To be disgusted with a conversation on a professional website

[wanttobeateacha]

I came across it last night when looking for advice.

People calling children with special needs unpleasant names. Arguing and bickering. It's really put me off

Do I need to just toughen up?

The internet is full of unpleasant corners and you could spend the rest of your life arguing with strangers.

I would just move on.

There are lots of disgusting things in the internet. My motto is, "don't like it, don't look at it."

What professional website is this then?

One for teachers supposedly to share ideas and resources. It just took me by surprise as I suppose I had it in my head teachers are nice people.

Depends on what sort of profession posters are coming from.
If they're bankers then it's shit but move on.
If they're teachers, doctors, nurses then that's shocking. Not sure what could be done though.

Oh. Teachers.
Doesn't really surprise me, but that's really bad.

Teaching is, more than ever, an incredibly stressful profession. People who work in stressful professions often need a place to vent. If it's an anonymous corner of the web then they may well vent in far nastier terms than they actually ever use in conversation.

Keep your beak out and move on.

I'm a teacher and recently posted on a teachers forum which I had been a member of but hadn't posted on previously. The replies I received were disgusting (not about children, but very crude). I asked for my thread to be deleted and won't be using that forum again.

Depends what was said really?

It just took me by surprise as I suppose I had it in my head teachers are nice people.

Why would you think that? Teachers are human beings and, as in every walk of life, there are nice ones and not-so-nice ones. Just don’t visit that site again - job done.

The teacher described a child in a derogatory fashion (not a naughty child.)

It was the flippant way she called him a name that surprised me.

Lots of people on mumsnet hold teachers on a pedestal, they're just normal people with the normal range of niceness. you get racist teachers, disablist teachers, sexist teachers just like any other job.
You can't spend your whole life arguing with people on line, theres no excuse for namecalling sn children on any children by a teacher, even on an anonymous forum but you have to just ignore it for your own sanity

Unless I suppose you know them and know where they work, in which case you could complain to the school about it?

No and I wouldn't anyway. It was just upsetting to read.

Teachers, like any other professionals, need somewhere they can go to moan.

Yes, this is on the TES community forum. Things get a bit... pathetic, on there from time to time. There's always flouncing and there are some posters with a serious ego problem. There's also trolls and idiots. Like everywhere.

Teachers/nurses/paramedics/soldiers and others in stressful, responsible roles etc often let off steam by making what seem like very distasteful jokes amongst themselves. You might even find yourself doing it one day.

They may not actually be teachers. Some people live in a fantasy land. You come across some on here so there will undoubtedly be some on that forum as well.

I'd stay away from the chats. The resources can be life savers (though you do have to check them REALLY carefully!), but the forum is just another place where people can gossip anonymously, and that seems to lead to very bad behaviour.

TBH I'd wonder how many "real" teachers are talking on that - when I was teaching FT there's no way I'd have time for it!

It was just upsetting to read.

If you’re planning on going into teaching, might want to toughen up a bit if reading something on an anonymous internet forum upsets you.

Let me guess, was the name calling about dc with ADHD? A lot of people reserve their bile for them .

TES has been shite since about 3 revamps ago, hardly any genuine teachers use it anymore.

Thanks. It was a child with ASD and it was just nasty.

Teachers, like any other professionals, need somewhere they can go to moan.

Adults spouting vile stuff about children on a public website by hiding behind a keyboard. NICE!

However who says that the posters are actually real teachers?