Okay, about teachers...

[KitKat1985]

Okay I'm being brave here. I know a few people who happen to be teachers. Whenever they talk about their jobs, there's a real 'no other profession has to work as hard as us' vibe to their speech. I am fully aware and in agreement that it's a stressful job with long hours and ridiculous amount of pressure if you don't count the long holidays but it's hardly the only profession that has these issues. I myself am a nurse, and 14 hour shifts on an under-staffed ward with no breaks and several severely ill / abusive patient to look after are hardly a picnic either. But whenever I discuss work with teacher friends there's a definite 'if you want to talk about stress you should try being a teacher' element to the conversation, and it's starting to really get on my nerves. Lots of jobs are stressful, teaching isn't the only one! And it's only teachers I know that seem to have this general attitude about their profession. AIBU? Is it really more stressful than any other profession out there?

Someone made a really interesting point about posting a thread - same kind of thing but changing the profession from teachers to something else . I would be really interested to see that . Maybe whoever suggested it could name change and do this in a few days

I guess it depends on how many people you get on MN who delight in creating posts bashing specific professions. Most normal people don't do that. But then most normal people don't trawl the boards for professions that have nothing to do with them

Like I said, there's been multiple threads in the last week deleted due to being false threads from banned posters and trolls creating fake stories about things that have apparently happened in schools (all teacher bashing ones).
Other professions don't seem to get the same bizarrely obsessed overinvestment from random strangers on MN that inventing fictional troll threads and goady threads happens on a regular basis.

I work anywhere within a 20 mile radius from home, teach anything from 4-12 years old and often don’t know where I’m working until my 7.30am call, whereupon I hurtle off to face 30 children I’ve never met before who may have a range of needs and behaviours. 5 days a week if I’m lucky.
Sometimes there is no planning, or resources. Or computer. Or in a few cases, even a classroom.
I still find it a hundred times less stressful than being a full-time class teacher. Perhaps nursing bank staff feel the same. Why argue and play misery top trumps? Bad for everyone’s mental health to spend so much time defending and attacking.

This comes up again and again on mn.
Nobody can insist they have the most stressful job than anyone else unless they have been in every single job.

The GF on the staffroom thread telling teachers they had it easy claimed to be a police officer. This one claims to be a nurse. Expect a social worker/fire fighter v teachers thread next.

Someone has too much time on their hands.

Xsquared. Precisely, which was kind of the OPs point but seems to have been overlooked in the melee.

Feeds into the misconception that teachers moan.....and so on 🤷🏼‍♀️

@xsquared

And others

Why do you think that there are so many threads like this about teachers ?

Why do you think that there are so many threads like this about teachers ?
Because unfortunately there's a lot of people with so little going on in their lives and such large chips on their shoulders that they have nothing better to do than become tragically, and worryingly over invested in a profession they aren't in, in a sector they aren't in to the point that it makes them feel big and clever to share their nonsense.

@Lola

But Lola there are hundreds of people that people could pick on!? Why teachers?
Could it be the op is on to something?

No

Some people have chips on their shoulders from their own school days, so they feel it allows them to score some points in a battle that nobody cares about but them (the same reason some parents go in complaining and kicking off that the mean nasty school told their child that the trainers which are explicitly not allowed in the uniform are not uniform).

Or they think that having been to school they somehow have some amazing insight into the world of education.

Or they lack the critical thinking to consider that lots of what's in the press is misinformation and because of 1/2 seem to blindly swallow whatever anti education sentiment is churned out so they honestly believe that teachers are all getting a massive pay rise, but fail to realise (or choose not to because they dislike facts that challenge their self created narrative) that this has to be found in existing school budgets, which are already being cut and stretched to fill gaps from other services.

In short, because people are idiots who lack the sense to understand the limits of their own knowledge and/or they have nothing better to do in light of this.

Or perhaps, as I said earlier on this thread, it’s because it’s one of the few professions that as parents we have so much day to day contact with and the quality of which has potential to affect our DC so whilst we might not be in the profession, we have a vested interest in it?

A vested interest in your child's education is logical. Just like raising issues concerning your child is reasonable. Just like launching formal complaints about large scale failings is also reasonable.

A vested interest in your child's education does not in any way qualify someone to have the knowledge or skills or experience to make large sweeping generalisations (usually inaccurate) about a whole profession

I have relatives in residential care. I have a vested interest. What I don't do is make up fanciful silly narratives about what care workers are like and start threads about them or make up troll threads about fictional events encouraging people to bitch, because doing all of those would be sad and weird.

But one doesn't negate the other.
Just because someone has a vested interest in something doesn't mean that they aren't deluded or misinformed or lacking in critical thinking. Indeed it can mean the opposite-a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing

Or perhaps, as I said earlier on this thread, it’s because it’s one of the few professions that as parents we have so much day to day contact with and the quality of which has potential to affect our DC so whilst we might not be in the profession, we have a vested interest in it?

Absolutely I think it is this. Which of course widens the amount of people who add fuel to the fire. The majority of people in the country have, (over many many years) daily contact with schools, that they hopefully wouldn’t have with the NHS, Police, Fire Services, Social Work, etc. This means that teachers can get worn down with the obscene level of scrutiny.
Whenever I meet people for the first time or just have general chit chat with, say hairdressers etc. I never tell them I am a teacher. Such has been how bad my past experiences when I have done.

If this thread has any positivity to it, it will hopefully show that everyone is entitled to moan about their job and everyone, despite their stresses, strives to do the best job that they can. A little civility never hurt anyone.

In short, because people are idiots who lack the sense to understand the limits of their own knowledge and/or they have nothing better to do in light of this.

This I think is the kind of opinion that winds people up

Why do you think that there are so many threads like this about teachers ?

You do know a great many are started by trolls, as confirmed by MNHQs deletion messages? My current watch list has a few of them right now! Not because there are great swathes of terrible teachers up and down the country

Pffft try being a social worker 😉

@Chloe

Ok so say they are all trolls - why are they aimed at teachers ? It can’t be daily contact as there would be troll threads about check out workers or bus drivers
Can’t be because of children interaction as would be loads of threads about dance teachers / football coaches ( ie the extra stuff not normal school)

This I think is the kind of opinion that winds people up

What? The opinion that people who don’t do a job should probably wind their neck in because they don’t know anything about how to do that job? That perhaps they shouldn’t idiotically attempt to pretend that they do know?

Here’s a quiz: it’s Sunday and I’ve spent about 7 hours working. Non teachers, what do you think I’ve been doing? For a bonus point, how can I squeeze some of that 6 hours into my PPA time so I don’t need to work for most of Sunday? For an extra bonus point, how many hours of PPA time do I currently get and how many lessons do I need to plan? note: this is not a moan, it’s a quiz

yanbu
but it's a difficult one.
I wish teachers would work 'normal' hours and stick to it (tbh I don't 'get' why teachers take that much work home)

God it's like every terrible teaching thread on MN rolled into one

@redchocolatebutton you weren't asking you were espousing but I will answer - its because there arent simply enough hours in the day to get it all done.

OR we just love making up how many hours we work so we can be critiqued by people on this thread.

Because it's impossible to do the job in "normal" hours!
In a 45 minute writing session, year 6 pupils can write around 2 pages. Even just taking 10 minutes per book would take my Year 6 teacher 6 hours to mark. And then he has 36 maths books, geography books, science books etc to mark. Even though we have cut down on marking as much as possible, it still needs to be done.

ChloeDecker

The last one I reported (along with many others), I got an email from MNHQ confirming it was the same PBP Behind a few recent school troll threads.

redchocolatebutton
Again this is the whole cluelessness showing. Teachers should work "normal hours" and stick to it plus the disingenuous and faux naive I don't understand why they take woke home.

Aka. please bite and correct me because then I can use it as evidence you complain all the time.

Silly
I repeat because quite a lot of people think that having been to school makes them qualified to comment on things they know nothing about and people who've got chips from their own school days feel they've got some battle to win that only they're fighting.

Of course you're now going to keep pushing this angle until you get the "see see it's because teachers are moaning/the silly nonsense is all true" angle.

We've tried the "see see because they talk to themselves about the challenges" and that's not worked so we'll try a new angle because sticking ridigly to an inaccurate caricature based on zero experience working in the sector is so worryingly important to me that I need to keep trying to push the idea.

2bh I dont really know why i responded. I'm not trying to be aggressive or defensive or any of the other things that I will get accused of being but @redchocolatebutton why do you THINK they do? I mean, what possible reasons could there be? Seems to me there are 3 choices: - they just love working longer hours, they dont do those hours they just make it up or they have to to get the work done.

It just seems a rather obvious thing to ponder about for enough time to post it, no?