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.

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

My son's Lsas are highly skilled and have a demanding role. I wonder how well you would do educating a non verbal teenager with complex learning needs and behaviours that challenge. Do you think anyone can just walk in off the street and do that?
The only alternative would be a teacher for each child in his class as all of the young people require constant input or support.

I have the greatest respect for the TAs in my class, they do an amazing job which means that I can do mine. They are bright, intelligent men and women and are extremely dedicated.

Finfintytint obviously thinks that young people like my son don't matter.

Your dismissive of corporate jobs.....

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

Some schools will not employ a TA without a degree, in psychology for example.

For example I've just found a job advert in London for a Nursery Teaching Assistant on £70 a day, expected to have a 2.1 or 1.1. undergraduate degree.

Surely all jobs are important within a profession. If a TA is required in the classroom then that job is as important as the teacher. If a business doesn’t have the time to clean the office and requires a cleaner then that role is important as it is required for the business to function.

Having a degree isn’t the be all and end all, plenty graduates out there with absolutely no life skills, seemingly no kindness or compassion either 🙄 @Finfinty hope your DC are never in need of support with an arrogant parent like you looking down on the ‘help’.

I don’t know anything about TAs but in my opinion pay is no reflection on job importance and skill. On some level, when you consider what REALLY matters, it seems to be the opposite as the vital services are generally public sector and don’t make profit so there’s less money for pay.

I’ve just taken a 20% paycut to start my career in indisputably one of the most important, difficult jobs there is and frankly it’s shocking what we get paid for what we do but thankfully there are enough people out there who have a passion to do something geniunely worthwhile despite a less than stellar salary.

Anyone who belittles the teaching assistant role has absolutely no understanding of the role.

My son wouldn’t be able to cope with mainstream without a TA.

They are vital.

There are many highly qualified and well trained TAs out there.

There are also many with little experience and no training.

With regards to children with additional needs - for many children a TA can support them in mainstream, and help them access the curriculum and support their needs in the classroom - this is great. However it is appalling that because of the lack of specialist provision in this country, many children have to struggle in mainstream with a TA as their main source of support in an environment which is unsuitable for their needs - if the child is lucky they will get a brilliant individual who will help slightly improve this unsatisfying situation, or they might get someone who has little or no training or experience....and in a climate of cuts I suspect this may become more common. I think TAs in mainstream have become a teeny tiny sticking plaster over the gaping wound
created by the lack of provision which children with complex needs fall into. Obviously this isn't the actual TA's fault....and probably slightly off the point of this thread!

It is sad that she felt the need to be embarrassed by her job, whatever it is, and it is sad that caring jobs and jobs working with children is so undervalued.

My son wouldn't cope in his specialist school without his TA.

@Finfintytint I rolled my eyes and shook my head at your comment.

They are not only important they can be essential. My son would not be able to participate in lessons if it wasn't for his one to one teaching assistant.

Of course it’s a valuable job but the pay is very low there’s little career progression it’s quite dead end. From a feminist perspective I wince slightly when incredibly bright women with previous careers become TAs. I know corporate lawyers senior building planners and senior tv producers doing this role. All women.

I’m not surprised by this attitude, but it doesn’t really make sense to me.

I’m a teacher. My husband is involved in politics, so before DD (and therefore having an excuse!) I used to go to a lot of political dinners. I would talk to lots of different people, who mostly had extremely well paid corporate jobs (this was in London, and these were often black tie events). After some conversation, it would come up that I am a teacher. The response was always shock! One man actually confessed he was surprised because I was well-spoken and knowledgeable [hmmm]. He had 4 kids. I asked him what his single biggest expenditure was, and he said obviously it was school fees. He was completely flummoxed when I asked him why he had such a low opinion of teachers when he thought education was worth paying that much for. He didn’t have an answer to that.

TAs come in different types. Some are amazing, and I suspect these are particularly useful with those with behavioural/language difficulties or in the early years. Personally, as a secondary school teacher, I have found them less useful. I don’t build up a relationship with them as I don’t see them often, and particularly for kids with only physical disabilities they aren’t all that useful. Obviously the kids are being weaned off them before adult life.

The problem here is not whether TAs are useful or not. The problem here is people (mostly men, in my experience) who assume pay correlates with value.

Nobody should be embarrassed about working full stop. Pretty much every job is important in order for society to function.

TA here in special school.
There are 4 of us in my class . Three of us have degrees and numerous qualifications related to our job ( in my case British Sign Language, PECS , restraint training and many others)
On a daily basis I administer meds, tube feeding, suction, manage seizures, and physiotherapy and all the equipment needed, as well as teaching one to one, managing challenging behaviour.

Mine in not an unskilled job. Poorly paid , yes. Very. 13k a year for a lot of responsibility and tbh a lot of bruises.

I could have done my PGCE and taught, but my life (have my own now adult son with disabilities plus several others and a dh in the Forces) made being a TA a better option for me.

Schools such as mine can't function without us. But there is no doubt the role is underpaid, undervalued and being cut to the bone.

However... I love the children !

@Bowerbird5 please ignore the people with zero understanding of schools, education or the public sector. You sound like a star and I bet your school are dreading not having someone with your experience and relationships throughout the school there next year. Honestly, experienced teachers AND TAs are like gold dust and ignorant attitudes and comments as shown by some on this thread just don’t help keep them in schools.
Oh and academic qualifications by themselves mean zilch. Plenty of people can cruise through multiple degrees and struggle with the pressurised environment of a cash strapped, understaffed, challenging school.

Och, I do get what @Finfintytint is trying to say. Here is Scotland the role is abysmally paid, with unpaid breaks. We're talking minimum wage, and for that we regularly do jobs the teacher does (testing, reading, numeracy groups, etc). It doesn't happen now that the kids know and like me, but I was frequently attacked at first (while doing 1:1). The fact that we are women is taken advantage of, as is the fact that we are mostly mums, so do it to be with our kids. I'm not blind, I do know this, and it does at times make me a bit fucking resentful. BUT I do really like my job. I'm an ex teacher but now that I'm a lone parent of 3, I really love having my evenings and weekends free. I can walk away at the end of the day, which feels rather liberating by comparison. The school at which I work is round the corner from my home, and I never have to worry about after-school care for my kids. The whole set up is very convenient. I love the kids and am making a difference to some very vulnerable children and their families every day. The pay is inadequate though (I won't be able to afford to do this job forever, but for now it's ok) and unless there was strike action, that's unlikely to change. And I tell you what, an absence of TAs would bring schools to their knees! I don't think people have any idea of what the role entails, especially for those working 1:1. So it is underpaid and undervalued, but please don't ever say it's unskilled. I am proud of my achievements with my 1:1

My rant about the lack of specialist provision and the use of TAs is in relation to mainstream provision.

How do you know she was embarrassed op?

Her job is really important and much more important than some of the others there doing work in corporate firms

We live in a capitalist society. Corporate jobs are vital as they create the wealth to fund the services that you need. So reel your neck in on that point.

On TAs wages it would be nice if they were better paid, I do think they make an important contribution. We’d need to move to a higher tax model to facilitate this.

In no way to devalue the role but I think women are being taken advantage of and it reflects the difficulty professional women face in combining work with primary age children and in getting back to their previous career after taking time out to sahm, . So the compromise for them rather than going back to previous career is to be a TA when youngest hits school. I have seen so so many women do this. Then they get stuck kids leave school and fly the nest and they still assisting with primary whilst dh career flies upwards..

This is the trouble of defining people by their jobs and by inference pay.

Whoever wrote that they thought that it wasn’t very important and the pay was ok needs must be living in a parallel universe.

TAs are the glue that holds schools together be it academically, socially whatever.

The pay may, on an hourly basis, look OK. However they work a short day and don't usually get paid for holidays. OK, for some, as a top up or secondary wage but not a sole/primary wage.

Whilst it’s true that the entry qualifications are low they are not zero. To progress you will need to gain qualifications.

What you do need goes way beyond letters after your name, degree documents etc.

It’s a job to be proud of, one you can hold your head up high about.

Few, outside education, realise their worth.