School as child care

[Differentforgirls]

From another thread.

A poster said that state schools are there for helping parents to work. Therefore teachers are childminders. Teachers!

I think schools are there to educate our children and, though the staff go above and beyond these days, that is their primary function.

AIBU?

You seem charming. Thanks though.

I am, you’re a great judge of character.

you could do with a little work on your delivery though if you’re open to constructive criticism at all. People tend to not love being totally ignored and then told they’ve said something entirely different to what they’ve actually said.

And maybe opening your mind to the idea that possibly, just possibly two things can hold true and that schools are both there to deliver education, while allowing parents to access paid employment…will chill you out a bit and make you realise that no one is devaluing their role.

It’s bizarre. If I thought for a moment that teachers at my child’s school actually did this I’d be removing my child and reporting to the police and local safeguarding teams.

That’s true isn’t it? Schools and teachers have a huge influence on shaping young people.
School is a huge part of a young persons childhood.

Is this another attack on working parents? Because of course schools are there to ‘help bring up a child’. Part of brining of a child is providing them with an education, alongside opportunities to navigate relationships with people outside of their family.

Your reading comprehension really needs some work.
Why do you find it so difficult to take on board other people’s views without trying to twist it into something they haven’t said or taking it as a personal attack.

Do you do this in real life? Surely you have friends and family whose opinions don’t 100% align with yours. Do you ignore them if they express different views? Or flounce off all offended?

Nobody on this thread has said anything particularly rude or offensive to you or said anything particularly controversial which is why your responses are just bizarre!

It's weird this bizarre comparison the OP is doing between babysitters and teachers as a) no one has suggested it and b) I also don't expect babysitters to be bringing up my children.

I find it quite worrying that the OP seems to think that teachers shouldn't appear to look after children, have a nurturing role or keep them safe in their classroom and that parents expecting them to do this while they are work is somehow viewing them as childcare.

We've moved on from the Victorian times where children just sat and copied lines from a blackboard. Yes teachers are educators first and format. NO ONE HAS SAID OTHERWISE. And certainly as a working parent, I don't have the time, skills or actual want to educate my child the way they would learn at school so I very much value a teachers input in this.

And no teachers don't "bring children up". But they are part of a community who play a part in shaping a child with their skills and development as they grow. Some teachers have a massive influence on young children and teenagers. My mum still has pupils who she taught 20 years ago speak to her on the street.

And no I don't expect teachers to "care" for a child in the sense that I do. But I expect them certainly adopt a caring approach where appropriate and to uphold their duty of care. I expect that while in their classroom, they are looked after and kept safe. That incidents are reported, that they would report incidents of suspected harm, abuse and neglect, that they managed behaviour and bullying and that contribute towards wellbeing through learning and development that falls under their remit.

"Care" is a vague and broad term that can mean different things in different contexts. Are there really parents on here who don't want their teachers to care whatsoever? That they don't want their children kept safe or bullying and behaviour managed?

If teachers aren't caring and looking after children in school hours than who is doing it?

And lastly yes there will be parents who have unrealistic demands and then the pressures on teachers through SEN reforms. But that's probably an issue for a seperate thread.

And also like it or not, for many children school it is a place of safety. We have horrifying levels of child poverty in this country. For many children, it is the only place where they get a decent meal each day, where they are warm and where they are not isolated. For many as well it's a place where for a set amount of hours each day they are free from abusers.

Yes parents should be meeting children's basic needs. But life and society is complex and many parents can't or won't provide it and poverty and abuse won't go away just because we tell parents what they should be doing. There were many cases during lockdown where children didn't get fed properly or were subject to more abuse because they weren't in school. We also only need to look at extreme cases like Sara Sharif to see what happens when a child can be pulled out of school and there is that loss of safeguarding (and this not me bashing homeschooling before I'm jumped on for this).

Schools are part of the community and they play an important part in the safety and care of children. Do all these people who think "schools are learning only" and "school isn't childcare" really think that learning is the ONLY function a school should play? I'm not sure I want to live in a society where schools, places of safety turn their backs on the most vulnerable children in society.

No one? They don’t eat then … are they homeless?

OP decided (all on her own) some people view teachers as babysitters, which insulting to teachers, so she’s kicking off about it. Anything other than “school is just for education “ is met with “AHA, so you do view teachers as babysitters”. Round and round it goes.

29 pages summed up very accurately 👍

No, one owns his own home with his fiancé and the other has just bought a new one. I’m sure they both eat too, the certainly do if they come here or we go out for dinner.

100%

she will most likely verbally abuse you too!

Or correct your grammar. Or post a one word response.

Or ‘see my OP’, which also makes no point whatsoever.

I can handle all of that, I work with kids after all.😬

😂

I don't even get the one word responses anymore. I'm being ignored because apparently I was 'awful' to her. I wasn't but she did call me mentally ill for having a different opinion!

And when they were kids? Did you work?

Whether I did or didn’t, the only people who paid to bring them up were the two people who chose to have them.

What about TA’s OP? Do they offer care or education? Or both? They don’t have the same qualifications as teachers do. Are they on par? Or is that insulting too? Below? But what if they’re teaching the class instead of the teacher?

No child benefit, no state schools, no visits to libraries, hospitals, GPs, NHS dentists, museums. Fab.

Well done for being entirely self sufficient, it’s a rare thing for someone to achieve.

It’s incredibly fortunate neither of their parents or indeed the children themselves, ever became so unwell that they couldn’t work, or needed caring for. Incredibly fortunate no one died & that your relationship remained in tact allowing you to maintain that self sufficiency.

Your medal is in the post.

Ah yes. I'm still neither the clearer whether the OP wants me to

a) give up work
b) accompany my child to school
c) employ some sort of back up nanny to be on standby during school hours because my child needs to be supervised while I am at work and they are at school and it's apparently completely unreasonable for me to expect a school to do this.

The undisputed fact is my child is legally compelled to have an educational and I have chosen that education to happen in a school and it's because I value what teachers do that my child goes there (or will do when he's 5!).

It just so happens that I have to work to pay for food, clothes and a roof over our heads and to do everything else that is required for me to raise my child. If you have any ideas how I can do all this without working then I'm all ears!

And as it happens just like most people, my job happens to be Monday-Friday 9-5. Even though I happen to work part time this happens to be when my child will be in school.

I need to be in work to earn money. My child also needs to be in school to learn and like most people this happens at the same time. Why would I arrange childcare when they are in school? It's some mad, mental gymnastics that you've taken these facts to come to the conclusion that somehow we all view teachers as babysitters.

I'm confused now. Does the fact children go to school when I am working mean I'm not bringing them up?

Should I not send them to school? Do I need now to be with them 24/7 to bring them up along with my husband?
Did you or your husband not work then when your children were in school?

I've not seen anyone say they weren't bringing their children up. But please do enlighten me in how me working and my children going to school isn't bringing them up?

And also you and your husband were paid to bring your children up? AMAZING. Can you please tell me how I can be paid to bring my children up please? Here's me sitting working my arse off in my job when I could be getting paid instead to bring my children instead!