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.

Hi I totally get why this woman is embarrassed but she should not be! Yes ok, being a TA compaired to a CEO in something, pay will hugely differ, but you know what? A TA will make more of a difference, daily!
I am a nursing assistant and I do alot of jobs that a fully qualified nurse does but people in the work force look down on us... till they want something doing. I have also picked a new career to train for, which will be an Early Years Practitioner and people will look down on that... "oh you'll just play with kids all day" No actually, I will be helping them develop social skills and be ready within 2 years to start school!

My point is people will be ignorant no matter what... who gives a shit... shows you even if they have £££ in the bank, basic social skills obviously lack, if making someone feel small!

Finfintytint They are called teaching assistants not teacher's assistants. These days in secondary they are mostly there to support a child or multiple children with some kind of additional need.

Without a TA many children with, for example, autism would not be able to cope with being in the classroom at all. Many children would not physically be able to be in the classroom because they are visually impaired or physically disabled. Teaching assistants help children who can't read text, who can't follow multiple instructions, who are disorganised through no fault of their own, who can't communicate their needs etc. Teaching assistants develop ongoing relationships with parents which a secondary teacher who sees the child for perhaps one hour twice a week is less well placed to maintain, many I know email or call home every week with updates for parents of children with SEND. Many are with the same child for most of their day every day and provide the consistency and support that cbild needs to be able to access mainstream education at all

Without them many children would not be in education . Yet they are paid tiny sums, not paid for their holidays or breaks and made to feel, by people like you, that they are glorified pencil sharpeners.

Schools should not be allowed to regularly use TA's as teachers unless they are a HLTA if you know of a school doing that you should write to ofsted.

It's not a very important job though

What utter bollocks. They can be there as part of packages to support children with special needs (medical and other) who otherwise couldn't be cared for properly in school. But that's not important!! Of course not!

Stop sneering.

some are university courses I am shocked that they are allowing people without specialist degrees to do all that to be honest.

It's not up there with highly skilled jobs though is it?

More bullshit. Do you look down your nose at anyone doing a job that you don't consider to be "highly skilled"? People do sneer sometimes at others who do jobs like stack shelves in the supermarket in much the same way you have sneered at TAs. They wouldn't be happy to go to their local one and find nothing on the shelves though.

Some children need the specific support of a TA to get on in school at all, especially now that places in specialist facilities are at such a premium.

I trained as an NNEB.
The Specialist Teaching Assistant and the Nurture Practitioner essays were submit to two different Universities. The first I attended the Uni for a year once a week and the second was a trainer from Nurture Network who set up a course with a hotel as the venue as the University was too far from us but the essay assignment was sent to the University. I was invited to join the second year of teaching degree as I had a good mark. Unfortunately I couldn’t take it up as I still had one child at school.
Having a degree doesn’t always make you good at the job though.
Lots of HLTAs don’t have degrees. Didn’t you know that?

Yes, but that’s what shocks me. Why are the students with the most need always taught by the least qualified people? You went to university once a week for a year? Where I now live you cannot teach EAL students until you have a master’s degree.

It was probably self-imposed embarrassment and the others at the party probably didn't give it a second thought.

Unfortunately when jobs are fulfilled by women, the pay goes down and by men, the pay goes up. Why is a train driver paid more than a TA for example?? IT in its infancy used to be low paid and predominantly women took those roles. These days it’s highly paid. The skills needed haven’t change.

As for the role of TA, it seems to me that this is far more highly skilled than in the past. TA’s now need gcse English and maths. Why could that be if it’s not a very important job. @Finfintytint you’re buying into misogyny with your narrow minded view. Sad. Sad Sad.

i’m sometimes embarrassed by my job. nothing to do with my job and my education level, its (most of the time) jzst so completely different to what everybody else is doing. So i tend to not mention it if i can. nothing sad about it, so i would not overthink her embarassment. it might gave jzst been fit to situation

(actually, our school has loads of male TAs for what its worth),
Also, pretty much all jobs are important. Rubbish collection is one of the most important jobs in our society, its still not highly recognised. and its pretty much exclusively male. so please, rethink your own statement about worthy jobs

“Beyond their capability” I’ve got more teaching experience than many of the younger teachers at our school. My teaching qualifications and degree ensure I’m more than capable of doing all I do thanks.

I am underpaid though.

I'm embarrassed every time I have to tell people my job, similar public sector low wage.
Almost all my friends are in high powered roles and, although I like my job and do it well, I cringe every time anyone asks. One of my friends called it 'a nice little job for you' once.

Most of the general TAs let alone HTLAs were teachers or have a degree at my school. We have several male TAs too. There is a lot of ignorance re what TAs do.

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

A teaching assistant should be nothing more than to assist the teacher

I think you have the job title wrong. A TA is not a teacher's assistant. They are not their to simply help a teacher out.
They are a teachING assistant. They assist the teaching and learning of the children. In many places they are now called Learning Support Assistant which probably describes their role better.

Our TAs are generally well qualified. They have A levels and most have a degree, some are qualified teachers. They do way more than just help put. We have parent volunteers who take on that role.

Exactly myself2020 and just what I told a child yesterday that seemed slightly embarrassed that mum’s new partner is a bin man. I told her it was a very important job as where would we be without them. I also said I always thank mine when I see them. I gave them a packet of kit kats when I was unable to drag the bin out. They were most surprised and delighted. I suppose a lot of them don’t even get acknowledge.
One of the most intelligent men I have ever met was a school caretaker. And I know a photographer who went to Oxford and Cambridge but chooses to be a photographer because that is where his passion is.

Myfoolishboat a person with a degree teaches them she is a teacher. I said I teach them to read. I have 27 years of this and you think I can’t do it properly. They have two hours a week with a person with a degree that comes in but doesn’t speak all the languages just one.
I wasn’t professing to be better or say I” I had been to University” I was trying to explain what those courses involved. I know they are no where near as good as someone who has a degree. The teacher sometimes hears the children read too. She teaches them the rest of the time except for PE, Art & RE. This is a local council school. I shall inform the teacher I am not good enough to be teaching them.
I’m getting out any way at the end of term. So those children will be supported by someone less qualified than me. I would love to know which country you are in that can afford a teacher with a Master’s degree for EAL pupils.
People that say we are not valued are correct in a lot of ways but the staff who work alongside us day by day do and most of the children and some of the parents do so that is what matters.

Circumstances in my family meant although I gained a place at several universities I had to move countries due to family. Appears to be that I am still paying for it. I should have known better than to join this thread. I now feel de-valued too.

There are some very old fashioned ideas about what a TA does here. The idea that they are ‘helpers’ is outdated.

The TAs in the secondary schools I have worked in have mainly worked with children with SEN. It’s quite a specialist role. Lots of CPD provided, and probably at least 50% of them are qualified teachers who for whatever reason don’t want to teach currently (possibly because they don’t want to work a 60 hour week).

With students with EHCPs the TA is probably the one who has the best understanding of the child’s needs and strategies to support them, and plays a crucial role in ensuring lessons are differentiated for that child.

OP how do you know she was embarrassed? Did she say she was? Or perhaps she didn’t want to talk about work?
I (mostly) love my job but I hate talking about it because it then it opens up a can of worms and comments that I am fed up of discussing, it probably would come across as embarrassment.

Many authorities do. Teaching on the cheap
Well that says more about the LAs than about the TAs, doesn't it, Finfintytint?

Of course they are being exploited. They are complicit and it suits them. Doesn't make it morally ok.
Like most public sector workers, including nurses, most people working for the NHS really, even teachers.
Again, says more about their employer than about them if the employer is willing to undervalue the skills, exploit and underpay what is for the most part a female workforce trying to earn a living while at the same time coping with the demands of the 'second shift'.

Maybe she’d spotted Finfintytint across the room and couldn’t be arsed to be patronised and called morally dubious.

As a secondary school teacher, I worked with countless TAs over my career. Some, like the ones described in this thread, were quite brilliant, often hugely overqualified, people who made a massive difference to the pupils they worked with. Most, in my opinion, were paid about right in terms of their skills and contribution. No-one should feel embarrassed about being a TA - any more than they should, say, about being a shop assistant or waitress - but nor is it a reason for others to be especially impressed.

Agree she shouldn’t be embarrassed. I would have been interested in finding out more about her job and have found it interesting reading the posts about what it can entail on here. Don’t think it is useful or relevant to compare which jobs are more valuable though. All jobs have a value of their own and are suited to different people. I am good at my corporate job but was an absolutely hopeless bar attender back in the day. I am also terrible at cleaning and I really recognise skills in those jobs because I don’t have them.

@Finfintytint just out of interest what are the “important” jobs according to you?

I have had teachers assistants through to college they remind me of angels/saints you should be very proud of your job!