...do teachers really work that hard?

[User298895613]

I know the general idea on AIBU is that teachers work load is ridiculous, that they work extra hard and that they never never stop to the point that they r all seemingly leaving the profession.

But, AIBU to wonder if they are any different to anyone else? and actually might have it a bit easier? I mean, I also work myself into the ground, am exhausted, never stop etc... But I don't have summer holidays off to look after my kids, and I often work well into the small hours at night.

I'm not saying teachers don't work hard, but sometimes on munsnet I just feel like some teachers kind of spend a lot of time complaining about the workload, when maybe it's just the same as everyone elses, but with a nice long summer holiday?

(Sorry, I appreciate this will really inflame some posters, but it just had been annoying me lately)

But why are you linking to random teaching things? I don’t get it?
Yes teachers in Scotland have 35 hours in their contracts, and yet workload features higher than pay in the things they give as reasons for making them want to leave teaching. An advert to get more people into teaching isn’t the best source of info on the state of teaching in Scotland.

took me 10 seconds to find a link to 28 days/5.6 weeks.

That’s because you’ve got it saved on your desktop!

Rofl.

WoW ! Well, My husband and I were full time teachers. I now do supply. Our 3 daughters ( 2 went to Uni ) have absolutely steered away from teaching despite one being offered the teaching course for free, by a school she worked in at the time, because they wanted her to be a teacher. Our 3 sons in law all in their 30s, 2 engineers and 1 in the Navy, all earn more per year than the £32,000 that my husband was earning in his last year, after 40 years of teaching. Apart from the pay, I can't begin to tell how utterly shattered you feel at the end of the day. Evenings, weekends and holidays spent planning, preparation and marking. My Mother in Law used to come down and look after the girls for 2 weekends every June so that we could write 30 reports each. And then there was the politics side of things which I won't go into but that it was stressful beyond belief. I must say that my husband is a lot easier to live with now that he is not teaching!

noblegiraffe

There are a lot of professions who work just as long hours as teachers, some even longer. The thing about teaching is that it's not very well paid (in comparison to many other "hard" jobs), and it's often thankless. Just trying to think of any other workers who get the blame for things that are completely outside of their control (kids' at home). They are also often underfunded in the classroom and end up spending their own money.
So no, they don't worker harder than anyone else, but they still work bloody hard and half of what they do isn't seen by the parents or the public.

I haven't got anything saved to my desktop .
I don't even follow any threads!

I just googled 28 days leave entitlement - If I knew from a previous thread I had forgotten - you only have to read my first reply to see that I was unsure of my answer. I agree that I had remembered the Teach in Scotland link and the ATL link.

My dh works in education - why shouldn't I have an interest? I don't remember posting yesterday - I was out all day, and I'm going out today.

I might ask why noblegiraffe, Mistressiggi, and BorisBogtrotter are following me.

So teachers clav, according to you, get paid for about the same amount of holidays as everyone else.

Thanks for that confirmation.

We aren't, actually you pop up on every and any thread about education, and generally copy and paste things.

Its a noticeable trait.

Oh please, you probably have a klaxon that goes off the minute a thread like this comes up.

To be honest, I haven't got the time to argue now - some of us are busy today.

Half the teachers I've known complain, and complain, and complain, and shout at kids with problems rather than talking to them after class and finding solutions, they sit in the teachers' lounge complaining about their lives and counting how many days until the holidays, all of this with a big dose of sarcasm on top of everything, commenting on everything, your lunch, what other people say/do... I am no longer a teacher because of other teachers. I honestly feel sorry for the students.

Clearly not that busy though ROFL

You in the UK gluten?

Experiences like Gluten's appear to be rare, or made up.

#thingsthatneverhappened

What's wrong with sarcasm?

You just try teaching 20 adolescence of 16-18. Think how stroppy one of them can get then multiply by 20. Try getting them to not have their phone on in class or to do essay homework. It is a very hard job. I taught for over 25 years and then I got burned out, as many teachers do. There was one specification change too many for me. You work really hard preparing curriculum maps and schemes of work for a specification preparing all resources for every lesson and after two years they change it so you have to start again and so on. It is soul destroying. The marking if done properly including a lot of feedback so students can improve is never ending as is preparing resources so lessons are interesting for students. Add in tutor responsibility such as applications through UCAS for 20+ students and keeping on top of report writing, Parent's Evenings, educational trips out and all risk assessment planning that entails. I used to go in for a week during Easter holidays for GCSE revision and over the summer break to help students get through clearing if necessary. Even as Head of Department pay is not great and you have to do so much paperwork recording to satisfy Ofsted. A lot of hours worked arriving at school at 7.40am every day and either not leaving until 6.30pm or if leaving at 5pm taking a lot of marking home with you. On top of dealing with an odd student who has mental health issues, self injuring or homeless. You just try it. You just bloody try it before you make such ridiculous comments like that OP. Yes you do get a lot of personal satisfaction when students achieve well in their exams and buy you chocolate or wine at the end of year, but you bloody deserve that chocolate/wine.

I used to take the piss out of my sister with all her bleating about how hard it is to be a teacher...

THEN I went to an inner city school for a week to carry out maintenance,
never again! by day 3, I was ready to start wanting to shoot everyone of the little shits.

Day 2 was started off by an ambulance being called to the gymnasium because i 'lovely' lad collapsed due to be completely pissed up!
At 0915 in the morning!

Never took the piss out of my sister after that. any teacher deserves our sympathy and respect, who else would/could do it?

colly

Most teachers do just suck it up and get on, but in between that, we like to be overly-defensive because of the numerous posts/media articles/comments from random people about how it’s an easy job with loads of perks

Rather than trying to teach thirty 15 year olds, how about trying desperately to just suck it up and get on (with a job that most of us love) whilst being repeatedly told by kids, parents, the government and the general public that you are shit and a waste of space with an easy life.

I'm just waiting for the threads to start, if they haven't already, about how various mumsnetters are tearing their hair out on day one of half term because they have their kid(s) at home.

@alwaysdancing

Hi. Sorry I’m not participating in this thread anymore. I appreciate your point though. It got to the point last night were I was being personally attacked for my views. It was also patronisingly implied, multiple times, that I am stupid. It was actually quite upsetting. I have never found Grammer or spelling easy and have had to work really hard to achieve.

I just don’t need that negatively so I gently bow out of the thread and retract anything that upset anyone.

@Colly1616

Fair enough. Take care

Pink Floyd, where art thou?

Why do people - well, British people, anyway - always seem to get so competative about how 'hard' they work compared to other people in other jobs? (As if being permanently stressed out and time-poor is some kind of badge of honour?) It's just weird.

It got to the point last night were I was being personally attacked for my views.

Erm - why personally attack others then? If you can't take it, don't dish it out, and I distinctly remember it was you who told me to "go and fuck yourself as no one else will"