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?

More accurate to say they carry out some of the duties a parent would surely? Hence in loco parentis not in loco childminder

One of these “duties” is not losing a child apparently.

Teachers are in loco parentis, legally though? That isn't a controversial statement.
There was the hoo haa in lockdown with teachers proclaiming they weren't childcare services, but it's just semantics. Children, by law, need to be educated and the state provides 6 hours a day, so most parents use that time to go to work. When the schools closed, chaos ensued (for those whose workplaces didn't close).

Because people think schools at there to facilitate parents requirements. Schools are for the benefit of the children, not the parents.

Well, is a childminder not also in loco parentis?

6 hours a day isn’t what people on this thread get. More like 11 by the time the children have their breakfast, lunch and apparently dinner there too.

Well of course it's childcare. Who else has the care of the child during school hours? It's not only childcare however.

Is it better that the kids are there all day cause their parents are working, or their parents sit on their arses all day but are there to pick up their kids at 3:15?

Not this working parent bashing again. Modern life is set up in the expectation that two parents work. Ergo if school is closed it causes drama for those working parents. How is that a controversial position? Massively privileged to have someone staying at home on the off chance they're needed to cover childcare. It doesn't mean it's school's only or even main function but that's besides the point. And presumably collective education was originally invented as it was more efficient than everyone educating individually and having no time for anything else, be that work out of the home or domestic tasks, so I doubt very much this is a new phenomenon.

You don’t have to be sitting on your arse all day to pick your children up from school.

I’m still unsure what point you’re trying to make. Our school provides education, for the benefit of the child. It also provides wraparound childcare/extracurricular education, which is beneficial to both child and parents. I don’t disagree that a teacher’s role is to educate, but schools can also provide childcare.

They are there to educate but they also provide childcare during the primary years to enable people to work.

it might not be the primary function but it’s a reality

Most of the SAHM's I know pick their DC up from school and take them straight to extra curriculars, where they leave them. What is the difference between that and ASC? Mine does various sports from paid outside providers at ASC.

I am a teacher. If I was paid childcare wages (ie those of a childminder), assuming I have 30 children in my class, then my wages would be triple what they are now. My job is in the name- I am not just providing childcare- unfortunately my job for various reasons has become so much more than teaching due to the change in perceptions of what we do and many parents expecting us to teach children, parent their children but woe betide if we discipline them as required.

The extras aren’t provided by teachers. Don’t you have to pay for them?

So now you're just making a general point that childcare shouldn't exist. Why, exactly?

Yes but it’s hard to combine working and 3:15 school pick up. And what actually funds the provision of schools in the UK? Income tax predominantly. Workers. Want schools? Support workers!

Not sure where you got that from.

How do you manage it then? I am massively privileged, I work from home2 days a week and can usually pick up then- although frequently I have to attend meetings at that time so can’t.

The rest of the time I’m working. Some minimum wage school hours only job wouldn’t even cover my mortgage. Even if I don’t have a mortgage, it wouldn’t pay rent, and I’d never be able to raise a big enough mortgage to buy.

You can work around school hours.

Responsible for their safety and wellbeing. Yes, the primary role is to teach. But as schools are set up to not have parents sit in the classroom, teachers (and most school staff) do in fact take on childcare responsibilities.

The thing is, people whining that teachers aren't childcare would absolutely detest if parents were allowed to sit in the classroom.

You seem resentful that schools can provide childcare as well as education, which allows parents to work, and society to function. Or is it that you're annoyed at parents who are not engaged with their child's education and playing their part as a parent? I know many parents like that, but it doesn't negate the fact that school does provide childcare provision to a great extent.

Mines are adults now.

’school isn’t childcare’ is usually only stridently declared by those who don’t need childcare

If you’re a lazy arse. You’re hardly going to be working 7 hour days if you are ‘fitting it in around school hours’. Jeez. Do you actually want public services or not?

If you have children under school age or disabled children you have an excuse to just work school hours. If not get off your arse and get a full time job and start paying taxes to fix public services. It’s what the rest of us are doing.

Or by people who value teachers as Educators rather than baby sitters.