Why all the anti school/teacher threads?

[shithappens123]

I’ve not been a member for long but I’ve noticed the amount of school bashing threads on MM. it’s almost as if some patents see the school as an enemy not as organisations wanting to educate their children the best they can.

I’ve read threads on how they gleefully complain about teachers (seems more in primary education though) and saying how incompetent they are when they have no idea how hard they work.

Teachers are fair game on here and it’s most disturbing.

Because everyone went to school so is an expert.
Anyway I am going to get my popcorn and await the arguments

I teach languages part time to small children. It's hard work but I find it really rewarding.
But, of course teachers are fair game, same as any other profession. They're not a protected species.

There seems to be more teacher bashing threads than any other profession on here, it’s disproportionate.

I imagine it's because most of us are parents with kids at school. I imagine a site aimed at teachers would have a lot of parent bashing threads. Same for doctors and patients etc.

You can't win as a teacher: be assertive and you're a bully; don't be assertive and you're useless (and your class.
Some parents see a scandal or such like as soon as their child moans about school.
Luckily not all parents are like this, but yes it's depressing.

And your class run amok

Because teachers do not get specialist training (and there's so many children with send/gifted). Makes it very hard to teach well for each individual.

PutYourBackIntoit Are you a teacher?

Because a child is the centre of parents universe. However said child is merely one of 30 orbiting little planets in a primary teachers world, and possibly one of 150 (or more) in a secondary teachers frantic life.

The number of anti school/teacher threads is essentially an editorial decision: Mumsnet likes them because they’re very popular and drive traffic to AIBU and the site. Mumsnet’s willingness to see public service denigrated in this way is actually pretty shameful and it must accept its part in worsening the teacher recruitment crisis.

I think people post when they have a problem/concern/having a hard time or are fucked off about something....some of it justified, some not so. If everything is hunky dory then people don't tend to post about it. It's a site, on the whole, for parents, so schools and teachers are going to be a big topic.

People hate teachers because 1) they don’t like other people being in positions of authority over their children and 2) they often don’t have as much control over the decisions that affect their children as they want.

I am a teacher. Unfortunately, some schools and some teachers aren't very good. It doesn't help our profession to pretend that everything is rosy and make them untouchable IMO.

When a child is suffering because of a poor teacher or school, that's very difficult for the family and they come here looking to off load or get advice.

Sometimes, people have unreasonable expectations

I'm not sure why there are so many moaning threads, but I do see it reflected at school. It mainly seems to be the poorly behaved kids who's parents moan at our school, they dont seem to like their kids being disciplined.

I think a lot has to do with your perspective on things - I see it that my child is getting a free education and I'm getting free childcare. The school might do the odd thing that I don't particularly like but if I want my child to be educated outside the home then you take the good with the not so good.

Her teachers have all been lovely, they do lots of performances and have a merit system for good behaviour etc. which results in a prize at the end of the year if you complete the levels.

DD is safe and cared for and I have not felt the need to complain about anything. But then I dont complain about much in life - because you know, people are only human and life is short 🤷‍♀️ Some people just love the drama of having something to get their knickers in a twist over.

Maybe parents are venting frustrations at this countries frankly broken education system? Teachers probably come up for criticism as they are the front line face of this system, although it's problems are political in origin.

We have had so many issues with ds and school, some are due to flaws in the system, some are due to the systems in place to support children with complex needs (and the lack of suitable schools) and some are down to individuals. I have very rarely posted on here about specific situations but can see why people do.

I understand that there are teachers who aren’t great, it just seems like on the one hand teachers have too much control and yet so many parents (on here especially) expect teachers to effectively bring up their children. And don’t get me started on the usual holiday rants...

I have enormous respect for teachers.

I don’t think MN hates teachers, but as many in MN have children in school, what’s happening in school is obviously going to be a hot topic.

And it’s worth remembering that teachers are backed by a very powerful union and it’s almost impossible to get rid of a teacher. Many of us were taught ourselves in the 70s and 80s by some absolutely awful teachers (who couldn’t be got rid of), have very strong memories of it and want to make damn sure that our children don’t go through the same.

Do you have children, OP? Because frankly I would have thought all of that was bloody obvious.

I think the time of year doesn't help - all those teachers who now have SUCH a long time off for free when they've already had several holidays through the year.

CassianAndor - you have no idea what you are talking about it’s very easy to get rid of a teacher as most of us in the industry know.

Teachers don’t deserve the vitriol that comes from here

all those teachers who now have SUCH a long time off for free when they've already had several holidays through the year.

Plenty of room for new teachers, I encourage anyone who wants the holidays to train and join a school.

Just remember the holidays come with all the other shit, oh and they're not free.

I agree there are quite a lot of these threads, but for every poster writing an unfair post there’s plenty of people writing a reply in the school’s defence. So I’ll say YABU. I think most parents are sympathetic and appreciative of schools and what all the staff do for their children. It’s just ungrateful, clueless and precious parents that stand out unfortunately.

I mean....there are some teacher bashing threads for sure, but if you put it in the context of the millions of experiences of school that happen internationally, or the number of MN users, then it’s a tiny proportion.

People aren’t going to write threads saying “AIBU to tell you about the completely fine time my child had at school”.

I’m a teacher on the first day of the holidays and i can’t say it bothers me massively

@shithappens123 it's easier to get rid of poor performing teacher now than it used to be (which is a good thing) but it's still much harder than in almost any other industry and if/when they do go they are likely to have been on paid sick leave for a year. That doesn't happen in many industries.

I worked in the corporate world for 25 years before teaching. I've seen very many poor performers moved on very quickly in business, in teaching it takes years and happens rarely IME.

Teachers need to get over the feeling thatv they're so hard done by. It's a tough stressful job, but so are lots of others with comparative pay and usually far worse terms.