I challenge the idea that most or even many teachers say or suggest that teaching is the hardest work job in the world. I think people who think teachers are saying this or are implying it are actually projecting that idea onto them, because for some reason there are things about teaching that irritate them.
Few people in any profession claim theirs is the hardest. People would be stupid to do so and generally these people aren't stupid. That doesn't mean they don't say they work hard, or they don't comment on the fact they work in the evenings or regularly at weekends. Teachers often face comments from people about their early finish time or long holidays and often its in response to this, rather than out of the blue, that they reply by pointing out the hours they work outside of the school day - not to suggest they work harder than others, but to remind people it isn't a 9-3.30 job.
Having the long holidays is a lovely aspect of teaching and the fact that the school day ends at whatever point and there aren't meetings every single day, so despite there still being 3 or 4 hours of work to do, there can be some flexibility to go home or do something else immediately after school is true. I think lots of people do feel a bit resentful about those positives - they think of themselves in their office until 5.30 and imagine teachers all heading home at 3.30 and forget the 3 hours many will do later. Or they particularly think of the holidays and the fact they are having to work and arrange childcare and they feel irritated about it and as if it's unfair. Again they forget that teachers aren't paid for school holidays and about the long days in term tome and the fact that they could do it if it's so brilliant.
In my experience, it's not usually those who do highly stressful, long working hours jobs who complain about teachers being moaners. It isn't the nurses or the solicitors or the people in the city. Those who do really stressful jobs don't usually try to make comparisons or comment on how moany other people are. Because they do long housed, stressful jobs themselves, they just know what it's like and don't feel any need to say theirs is worse or to suggest others are having an easier deal. They all know they have chosen these jobs..it's actually often those with the more low paid jobs that make the complaints about teachers being moany or who want to suggest teachers have an easy life and point to the short school day or the long holiday.
I actually think those people who work in non-professional jobs, with set hours which you do and leave dead on time and go home, leaving work totally HP behind, who say teachers are moany or point to the holidays etc to suggest it's an easy life, can sometimes just lack the understanding really of the nature of doing stressful professional jobs, which don't have set hours and simply have to be completed. Probably those people are in jobs that perhaps don't pay so well and think teachers work 35 weeks from 9-3.30 just playing and think they are overpaid and have no reason to say they work hard, because they don't grasp the wider nature of professional jobs and the differences between turning up and carrying out tasks and going away again, and having jobs which take over your head for almost all your waking hours. It's a very different way of working.
So I'd be interested to know from this thread, of all those who do feel that the teachers they know are saying or implying their job is the hardest;
- have you heard them say that
- what have they done to imply their job is not just hard but harder than all others
- what kind of job do you do yourself.
It's fascinating that those on the thread in other stressful jobs feel no need to suggest their job is more stressful nor to suggest teaching is a pretty good deal, nor to suggest that teachers are all moaners and saying they work hardest.
I think the issue is with the people who take on the attitude that teachers say they work harder, and that they think teachers say this when in actual fact very few do.