To be sad that this woman was embarrassed about being a TA?

[jennymanara]

We were out tonight at a social event where most couples seemed to do well paid or high status jobs such as Dr or in the corporate world. I was chatting to one couple and the issue about jobs came up and she very embarrassed said she was a TA. Her job is really important and much more important than some of the others there doing work in corporate firms. It is a crazy world we live in where someone doing a valuable job is embarrassed about it because that job is underpaid.

I find people's jobs are usually the least interesting thing about them. However unfortunately the serious lack of communication skills in many people means small talk generally goes towards the boring obvious.

Nothing to be embarrassed about. It's not a very important job though. It should be valued but it's not highly skilled and pay is about right. They are helpers essentially that put up with quite a lot of shite.

It's not a very important job though.

What a crappy and dismissive thing to say. Of course it is. I've known teaching assistants who for years were the only thing that stood between students school refusing on a long term basis or being excluded due to unrecognised additional needs. It's a very important job. I know fully trained teachers who do it because they prefer it and it means they can be more available for their own children.

Well like women are embarrassed to say they are ‘just‘ stay at home mums? When I was asked if I worked when my kids were small, I always said ‘yes, I work 24/7 and never get time off’.
Being a TA is not a high status job, even though it is an important one.

This was in London wasn’t it?

It's not a very important job though. It should be valued but it's not highly skilled and pay is about right.

I think this is a very ignorant perspective. I'm a primary school governor, and our TAs do a hugely important job. The school could not function effectively without them.

Sadly, we no longer have the resource for whole class TAs, so they are all supporting individual children who could not access the curriculum and/or other aspects of school life without their input. For those children and their families, the role of the TA is not just important, it's essential.

As it happens, our TAs are also very highly qualified. Most have degrees, at least one has a PhD and another is a qualified teacher. Several of them have undertaken specialist training in supporting children with specific conditions such as autism.

TAs are not paid well because there is no spare money in school budgets. This should not be interpreted as a reflection of their value or importance.

My sons TA is the one who finally made reading click for him. He is the kind who got it out of him when he was being bullied. He’s the person my son confides in when he’s struggling.
Anyone who thinks TAs aren’t important is an idiot.

It's not up there with highly skilled jobs though is it?
It's a useful role where they are used and abused to fill gaps where professionals should be stepping in. I'm pro TAs but their role is extended ordinarily beyond their capability. The job itself should not be beyond a helper. Doesn't matter what some TAs do, it's usually good will, a lack of understanding of their contract and an abuse and lack of funding from their employer.
Not being dismissive just being realistic.

It’s a shame if she feels embarrassed - she shouldn’t do. But YABU to dismiss ‘corporate jobs’ as less important when, in all likelihood, you know very little about what these jobs actually entail. It feels lazy and stereotyped.

It's a valuable job. I've known a couple of teaching assistants who have gone on to train as primary school teachers, some take the job in the first place to get a feel of teaching which, when you consider how many people become teachers and wish they hadn't, is very sensible. Nothing inferior about it, it's honest work and performing a service.

I’m a TA, I’m also a qualified occupational therapist with over 20 years experience. I work on a secondary school and I support a child who otherwise would struggle both academically and with physical demands. I also run study and skills groups and have a rapport with the students on lower sets who are switched off from education. Today for example I had a queue of students waiting to have a task further explained to them after set work from the teacher. I can give them that time the teacher cant as they are busy with the other 20 odd students who are doing their work.

Is my role important? Yep absolutely. Is it poorly paid? Yep. But it’s also really satisfying. I’m not embarrassed by my job but I wish I had a bit more money! I work extra lunch duty and study plus to help boost my income but it’s not much extra.

I get to pick my dd up early from after school club, can have holidays off and I’m generally happier than I’ve been in years with my work/life balance. So for me the gains aren’t just monetary and work shouldn’t be valued in just those terms of reference. (I have a BSc Hons and part of an MSc btw).

I am a primary school teacher ! I wonder if they have the same opinion?

TA's do an amazing job I could not do my job without mine.

Ask Sandra how 'important' the job is; or, perhaps, the people with whom she works.

A teaching assistant should be nothing more than to assist the teacher ( the clue is in the title). Great that there are some super qualified people who do this to help with work life balance but at the end of the day you are being used and abused to perform a very mundane role with all the added extras with no extra pay and all the responsibility.

@Finfintytint

I don't look at my TA with that opinion

Many authorities do. Teaching on the cheap.

at the end of the day you are being used and abused to perform a very mundane role with all the added extras with no extra pay and all the responsibility

The idea that people are being used and abused suggests that the TAs have no agency or awareness of the situation. I don't think that's the case. I also don't think the role is mundane.

Some people are motivated by status and financial reward. Some people don't care about stuff like that and choose work/life balance, personal fulfilment and the opportunity to make a difference. The TAs I know have all chosen the role for their own reasons. They are underpaid, because schools have no money, but I dont believe that they are being exploited.

Sorry, I was rude there. I'm a TA, and in the ideal world I would be there simply helping out in class. And maybe 20 years ago it was all pencil sharpening, art displays and reading groups. However the nature of the role has completely changed; specialist units are being closed down - existing ones are full - and we are seeing a sharp rise in children with behavioural and learning difficulties being kept in mainstream school. It actually takes some skill to calm a child in meltdown, or form a bond with an autistic child. My job has taught me empathy in bucketloads! You're right though, in that the salary by no means reflects this changing role.

Of course they are being exploited. They are complicit and it suits them. Doesn't make it morally ok.

She shouldn't have been embarrassed but I do understand. My DM worked in nursing in a variety of jobs until she retired when she was a hospice nurse and macmillian nurse. But to my stbxh she was worth no respect as she didn't make a lot of money. I used to be a EFL teacher (with MSc in it) on about £12ph but this was about 15 years ago. He thought my job was useless even though I taught ex-trafficed and highly skilled people. I now work in corporate. I love my job and make good money but I don't think my job is more important.

But Fin, lots of people working in the public sector and the voluntary sector are paid much less than they would be in an equivalent role in the private sector. Do you think they are all being exploited, or do you think that some of them prioritise other factors over and above the money.

I used to do a job that I loved which paid peanuts. I don't think I was being exploited, I actively chose to work in that role, knowing that I was making a trade off between financial reward and job satisfaction. When dd was born, I re-evaluated my priorities and made a different trade off - well over twice the salary but a compromise with regard to job satisfaction.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see TAs (and teachers) get paid more for what they do. I just think it's wrong to assume that their value/importance and their pay are directly linked.

Dieu, I'm just trying to get across the point that TAs are highly shat upon for a role that is and shouldn't be in their remit. It really shouldn't be a highly skilled role but it is increasingly used and abused as a role that relies on over qualified and good intentioned individuals.

Thanks finfintytint you made my day with your comments. You don’t really know what a TA does do you? I’m aHLTA I have 25 certificates some are University courses. I am a Nurture Practitioner. I have certificates in Autism, bereavement counselling, Team Teach, Lego therapy to name a few. I am also a Specialist Teaching Assistant and a Learning Mentor.
I work one to one, I teach children with EAL to read, I teach small groups and look for ways to keep children focussed on their learning. I teach whole classes every day.
I also pick up children and bathe their knees, I accompany frightened children to hospital and stay with them until a parent comes, I teach them to mix colours, how to make a meal, how to make toast safely or a sandwich so they won’t be hungry. How to saw a piece of wood and how to plant beans.I get the shy child to practise their lines and take them down the corridor and get the to shout it out so when their parents comes they are confident and mum and dad who are squashed in the back can hear them. I teach small groups, I teach whole classes. If there is an incident I take two classes together so someone can be released. I comfort parents, I look after shocked children that found their dad dead on the kitchen floor. I look after kids that parents are late and jolly them along because they are worried, upset and embarrassed. I wait with them for three quarters of an hour and don’t get a thank you but I still do it the next time.
I comfort kids whose house was raided at two in the morning, where the door was put it with no regard for terrifying the kids. One time they got the wrong bloody house and the kids couldn’t sleep for months.
When thirty plus of the children were flooded I took all the lost property washed and ironed it at home and gave them two sets of clothing each so they could come to school and I went around to their houses to find out what else they needed. I got what they needed from the church and sometimes I bought it.This happened more than once.
I am not exceptional there are lots of TAs that do things like this. We are not “ a helper” we have a career in our own right. I’m on £25,000 pro rata. I don’t think that is too bad.
However I don’t need to be sworn at, spat at, kicked and hit or be shouted at by parents because “ little Tyler “ has lost his unnamed sweatshirt and I should know where it is. Or be called a “ helper .”
We are a valued part of the school as Zofloramummy says.
I’ll get down off my soap box now.
She shouldn’t be embarrassed she should be proud.

By the way I get paid more than an NQT!