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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that many people have no idea how hard teaching is like?

193 replies

malificent7 · 05/12/2017 19:54

I have been criticised on here by some for not teaching full time as i have PGCE. The truth is it makes me ill. It is at least a 60 hour week and o cant cope with the politics, classroom management and workload.

Plus most of the contracts are short term. I am crap at ill i feel and have been managed out before.

I now teach pt and do care work pt. I am skint but happy. Aibu to not teach ft and to think many have no idea how greulling it is?

OP posts:
KittyVonCatsington · 05/12/2017 21:32

No one criticises directly malificent7 but you regularly post random threads about your situation that get very confusing (your dad refusing to bail you out, you blowing your inheritance, the Uc one, the random nits one) and it’s only you that plays the ‘woe is me’ card.
Plenty of people know teaching is hard. Loads of jobs are hard and you have to accept at some point that you are in charge of your own path and finances. To be fair as well, you were a TA and not a teacher with your PGCE anyway so i’m really not sure where this is going...

KittyVonCatsington · 05/12/2017 21:35

Although it is annoying that you have started a thread about this when usually our ‘argument’ is that teachers never start these types of threads on MN! Grin

spurtions · 05/12/2017 21:41

I have no doubt teaching is hard but it’s only on MN I hear about how it’s the hardest job in the world with the longest hours in the world and the most stress in the world with every teacher spending their entire holiday time in school. This doesn’t relate to the experiences of the many teachers I know IRL including my sister and my mum. Nobody I know has left the profession, plenty work part time and whilst they work fairly long hours in term time - 8-5/5.30 which isn’t that long none of them seem to spend stupid amounts of time in the school holidays working insanely, my sister usually does a couple of days in her classroom over the summer and goes away for a month and I have never heard any of them complain about how they’ve drawn the short straw in terms of career. I don’t doubt that teaching is hard and at times relentless, particularly in some schools but it doesn’t seem to be the same message everywhere.

PurpleDaisies · 05/12/2017 21:43

kitty is spot on. You’ve only been “criticised” for not working full time when you’ve posted about your difficult financial situation.

Are you a teacher or a TA at the moment?

PurpleDaisies · 05/12/2017 21:45

whilst they work fairly long hours in term time - 8-5/5.30

No teacher I know works those hours unless they’re part time and working on their day off.

Macaroni46 · 05/12/2017 21:47

For me, along with the relentless hours and constant pace (few or no breaks), is the constant need to be perfect. To think about every thing you say, every response. Never to lose your cool or raise your voice. To be at the beck and call of parents who think nothing of emailing you late in the evening and who seem to increasingly be expecting more and more from us and who can often not accept that their little darling is not completely innocent!
And surprise surprise, the long holidays have been mentioned. We work through a lot of them, have no flexibility for any time off whatsoever during term time and use another chunk of the holidays for medical appointments etc
It is a hard job - exhausting and draining but yet somehow I couldn't imagine doing anything else!

BeALert · 05/12/2017 21:48

Nobody I know has left the profession, plenty work part time and whilst they work fairly long hours in term time - 8-5/5.30 which isn’t that long

Oh... if only.

TheFallenMadonna · 05/12/2017 21:49

I work those hours. Because I work in Alternative Provision and there are fewer children in my school than in my old mainstream year 9 class, so marking is very quick and only two year groups to plan for. They are very challenging short hours though. Still, if you can manage that challenge, and you need to be very resilient, I would recommend AP wholeheartedly.

kaytee87 · 05/12/2017 21:50

Who's criticised you for working pt? Confused

Did you mean to add 'like' at the end of your heading? It reads strangely.

Appuskidu · 05/12/2017 21:50

You’ve only been “criticised” for not working full time when you’ve posted about your difficult financial situation.

Aha-is that true,OP?!

kaytee87 · 05/12/2017 21:51

By the sounds of it you are actually working full time if you have 2 pt jobs.

hula008 · 05/12/2017 21:51

I think that lots of people have no idea how stressful many jobs are. One thing that I’ve always wondered is how so many teachers don’t realise the reality of it - you train for a year in a school, at least, before becoming a teacher so you must have some idea of what it's like?

TheLuminaries · 05/12/2017 21:51

OFFS all full time jobs are hard when you have a family - teachers do not have a monopoly on the sad face. I am so bored of teachers whinging on Mumsnet. I come from a family of teachers - I'm married to one - and not one of them makes such an opera out of their job as the no hopers on Mumsnet. Can't hack teaching? Newsflash: other jobs are available, but be warned you'll probably find them pretty tough as well.

kaytee87 · 05/12/2017 21:54

Ahh I think I remember some of your threads op. You're being a bit disingenuous with this thread.

ThePinkOcelot · 05/12/2017 22:00

Totally agree TheLuminaries!

BeALert · 05/12/2017 22:07

Newsflash: other jobs are available, but be warned you'll probably find them pretty tough as well

Oh I don't know. DH nearly had a breakdown as a teacher, whereas he now manages multi million dollar projects without really breaking into a sweat. The irony is he really loved the teaching. It was the toxic environment and the people that really broke him.

manicinsomniac · 05/12/2017 22:08

Idk - teaching is hard but I'm not convinced it's harder than many other professional jobs. And never being far from your next holiday is a massive, massive perk. Plus I can't think of another job that I could manage ft as a single parent - the family friendly hours are invaluable.

I think or is a bit unreasonable on 2 counts - firstly, most of teachers end up doing ft hours for or pay which isn't fair on them. And secondly, the constructions their hours put on a whole school timetable can make very unbalanced and annoying timetables for the rest of us. Which isn't fair on us.

I don't think I would willingly work in a state school again though, I have to say. Still prob not the hardest of hard jobs but the unreasonable demands from the govt are way beyond anything we have to put up with in independent. Our hours in work are much longer of course- but our workload outside of those hours is so much less. And we have to meet almost every parental demand - but the holidays we get to recover in are epic. I'd recommend ft independent over or state any day.

manicinsomniac · 05/12/2017 22:09

'pt state' that should say

thetwinkletoescollective · 05/12/2017 22:19

Sometimes people do hard jobs but there is a sense of teamwork and that's what gets you through. Sometimes people do hard jobs and they are time limited so that you can have a work/life balance. Some people do hard jobs that require a large amount of skill and so they get remunerated.
Teaching -
Where you train for five years to be disrespected by pupils, distrusted by senior staff and dressed down by parents who had a terrible time at school themselves - so you must be picking on their 'innocent' child.
The job where 50% of the job includes planning and marking but you get the pleasure of spending 97% of your time in front of class and the rest of the 'job' has to go into your free time.
The job where targets are set like 'we are aiming for everyone to be above 50%' and you have to take the preposterous ridiculousness of it seriously otherwise they manage you out with something called 'capability' which is double speak for 'you are incapable jump before you get pushed'.
Camaraderie has been replaced by head down, get on, who are you? - as another one or ten leave each term and some more supply teachers come in.

But you get to inspire young minds with British Values as every child matters.

When governments and teaching management and newspapers and the public and other teachers forgot that 'teachers matter' it was a very sad day....

CheeriosEverywhere · 05/12/2017 22:21

Who have you been criticised by?

I remember you and you were roundly criticised for something else entirely (which was fair enough) but who has mentioned your job? Why would anyone here care what you do?

OwlinaTree · 05/12/2017 22:29

The job where 50% of the job includes planning and marking but you get the pleasure of spending 97% of your time in front of class and the rest of the 'job' has to go into your free time.

You get ppa so as a maximum it would be 90% surely

gonnabreakmyrustycage · 05/12/2017 22:36

It ends up being 97% when you add up the intervention lessons and the boosters and the random year 11s who need to see you every lunch time...

OwlinaTree · 05/12/2017 22:38

If you say so!

TheFallenMadonna · 05/12/2017 22:39

Working in non-directed hours is not working in your "free time". Of course you can't fit a full time professional job into 1265 hours pa. I'm not saying workload isn't out of hand in many schools, but this frequent reference to anything outside directed hours as akin to unpaid overtime is not helpful.

thetwinkletoescollective · 05/12/2017 22:46

30 periods per week
2 ppa and 2 frees (that could be used for cover)
5 x 20 minutes tutor period a day
2 x year 11 boosters which are not compulsory
1 x club
No break and no lunch due to people wanting things from me
Plus any detentions

I can't really be bothered to do the actual maths of it ..I think gonnabreakmyrustycage said it better