Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.

[Ohdesireer]

Is this saying still relevant?
I only ask because I’ve wanted to be a nurse all my life, I never got my GCSE’S and didn’t think I was clever enough.

I’m now mid 20s with two DC (3&4)
I decided at the start of this year I was going follow my dream.
I’m halfway into my GCSE maths, if I pass this then onto an access course for a year then uni.

But I’m put off, I got myself a job in a care setting to gain experience for my application. It’s shift work and my partner also does shift work, he’s the main earner so his takes priority and probably always will.
Trying to figure out shifts is a nightmare, I also narrowly escaped having to work Christmas Day (some CF was going to call in “sick” and I would be the next person in)
The thought of missing out on Christmas Day with my kids is daunting. I know people do it, but they know they have to do it and still choose to work in that job.
I don’t know if I want to be the mum who isn’t home for Christmas.

As my partner already works shifts and weekends, I want the DC to have some stability and a parent who is there on weekends.

I think getting into teaching would be the best option for me, maybe a primary school teacher.

My partners mum is a teacher at a blind college.
She leaves at 8:30am and is home by 5pm Mon - Fri.
Once in a blue moon goes into work at the weekend and even then it’s not a must.
And obviously has half term off.

I’ve looked a lot into nursing and the further I look the more I’m put off. I live in a small city (I’m not even exaggerating when I say, most people think it’s a town) so jobs in nursing are hard to come by unless it’s with the NHS.

I’ve heard the saying “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach”
I haven’t looked much into teaching yet, I’d just like advice if people still think this.

I’m not saying I believe it, I just want to know if others honestly do.

My family never expected anything of me.
My mum always said to me, I’m going to end up pregnant at 18, live in a council house and aspire to nothing. She was correct, this indeed did happen. But I now own my own home. (Nothing wrong with living in a council house, but 90% of them in my area are filled with druggies so not the best environment to bring up kids in)

I feel like if I go into teaching, my family will still think I’ve amounted to nothing. Yes I overthink, but the quote is just stuck on loop in my head and I think I need someone to snap me out of it.

I don’t mean to offend anyone, this is just what has been drilled into my head for years.

AIBU?

probably

Im a teacher and a nurse. A nurse lecturer. Ive had lengthy careers in both. Nursing is a highly skilled profession as is teaching. If you are put off at this stage that is nothing compared to the difficulties the stresses the work will throw at you. I always loved working Christmas day because the patients really needed me and I felt like I was doing the most important job on the planet. Teaching - most teachers work weekends marking and prepping. If you dont want that then go for a job with less pressure but less pay.

*sashh" you have reminded me of Mother's Day at DC3's nursery. DH went but I didn't, because I was teaching. He refused to participate or join in the songs because I wasn't there and when I got home he recited the whole lot and sang the songs for me. Still brings tears to my eyes now.
Later, however, he joined my school, and although he wasn't in my class I saw all his concerts, special assemblies and knew all the songs he sang. Wonderful.

Why not get your qualifications and start out as a ta? That would give you a better idea of what teaching entails. Although I agree that a 9-5 job sounds a better fit.
Or dump your partner and upgrade to someone richer who could enable you to sah. Yes, your quote is offensive and still used to belittle teachers.

The Woody Allen gag follows on 'those that can't teach, teach gym'.
(I am a teacher. The OP doesn't know what they are talking about.)

Silverapples, OP could not be a TA with no GCSEs. Most are graduates.

I’m a nurse and my husband is a teacher. I have worked Christmas Day for the last 4 years out of five and I’m working this Christmas Day too.

I would still rather do that than be a teacher.

Teaching is about passion and really caring about the education of the children you teach and doing what it takes to get the best out of them. It’s not something you should just wander into a ‘second best choice’ just because you want to be home at the weekend.

I think there’s is a general thought that teaching primary age is easy and lovely but I imagine it comes with a lot of issues. Dealing with bad behaviours, identifying and dealing with developmental delays, identifying signs of child abuse and bring involved in the aftermath, playing an important role in child protection etc etc. Teaching young children may not be the same as teaching secondary aged children who tower over you at 6ft high and tell you fuck off five times a day, but it comes with its own set of issues and is probably just as emotionally draining and time consuming.

Please just follow your heart. My eldest child understands that mommy is a nurse and I have to look after poorly patients who unfortunately are not as lucky as him because they can’t be at their home on Christmas Day. When I work the Christmas Days my shifts are only 7 hours so I get to go home and spend time with my family. Being away from them for a short period isn’t exactly fun but I find comfort in by reminding myself that as least I do get to go home which is more than my patients get to do.

As an aside, numerous members of my family were disappointed that I chose nursing as a career.

If being a teacher isn’t what it is your heart then look for something else. Going into teaching half hearted is not the best thing for the children you would be caring for.

I am sorry OP, that you feel hurt by the responce from posters. But saying going to primary teaching since it looks easy is going to offend many teachers and parents.

Primary teaching is where you deal with very young children with lots of potential. Getting a passionate teacher with great knowledge might decide the child's future.

Same for nursing. It's a hard job. You cannot do it without desire to help people. I have seen so many nurse over the years for my ds's illness. They are all determined and professional, proud of their job.

“Those who can, teach. Those who can’t, bang on about it on Mumsnet.”

I think all professional jobs are much harder than people think. You tend to see the publicised hours and that’s it, I work in accountancy and my job is v stressful,like most professions it’s not really the work it’s tge shit that goes with it, new initiatives that will apparently change the world (and will be replaced by the end of the year) workplace politics, presentiism. I work 4days a week 9-5. But I often working on my day off and late in the evening as I have v tight deadlines. You need to find something you love doing that will enable you to put up with the pointless shit that gets in the way of doing your job. But can you actually be a teacher with one gcse, a foundation course and basic degree? I’d be hoping for someone more academic teaching my child tbh

Elizabeth, I was meaning as a first step goal. I’ve worked with a number of amazing TAs who would have made fantastic teachers had they not looked at the realities and thought ‘Fuck that!’
My current TA has a degree in German.

Nurses are not paid well for the millions of hours they work and hard times and pressure they are under so I would not go into nursing if you think it’s going to be easy.
Teaching well the saying in my opinion stems from the fact most and I say most teachers have no real life experience or skills. Since most have been in school then college,p then university and then go back and regurgitate it all to the next lot of hopeless or hopefuls.Hence why they say those that can do those that can’t teach.

Oh anc my son is in primary school. I can’t see it being an easy option! 30 kids, all very different in ability, at completely different stages of development (a year difference is a lot) attentyspans of goldfish. Targets that are completely unachievable without damaging the love of learning little children naturally have. Demands for pointless form filling and targets for teachers )because it justifies someone else’s job who finds it easier to deal filth quantative rather than qualitative measures. Acting in place of poor parenting for very young kids, I should imagine this is just the tip of the iceberg. As a parent I think teachers are amazing and so grateful for what they do. I would think if you can do it teach, but suspect it’s a job only 1% of the population could do

I would imagine they are very similar. Both poorly paid, under valued, long hours and not working with enough resources.

Primary teachers work on average 60 hours a week. It is will longer for the first few years. There are more teachers leaving than joining the profession.

Everyone has been to school so everyone has an opinion on teaching.

No real life experiences or skills?
Care to explain which areas I lack? Or any teacher?

I don't think teaching, nursing or social work are for you if you are looking for something that fits around your family.

Many teachers I know go to work for 7am and don't leave till 6pm. That's not including the evenings they have meetings or clubs or rehearsals.

Nursing- 12 hour shifts, including anti social hours.

Social workers have a very heavy case load, most of which gets taken home. I know a number of part time social workers, who have to work on days off to keep up.

That's literally all I'm going to say as I find your OP deeply offensive and your attitude in your posts since then has been very 'woe is me.'

I work in the Public Sector with Nurses, HCA's, Teachers TA's, Social Workers and SWA's.

OP. If I've understood you correctly the Public Sector probably isn't for you if you're looking to practice as a qualified anything; we ALL do work beyond our substantive hours because of the workload, and the pressure is enormous.

It's great you want to achieve something better for yourself but you'd do well to carry out much more research into what these careers actually look like before you invest time and effort in a degree course.
Good luck though.

The theory that teachers go straight from school to university and back to school is trotted out all the time but hardly realistic! Of the teachers in my school just one did that, the rest have had interveening careers as a chef, research scientist, civil servant, RAF technician, shop manager, beautician, social worker, probation officer, and probably half a dozen different occupations I don't know about! But what they all have now is a passion and a commitment to the children they teach that means they cope with long hours, unrealistic expectations and those who think they know better because they once went to school twenty years ago! Please don't belittle them.

Teaching, nursing and social work are occupations that people need to have a calling to do because they are all extremely hard. Plus teachers and social workers have to deal with very negative press about their professions. I have not worked in any of those roles but was a public servant and came in to contact with many teachers and social workers. One of my social worker friends who worked in child protection lost almost all her hair through stress.

Spanieleyes, I’m curious because I am a teacher who went from school to uni to teaching. So what lifeskills do I lack that others have?
I meet all sorts of people who have different abilities and experiences to mine, but rarely have I seen that as a deficiency.

I had a high flying career on leaving uni, travel, excitement, being friends with celebs (C list, but even so). I followed that career path because when I mentioned it, several people, including family told me I couldn’t do it.
Twelve or so years later, burned out at 35 and with a toddler, I had a breakdown trying to juggle it all so I jacked it in, went on the dole for a bit (which served to teach me I NEVER want to be in that situation again).
Got bored, volunteered at the school attached to DDs nursery, eventually got a job as a TA, using my transferable skills from my previous life, now I am doing a PGCE in EYFS in September.

It’s a challenging, demanding and rewarding job, but if you go into it because you think it’s easy or anyone can do it, prepare to fail.

Almost without exception, the best teachers I know weren’t teachers at 22 years old. They came to it later and it shows.

Those who can, can do so because of a teacher.
Those who can’t, should spend a day in a teachers shoes.

"I fear there will be some more nasty comments popping up, so I don’t think I will come back to this thread."

I really didn't see nasty comments. It's either the comments by the people who actually have the job you are planning to go into to warn the difficulty, or from people like m, who want determined person to go into this kind of job which needs a lot of dedication.

You are still very young, you have a lot of potential to do well in your life. I hope you can find out your calling.

Blimey. I don’t think teaching is for you. I am not a teacher but seems to me a passion is needed... you don’t have that. Most teachers I know work crazy hours.
My sister qualified as a primary teacher last year. She is in her 30’s and had left school without any gcses. She had to do a year at college to get gcses, then a years acesss course, then 3 years at uni. She worked at a supermarket through it all and was a single parent to dniece.
It was bloody hard but was her dream. She most definitely “can”.

@Maryjoyce - teachers have no real life experience or skills? What on earth do you mean? How on earth do they manage a very difficult and stressful job then??

You’ve misunderstood the saying. That’s not even remotely what it means. It refers to people who try something, fail at it and then teach it. For example acting. People go to drama school, try to have an acting career but don’t make the cut and go off and teach drama. History, people read history at oxford, fail to do well enough in their studies to have a career as a historian and end up teaching history instead. English. People who want to becone writers read English at university, fail to anything published and end up teaching English instead. It doesn’t mean people who can’t do one thing end up choosing to become teachers in a completely unrelated field instead.

I think the saying is not the interpretation you have taken... it’s more if you can no longer do the job you have trained for, (or couldn’t really in the first place) then you teach others how to do the job.

There are many reasons you might not be able to do the job as well... disability (injured in some way), age (elite athlete), hours don’t agree with you (nurse)