Stand and deliver the NC (you try it!) - teacher bashing in the UK

[bb99]

Hello all, after rambling on and seeing several other threads I've got interested in the whole teacher bashing concept.

I'm a teacher in Primary schools (a very lovely one) and have been spoken to rudely and unpleasantly by people (not from the school) who know I'm a teacher because it seems to be OK to be rude and denigrating to me as 'I should know that' or the 'don't you know - you're a teacher?' attitude takes over.

Lots of threads on here talk about crap teachers or people who disagree with teachers state that they should 'rethink their career' and it seems to be OK to just be unpleasant to and about teachers and schools and constantly judge them and their actions, even outside the classroom. This happens to the point of rudeness and could, in a classroom, be seen as bullying...

Why is it OK to be so unpleasant about and to people who do an amazing and challenging, underpaid job, with little or no support from the government?

I only supplied in one school last year, and it was either a famine or a feast. Mid year, they took on quite a few cover supervisors, and I helped train them . Once they were up and running, the work dried up. For various reasons, 3 of them dropped out (illness for two, and not liking the job for the other), so I was back on.

I was the only supply teacher on their books, and if they needed more, they had to go through the agency which was more expensive for them. It is best to have a situation where you know the school and the school knows you, which means being directly employed by them.

If you get a good supply job (ie being directly employed by a good school), it is an invaluable way back into teaching. I'd almost go as far as saying it would make a good sabbatical job for any teacher. It is such good experience to see different schools and different subjects, and any bad experience you can just put behind you.

It also makes me feel 110% right about my decision to privately educate my own children.

I think everyone makes far to many assumptions about what others' jobs are like. Alot of people assume that teachers get 13 weeks off which, naturally, really annoys the teachers as they have less than that when you take into account that they usually have to go in at some point in the hols plus do work at home etc etc. But it is probable that even taking that into account that the average teacher gets significantly more holiday than the 4/5 weeks most people get. The difference is that whilst they still might have work to do at home, they can still be off at the same time as their kids without having to take unpaid leave, whereas others are having to deal with employers who won't consider flexible working practices ( and this is the fault of the employers).It is all too easy to feel jealous or resentful but,as many have said, there are plenty of aspects of teaching with which many of us would struggle and I for one am glad that people like 'mb' are out there doing a job they love because our kids would suffer otherwise.
I think we should all acknowledge that everyone gets pressure in their work and what might seem like a perk from the outside is more than likely to be balanced by demands of the job which unless you are doing it you cannot appreciate.

ST - it doesnt sound a hugely positive experience if it made you feel like that.

Wow - very true.

I work just as hard now as I did b4 I was a teacher, but in a different way. I can't slump on my desk if feeling under the weather, but have to be perky and on the ball all day to manage and educate the class, but it's a different kind of pressure from my last job.

Sometimes I would be in the office until 7pm and now I do parents evenings. Also I do manage to harvest time with kids in hols, but then do at least 1/2 a day every weekend during term time - I see it as a time bank...

Work is pressured for all! And if people are really jealous of teachers, then they can go and get qualified... and join us...

I mean very true idlingabout!

Excellent post idling.
And I agree about MB - her posts make me proud that the teaching profession attracts such people. She sounds inspirational.

Thanks 'bb' and 'alfie' - just wish I hadn't made typo with 'to' in first sentence instead of 'too' as it is making me wince to see it.

bb99 et al, I agree with you that it is the best job in the world, but very demanding and exhausting. I had to give up to move abroad with DH, and it has taken me a year to not wake up at 0500 and think 'Oh I forgot to do this that and the other before I went to bed.'

I taught in a large comp, 600+ students per week, and I taught 3 different subjects and PHSE and Ci as well, plus a tutor group. I also did 4 after school sessions a week from teaching GCSE full course to helping run G&T. I worked on average 60 hours a week, didn't do anything on a Friday night, but worked on a Saturday when DS was at school, and Sunday pm as well.

Holidays were spent planning and revising schemes of work for the next term, and updating and reviewing resources. Half terms tended to be for marking, research for A level lessons and report writing if I had got myself organised enough. DH was away at sea for some of this time, and then was posted abroad, so half terms then morphed into travelling with DS to see DH. Easter holidays normally involved teaching at the GCSE revision classes that we did over the hols for the students, oh yeah, and I also marked GCSEs for an exam board as well to make sure I knew what the examiner was thinking.

I absolutely loved it, but looking back now, I wouldn't go back full time, but would look for a 50% timetable, as that would in reality take 4 days with planning, marking and resourcing.

Good luck to those of you who are going back to face another half term.

Yes - enjoy your last day, everyone. And remember, only 5 weeks until we break off for Easter!

Everyone thinks they are experts on teachers because they have been to school. Which, as I've said before, is a bit like thinking you can bake because you go to the bun shop every day.

I don't think the fact that teachers' pay is relatively good compared to NHS means that they are unable to moan about their jobs once in a while. DW has friends who earn more in business than she does as a teacher, and they are always moaning about stress, etc.

posieflump - teachers' wages do take the holidays into account. It's worked out on 39/52 weeks. The fact that it's paid in 12 instalments is misleading. Without the holidays teachers' pay would, and should, be about a quarter higher and more comparable with equivalent management jobs in the private sector.

And even having said that, most teachers do a lot of work in the holidays too.