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.

Really hercule?

It's relatively straightforward.

MN has many parents of school age children.
Parents are invested in their children.
If something goes wrong, people will moan.
If something is working fine, people tend to stay quiet.

A secondary age child might have 10 or more teachers. If one class has for example behaviour issues which are impacting the child, and the other 9 are super duper, which class do you think the parents might start a thread about?

A) MN my DD's food tech class is ace?
B) MN my DD is getting upset in Art as she feels the teacher is very shouty?

Plus, B isn't necessarily a teacher-bashing thread, it is a what if anything should I say/do about this situation thread that happens to include a teacher.

People keep calling the UK education system ‘broken’...what do,people mean by this phrase?yes, there’s obviously huge underresourcing, particularly for children with special needs. There’s a real issue with teacher recruitment and retention but is the system actually ‘broken’ and what do people using that label think would mend it?

hashtagthathappened

Really what?

Some parents just want to blame someone else for any little thing.
Teachers/the school are usually top of the list.

Not atheist (bloody auto): their

I would like MN to limit the number of public sector bashing threads yes or ideally simply put some kind of message on the top of their boards. Or just shut all the whinging threads down. I’d like it to read ‘be grateful for the care / teaching / social work etc and don’t be horrible to the staff’ but I can’t see that being popular!

In terms of the system being broken. I’d like to see MATs being removed, remove pointless targets and paperwork, abolish SATS, drastically modify Ofsted and have a hugely reduced marking policy. That’s for starters.

Or just shut all the whinging threads down

So you want a public forum policed because you don’t like it? 😂

Read back and see how ridiculous that sounds.

If you’re a good teacher then they don’t apply to you.

If you read a thread and it causes unease then maybe some introspection is required.

I’m not a teacher and have no role in schools. Yes I think public forums should be better policed.

Yes I think public forums should be better policed

Suggesting that people cannot post threads they want is nonsense though!

(And of course forums should be moderated for inappropriate posts, “DD’s teacher did X, what do you think” isn’t one of those)

I teach Reception and love it. It's absolutely my calling. I'd hope none of the parents of my DC any year would be so unhappy with me/my effort that they'd start a thread about me but if they did it's their opinion and they're entitled to it.

I agree to a point that there are a lot of parents who feel that their child's entire education rests on my shoulders for the 10 months they're with me, and forget how vital their input at home really is (and in my eyes what happens at home is far, far more important than what I can cram into six hours). But there are even more lovely parents who recognise the hard work, effort and time I take to try and ensure each child makes the absolute best progress they're able, and who end each school year filled with gratitude.

So long as the kind parents outweigh the unkind ones, I'm alright with forums being a place to vent.

MN is aimed at parents.
Parents have children.
Children go to school.
School happens daily.
Some mums visit MN daily.

Threads are created by parents of children who are in school. Those parents often need advice on how to tackle school issues, because even though we teachers see these things all the time, this is often a parent's first experience with a school issue/event/policy/concern/contact.

Sorry, that should say some parents visit MN daily.

I think teachers are in the firing line because they are an easy target TBH. They are in the front line ,visible and the first port of call for any problems,On MN we have all the mums /dads /carers venting their concerns against particular teachers/schools .Doesnt mean all teachers are bad /uncaring. But some do fall below the mark .Sometimes they are stressed out . Maybe there are really good teachers, some middling ones and a few not so good ones ,just like any organisation you care to name!.I personally think they do a difficult job in equally difficult circumstances ,and have a lot of respect for them !.Yes they have long holidays ,but work through a lot of them anyway .

I’m a teacher. I find I enjoy MN a lot more now I’ve hidden all the education boards and am selective about which threads I read on AIBU.
I don’t want to be involved in online squabbles any longer, but yes, most of the reasons for the antagonism have already been covered.

I suspect it's because nearly everyone has a kid who is either in school, will be going or has been, nearly everyone has been to school - only those with bad experiences are posting but because the pool of potential posters is so big, the number with bad experiences is also large (there's posts about poor healthcare experiences but not everyone has a child who needs regular health professional attention).

The second reason is we all think we are experts on education plus it's easy to pick faults looking in ;even though I know most of my DD's bad experiences were down to her asd making her anxious and the appalling parenting in this area which meant the kids were highly disruptive cue teacher turnover, special measures and the school being set on fire DURING the ofsted inspection by a group of year 10 pupils

So many parents don’t want to take responsibility for their own children’s behaviour so blaming the teacher becomes the default.

Those saying it is Mumsnet editorial policy to denigrate the profession...what should mumsnet do?

It should recognise its responsibility to wider society - as it does in many other areas. If Mumsnet decided that denigrating teachers was not ‘in the spirit’ of the site it could make a huge difference over time.

If Mumsnet decided that denigrating teachers was not ‘in the spirit’ of the site it could make a huge difference over time

That’s just nonsensical though. Are you really saying adults can’t handle other adults being (sometimes quite justifiably) criticised?

The onus is on the user to make their experience on MN how they want it. Not on MNHQ to modify perfectly reasonable threads in case it upsets someone.

MN would need a report of the thread before they could do that. If nobody reports a thread they won't see it.

I don't think posts moaning about a particular incident involving a school or teacher should be banned, and I don't think there should be a limit on how many public service bashing threads there are. That would be silly and defeat the object of trying to use a forum to help resolve an issue.

However, I have to say that when I was at my most miserable (during my teaching career) coming onto forums and seeing a perfectly reasonable Aibu (eg. My 4 year old wasn't allowed to use the toilet) descend into the usual bollocks (teacher's pay, teacher's holidays, teacher's short working hours, term time holidays etc etc) which had absolutely nothing to do with the original post was very disheartening and made me feel like my job was completely thankless. It certainly contributed in my decision to leave the teaching profession, as I'm sure it has with other teachers.

I am in favour of a universal home-school agreement, signed between the parent and the state at the time of the child entering education. A legal document that outlines the parent’s responsibilities. Should the parent persist in making it impossible for the state to educate their child effectively, the responsibility of the state to provide that education should become null and void, and the (paltry) tax contribution paid by most parents annually towards the cost of educating their child should be returned.

I am a teacher.
I understand there are many threads because this is a parenting site and school is a part of that.
It doesn't bother me.
There are good and bad teachers but I think most people know that teachers are under a lot of stress and most work very hard and are u dear appreciated. Lots of threads showing appreciation for teachers.
The one thing that does bother me a bit is that some parents seem to think they know more than people who are constantly refreshing their training and dealing with children all day long.
Of course, nobody know kids like their parents and I have seen the opposite, childcare or professionals giving me some very weak arguments or parenting advice forgetting that I actually do this for a living.

It goes both ways.

I have seen good teaching and not so good.

It is hard though.

Under not *u dear

If teachers are really saying that they are such snowflakes they can’t cope with a thread that has fuck all to do with them no wonder the profession gets bashed.