To feel like parents aren't allowed to criticise teachers anymore?

[velaryon]

I have the utmost respect for the teaching profession, especially the hard work and dedication of many teachers despite a pandemic and nationwide lockdown.
But at the same time, I've seen a lot of parents genuinely concerned about the teaching & communication at their DC's school who were immediately accused of 'teacher bashing' and being too lazy to teach their own children.
AIBU to think this is absolutely ridiculous?
I don't see anything wrong with questioning the level of teaching a school is providing, provided it's done in a sensitive and understanding way. IMO it's ridiculous how quickly someone is accused of teacher bashing for asking a legitimate question.

My ex husband and his wife are teachers. I was also a teacher until two years ago and was one fur 13 years prior to my current retraining.

Ex and wife are doing fuck all. She’s baking with two key worker’s kids and he’s like on constant ppa. They’re loving it.

Fur? Typo obviously

If you’re so worried then contact your child’s school. Oddly enough strangers on MN can’t help with what work they are/aren’t setting. But then that wouldn’t allow you an excuse for yet another anti-teacher thread, and where’s the fun in that?

If schools reopening is also a concern, just to anticipate the usual themes and red herrings deployed to spread anti-teacher venom on MN of late, then have you written to your MP? Seen a lot of posters comparing teachers in England to those in Denmark where schools have opened. What doesn’t seem to have penetrated is that the administration in Denmark extensively consulted with teaching bodies and unions before deciding to reopen, so that those running schools and working in them were reassured that the situation was under control and the system took account of everyone’s concerns. That’s not to mention that deaths in Denmark are a fraction of those in England, let alone the UK as a whole. Perhaps if those in government making plans for schools to reopen in England had been similarly organised there might have been a more workable plan. Instead the plan seems to be to bully teachers into submission.

Also, find it ironic that a Conservative government that thrives on inequality and ‘every man/woman for themselves’ has decided that they can fall back on the notion of teachers sacrificing their health/their families’ health, and possibly even their lives, for the common good when it’s convenient.

And as for the endless hand-wringing about the vulnerable, that seems par from the course on recent teacher-bashing threads, where were you all when the Conservatives were cutting benefits, resources in schools and support systems elsewhere, or otherwise devising policies that have resulted in massive child poverty?

And no, I’m not a teacher, thank god! If they all resigned en masse, I wouldn’t blame them. The ones I know are either working flat out or long ago resigned – mostly because it’s hard work, long hours and a largely thankless task, in no small part because of the endless, misdirected, carping of people like you. Although OP tbf at least it’s thinly veiled as some form of concern here despite the fact that that ruse is not as convincing as you might think it is.

Well said @slothbucket @SallyAlly2020 @SqidgeBum

And to any teachers on the thread

How about you address your specific problem with your child’s school rather than start up yet another teacher bashing thread?

I'll be so interested to see how the threads evolve on here in June.

Teachers in Primary in particular, will be teaching the children who are in school. They will be devoting very little time to the ones still at home (because that would be doing two full time jobs simultaneously).

What happens then? Bloody teachers getting it wrong again.

I wish someone would actually thing these things through and manage the expectations of parents. None of this is up to the teachers.

Write to your MPs.

I think some schools have taken the piss a bit (coming from management - not the class teachers and I include one of my own kids' schools in this) in terms of how they've supported home learning during this - and I hope they have a fucking good plan for getting back on track eventually.

I think that parents who've had a school who have set sod all work have a full right to be concerned and express that and be supported resolving it via the school or via finding stuff from their own initiative - without being shouted down as teacher bashing and this fucking banal flower bombing to shut down threads.

Parents are scared - the rhetoric of every school day counting and attendance attendance attendance has been dinned in for so long that suddenly to switch the message doesn't sit right with people who want to do their best for their kids. Schools have always varied in the strength of their communication anyway - and the infrastructure they have in place to support things like online learning - and some schools have managed it better than others - it's a brutal truth, it's one I hope schools learn from (although I'm not fecking planning on having to parent through another sodding pandemic ever again after this shitfest).

Thank you also to YounghillKang.

Lordy, not another thread!

So people should comment about government policy or THEIR school policy or the issues to do with an INDIVIDUAL TEACHER and not 'teachers' who are of course many thousands of people, who are all doing something different.

It is different being a home-working teacher to other home-working jobs....not harder or worse, but quite different and open to more scrutiny.

Why? No other profession is probably having as much direct (via electronic means in various forms) contact with as many households, when normally it is face-to-face contact for so many hours per week. So via children, teachers might usually provide 35 hours of direct contact to millions of households per week. Few other occupations provide the number of hours per week to so many households.

And now that huge contact of so many weekly hours to so many households has dramatically changed. It impacts thousands of children and millions of individuals as it impacts the whole household. The change is vast and as mentioned previously, government have not really specified what must be delivered and have not determined whatbis good, outstanding or not so good.

Each family experiences the change and it is different for everyone based on the school, individual teachers involved, individual children, individual parental input which varies across homes, different home scenarios...... School experience differs too according to these things but real life school can iron out some of the differences. It's less possible to do that when its remote and actually the differences in home situation and parental situation and individual child differences makes more impact and becomes magnified. Gaps are widening and schools can do so much but cannot compensate for all those differences. They cannot plug all the gaps caused by the virus and lockdown and a vital part of children's life which is school - school is so much more than just the academic content, and actually teaches have been told not to focus on the academic content.

I think the issue here is that if you GENUINELY want to see positive change then contact the school. Otherwise there is no point in making these threads and thinking anything good will come of it to help your situation/ ease your frustration.

What upsets myself as a teacher is the possibility that people who make these threads don’t actually care about positive change but instead just want to have a go and that’s really not helpful.

younghillkang Thankyou

@YounghillKang spot on.

I will also go back to a point I've made on other threads.

People voted for a Government who did this. They supported academisation and shrinkage of the Local Authorities.

There is no consistency because there is no centralised body locally directing schools. They are each on their own (or part of a small chain). This is the result. Patchy provision and hugely differing priorities, teaching ideas and expectations. It is really showing right now, but it is always true.

This is not the fault of fucking teachers.

I'm a teacher and have spent most of my day teaching online lessons. The rest of the day has been chasing up or marking work. And we're starting to prepare for Yr 10 coming back after half term. Along with the usual meetings. The list goes on.

Most of us are working hard as preparing and delivering on line lessons is much more difficult than being in the classroom.

However I am also a mum and if the lessons are not working for my children then I will be the first to try to sort it out, by emailing the teacher usually with a solution but sometimes with a complaint, but I do that directly not moan about it on here. They are also working extremely hard and I make sure I show my appreciation.

It's hard for everyone at the moment but many things are out of our control and we are simply doing our best.

When people see neighbouring schools with similar catchments resources, one providing daily engagement, the other one email in 6 weeks - yes I think it is legitimate to ask questions. People come on here because they want to discuss stuff, to understand where their experience sits compared to others. Either before or after engaging with their particular school. There are very good and very weak examples locally and a whole range in between. This is something every parent i know talks about when we're in touch, specially the parents who are also teachers; of course we're going to want to talk about it in a parenting forum too.
A few posters being wrong and blaming individual teachers seems to have resulted in a really nasty atmosphere on here, what a shame.

@DominaShantotto the key thing you’ve said there is via the school. I hope the people who have voiced concerns on here have raised them directly with the school in question.

Sick of reading threads like this.
Leave teachers alone. They are having the most challenging time of their career, without a doubt.

Stop being so selfish. How would you like to come on here and read generalised comments bashing your profession?

This is not the time to criticise anyone. You have no idea what others are going through.

If ever there was a time to just be kind, it’s NOW!

Yes, I think some people think you have to be either for or against teachers. Which is a daft way to polarise people.

The comments about teachers are a lot more balanced and informed than the ones being made in a thread about the parole board just now.

Let's have a thread where teachers discuss the inadequacy of parents.

Looks like teachers are the new step mothers.

MNHQ should be ashamed.