower]

Well that was fun but my batteries are about to go. Bye all.

[poorbuthappy]

Bollocks. Should be on the cheese thread. Soz!

[Roseformeplease]

I am a teacher.

I love my job and all.

However, YANBU OP as anything on Facebook that smacks of "poor little me, give me some attention" gives me the rage.

Oh, and I have just completed week 3 of an 8 week term. In 5 weeks I get 2 more weeks holiday.

Did I mention that I love my job.

[Munstermonchgirl]

'Those who can, teach. Those who can't, start MN threads about it'

[purpleapple1234]

Teacher here and I agree with the OP. It is a tough job but the holidays are great. It's just untactful and show-offy to be all self-pitying when having to go back after the long summer holiday. Where I work they are not "holidays" but "non-term" time as there is expectation that you are still working. they can stuff that idea where the sun doesn't shine

[rollonthesummer]

I've seen posts on Facebook this week from teachers who don't want to go back to work, parents who don't want to go back to the school run and making lunch boxes, teens that don't want to go back to college and people (non/teachers) who've been away on holiday and don't want to go back to work.

It's not just teachers!

[SuburbanRhonda]

I share in the joy of my teacher friends when they start their holidays.

Of course you do

[SabineUndine]

I remember a friend trained as a teacher and gave it up after three years as a hard slog. Within six months in a new career she was moaning about the lack of paid leave. Greener grass etc etc.

[Iggi999]

Someone asked why other professions don't make such a fuss about going back to work - in most jobs you are not all off at the same time - this makes a big difference. Everyone goes through the end of term together, and the back to school too. So of course you focus on that.
I felt really sad reading about the poster who works an 8 hour day in the holidays - fuck that for a game of soldiers. Don't work in the holidays and never will, work bloody hard the rest of the year though.

[BathshebaAndGabriel]

So what are you suggesting as an alternative? They should work through the school holidays?
You clearly are lucky enough to have many teachers as your "friends".

[QueenLizIII]

I remember a friend trained as a teacher and gave it up after three years as a hard slog. Within six months in a new career she was moaning about the lack of paid leave. Greener grass etc etc.

Oh yeah.

I am a solicitor and I met a lot of ex nurses and Drs who left medicine to go into law. Mainly Clinical Negligence law.

Alot started off as paralegals with the intention to do their law qualifications part time.

Then they realised what it was like. Particularly in the area of law they chose.

1. Crap pay.
   

1. No pay rises.
   

1. No pensions. 1% is all you get from most employers.
   

1. No other employee benefits.
   

1. No bonuses.
   

1. 20 days holiday. Rising by 1 day per year to a max of 25 days. So you;d have to work there 5 years before you qualified for 25 days leave in a year.
   

1. No sick pay. My last contract had no right to paid sick leave at all: it was paid at their discretion.
   

1. Working late constantly and no paid overtime.
   

1. Your post is NOT covered when you are away. A Nurse does not come back to a back log of 2 weeks of patients that havent been fed, given their meds, blah blah. In law, if you ask a colleague nicely, they may do 1-2 things only if they cannot wait. Other than that you will come back to 2 weeks of post and two weeks of messages to be returned from client's.
   

When the ex medics started complaining to me about these issues, I said to their faces, what did you expect...this is what the job is.

Several of them abandoned law and went back to nursing. Not so easy hey and the grass wasn't greener.

[MidniteScribbler]

So, OP, you have never reached the end of a holiday and thought that you wished it was longer? You have never been on your first day back at work and wished it were longer?

Teachers may wish for more holidays at this time of year. That is no different to someone who books a fortnight at the beach. Everyone wishses that their holiday was longer.

If you have friends, then they go on vacation and don't want to come home if they have a choice.

It's not about going back to school, it's about ending a holiday, which no one ever wants to do.

[Philoslothy]

I have to admit they as an ex teacher that post made me cringe, didn't make me as angry as you seem though. I think most of us have a moan about going back to work but teachers of course start back at roughly the same time so it feels like a collective whinge - which is in fact what it is.

Good thread! Very entertaining! Only the crap teachers take 6 weeks holiday (well, 5 weeks & 3 days this year)

I always took every single day of every holiday bar a few hours. I was never a superteacher but got great results and by all professional measures I was far from crap. I didn't really do much at weekends either apart from a few hours.

[NotYoda]

How long did it take you to teach her how to calculate the area of a triangle?

[NotYoda]

I think the answer to this might be to not read FB. It seems to piss people right off

[Sallystyle]

I read that OP on a relative's FB.


'Somewhere a teacher is getting ready for your child's new school year, writing lesson plans while you are watching television, they are using their own 'free time'.... or something like that.

Well the person who shared that had three holidays this summer. Good for her and I have no doubt she works incredibly hard as a teacher and spends a lot of time at home marking etc. However, the 'watching television' part rubbed me up wrong. It's not like she has spent the summer slogging her guts out while the rest of us just sit and watch TV. She has had a fantastic summer, full of amazing days out.

I appreciate everything teacher's do. I couldn't do their job but seriously, that FB post is a bit stupid.

[GoblinLittleOwl]

I read many posts on here criticising teachers.

Last week I accompanied a friend to hospital while she received some unpleasant medical treatment, (not A & E) and had plenty of time to observe the performance of the nurses and doctor she encountered during the five hours it took. I wasn't impressed.

However, I would not dream of starting a post criticising them because I know nothing about the work they were doing, the circumstances under which they were doing it, have limited medical knowledge and experience and was not receiving the treatment. My friend seemed satisfied.

So many people on here think because they have children they know all there is to know about education and are free to make the most ignorant, uninformed and sometimes libellous comments about trivial incidents.

Most unpleasant and unjustified.

[StopMakingMeLogOn]

You shoulr criticise if their behaviour was unprofessional. It is actually quite important that people do, in order to protect those in future who are not so able to advocate for themselves.

Teachers, like HCPs and everyone else are individuals - some excellent at what they do and others not so much. Parents and patients and the public in general should be polite but we are entitled to ask questions and complain when things are not right.

[LunaLambBhuna]

Oh FFS! Another teacher bashing thread with someone trying to back track on what they said.

I see/hear lots of people huffing and puffing about going back to work after a nice holiday.

I guess the post holiday moaning is just dispersed over the year when different people go at different times rather than just at the beginning of September.

Teachers are making no more of a song and dance than anyone else.

[CathFromCooberPedy]

I hate this 'teachers have it so tough' crap that is always spouted on MN. You went into teaching because of the holidays and then you got shafted and your jobs now suck like the rest of ours.

I also hate the obsession with institutionalised education in the UK so quite frankly if you're one of those people then you bought this on yourself. The government is responding to nurotic parents.