Why is there so much hostility against teachers on MN?

[Bulb1976]

Is it jealousy? The daily teacher bashing threads on here are ridiculous.

Do you blame us for schools closing?

Are you actually moaning because you're not paid for 13 weeks of holiday?
Not at all.When I chose to retrain as a teacher I signed up to a contract that as 195 days a year and my school holidays.

What I wish people would stop doing is whining about school holidays and acting like it's some trump card to play each time they feel like weighing in on a job they don't do, or more annoyingly thinking that because we have the holidays we should put up with all sorts of crap and shouldn't discuss the challenges. It's dull and goady, and an attitude I never experienced from people until I entered teaching.

Most people don't get into making snipey comments at other people's job packages, hours and contracts and yet the world and his wife feel qualified to comment on teaching.

Not sure about rest of uk but in Scotland teachers holiday is paid. The EIS is a very strong union and they cover almost everything. PSAs are treated like shit though.

Parents are the problem.

Why does it need to be a "them and us" situation?

Why do we have to say "it's the parents that's the problem"

Or that teachers are lazy, pompous etc etc.

There's good teachers and bad ones too, just like parents

Not sure about rest of uk but in Scotland teachers holiday is paid
That's not true. I'll see if I can find a link

LolaSmiles well the whole point of the OP was to discuss why some people show hostility toward teachers and the OP actually asked "is it the holidays, are people jealous?", so you've kind of got to expect the issue of the holidays to be raised in people's responses.

Nobody should face shitty working conditions, of course not. Nobody should face abuse from kids, that's awful and should not be happening but I know that it does in a lot of schools. That's down to poor parenting, lack of education, poverty etc. and it is terrible. Teachers should feel safe going to work.

@theredjellybean - a perfect example of the low esteem in which teachers are heId. I fully respect every profession, how hard they work, irrespective of what job it is. Why can’t there be mutual respect for every profession? I have long holidays and I’m not going to say I work throughout the breaks. That is what comes with the job. Having said that, in term time, I work 6 often 7 days a week, plus one late night until 2230. There is so much more to the job than is given credit for. I work 14 hour days most days and never switch off because I’m always worrying about my students. People of all professions have a moan, but I wouldn’t dream of criticising your role as a GP.

From GTC Scotland
A teacher’s full working year is 195 days. This breaks down into 190 teaching days and five in-service/teacher professional development days. You will get 40 days’ holiday at full pay every year.
(This leaves 26 days unpaid, ie you get a paid entitlement of what, 6 or 7 weeks annually plus bank holidays. But it's divided by 12 for pay purposes)
Agree re the PSAs - not how they are treated so much but certainly how they are paid for such a valuable role.

Many teachers are parents, it's an 'us' problem.

@Cherryplum

We moan because we have to put up with parents like you, who then reproduce and provide the "oh but little Jimmy world never do that at home" children.

I think teachers are often scapegoats for the education system. The demographic on Mumsnet is more skewed towards better educated, more middle class parents. They are more able to identify and articulate where the education system falls short. A teacher with 30 pupils isn’t going to be able to perfectly meet the needs of all the children. There are also a lot of parents on here with children with additional needs and the system just is not set up for it. My sister is a teacher and is stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to cater for children with special needs whilst meeting the needs of the others with little additional support. Parents have to become adversarial to make the sure provide an appropriate education.

The fifth poster here. Funny She's nailed itm

I suppose it depends what you're looking for? Confirmation bias, I expect.

Mostly I see teachers being defended on here and posters being very grateful for the important work they do.

Conversely, I see some teachers posting quite vividly about how terribly draining and difficult their job is, how awful and useless parents are, and what horrors children can be, to the point where I do think, 'why don't they retrain in another field if it's just so awful?'

It also makes me think I'm lucky that my children's teachers aren't like that at all, and are so kind, professional and talented.

@Pentium85 what a bizarrely aggressive reply to someone who said -

"Nobody should face abuse from kids, that's awful and should not be happening but I know that it does in a lot of schools. That's down to poor parenting, lack of education, poverty etc. and it is terrible. Teachers should feel safe going to work."

It's responses like yours that cause bad feeling towards teachers.

I am kind, professional, talented-ish, and also drained and find the job difficult. The more you try the more draining you are likely to find it.
There have been some awful posts on MN relating to the schools closures and speaking very negatively about teachers, which are hard to read when you are under a lot of pressure and are working hard already.

I must confess my fellow staff, that I have chuckled when the mums on here can’t even cope with their darling children for just over a week I know I’m terrible

This. Only good thing to come out of CoronaVirus.

And the snide comments about parents not being able to cope with their children for a week are bizarre too.

It's hardly a normal situation. The parents are working from home, under lockdown, often with no outdoor space, the children are confused and miss their grandparents, friends and activities, they can't even go to the park. If course it's fucking hard!

I don’t think there is, or at least I haven’t seen any. There are a lot of threads about how teaching is such a uniquely hard job an many point out that it isn’t (to outrage from many but not all teachers). Is that what you mean op?

There are a lot of threads about how teaching is such a uniquely hard job an many point out that it isn’t
Sorry, you mean that the other way around don't you? I've never seen a thread started by a teacher to say how uniquely hard their job is. But I've seen plenty of teachers post on threads to say that an OP's view of them as a slightly incompetent, lazy babysitters is wrong.

Teachers are not bashed on Mumsnet. Every now and again, someone makes a mildly provocative remark about teachers. Each time this happens, there follows a mahoosive pile-on by teachers and their fans, in which it is always mentioned that teachers don't get paid for holidays and how it's an utterly awful job.

I dont think anyone can blame the teachers for this. One thing that did annoy me: schools did not take measures to stop students coming back from nothern italy after half term. Some did but not the school of my children, and after when I asked the Head Teacher for authorized abscence it was denied as against the governments Heard Immunity policy to deal with CV.

I must confess my fellow staff, that I have chuckled when the mums on here can’t even cope with their darling children for just over a week grin I know I’m terrible

I think for me it’s a case of I respect the position but that doesn’t mean I always respect the person, why the need for snidey ignorant comments like above?

This is hardly a normal situation, people are scared and confused the children don’t understand fully why they can’t go out or see their extended family and friends, some children (like mine) don’t have a garden to go out it so life at home is stressful for everyone right now. Add in younger children and the pressure of WFH and homeschooling when you’ve no idea how to even homeschool and you’re worried you’re failing your child then the entire week has become a bit of a mess!

It’s hard right now for everyone, I don’t understand how you can’t moan about others and their judgment yet you’re the one that’s been the most judgemental and close minded on here.

CherryPlum
They're observations about regular comments on here.

It's fairly common for someone to ask advice or post about a difficult situation, or to clarify why a lot of what some posters say about teaching is wrong, only to get a reply that translates to "yeah but you have 13 weeks holiday so stop moaning" / "don't be so defensive" / "see teachers think their job is the hardest in the whole world".

To be clear, I am laughing at the parents who think teaching is easy, that anyone can do it, that anyone can provide differentiated materials for thirty students because their little angels deserve individual attention...and then those parents find out that homeschooling 2 or 3 darlings is actually a bit challenging and not the walk on the park they expected.

I am not laughing at those parents who politely ask for direction because they know that they are in over their heads trying to teach their own children and they appreciate the work that teachers do to educate their children.

I love my job. It is not always easy but I don’t think it is rocket science. I work hard for my time off and I deserve it.

And I am quite pleased that those few people who do not respect teachers and the work they do are getting just a very small taste of the effort that goes into teaching.

I hope they will learn from this experience.

Maybe the regular references to "little angels" and clear contempt for their parents are why many teachers on MN get a hard time?