Why I think teachers are great
This was an attitude largely instilled by my Welsh mum. Back in the Welsh villages where she grew up, people had the highest respect for learning and, also, for teachers. Being a teacher was seen as a fine calling, on a par with being a doctor and the village teachers had a central place in local society.
Being a teacher takes years of study and commitment. It is far more than just the study for your first degree, there is also the leadership and presence that means you can command a room of 30 lively young people and keep their attention.
And there is the pastoral side, forming relationship with the children in your class, caring about them, getting to know them.
I was always convinced I would make a lousy teacher, I never thought I would be very good at keeping a whole room of kids on track. But I'm very glad these other people can and want to do it and that they are there for my kids.
I quite often send the children with little presents at the end of term, Christmas and Easter and so on. Nothing very expensive, sometimes something made by the child, the point is not the cost, but it is saying thank you, for the effort and the care and the nights spent burning the midnight oil, on occasion to get things right.
I think it is hugely important to show appreciation for people who are carrying out a vocation, not actually for a huge salary (compared with the aforesaid doctors and other professionals) but to show that there is that respect and gratitude there.
That is why I think the whole ethos of this thread, which appears to have been set up to attack teachers at a time of national crisis, is well, very unfortunate (to put it very politely).
So, thank you teachers.