Shocked by hatred of kids & parents on TES website

[kris007]

I've spent a bit of time reading the TES website which contains threads and postings from teachers and I am stunned by the level of hatred and abuse directed towards students and their parents. I am horrified to think that some of these creatures may actually be teaching my kids!
It appears that the "state of war" we read about it British classrooms is by no means one way traffic - the teachers
seem to relish getting in on the all the drama.

ahem, who else has noticed the full moon in the upper right hand corner today?

Firstly, the teachers who post on TES are a very small minority.
Secondly, those that are tempted to post may be fed up with some aspects of the job and want to let off steam after a particularly bad day. They wouldn't dream of saying those things at work.
Thirdly, you have to look at the site as a whole, there are lots of forums and many are very helpful and posted by people with a real vacation, who are very conscientious (which other profession would be posting questions about work performance on Christmas Day?!).
Fourthly, you get the whole range of opinions-some of which are deliberately provocative and they don't necessarily come from working teachers. Anyone reading this is free to register and post. For a more balanced view avoid the opinion forum.
I have only found MN fairly recently and you could make very sweeping statements ,from reading it, about the state of parenting in Britain today! The whole range of opinion is here-it is what makes it interesting-it would be very boring if we all thought the same!!

The accusation on TES of mumsnetters being "parochial" did make me snigger though

As if all teachers are urban metrosexuals

Do teachers in private schools get the same opportunities for training and personal development that teachers in state schools have? (Honest question)

OMG I think Xenia's surpasses herself and thats saying summat!

Oh and Xenia 'free fees' is an oxymoron if I might point that out with my severely deficient state school educated IQ !!!

Cornsilk they do in my dd's school

imo the wankers ont he TES website will eb very NEW teachers who are all keen and cannot htink of a more intersitng site to go onto

xenia
shut up.

Good point on free fees and anyway because of a case called Pepper v Hart I think it was you have to charge the marginal cost 15% as a minimum. A good few schools don't really give much of a discount on fees. I don't know enough about the state system to know what training teachers get there but certainly in the best private schools they get good training and even better the children don't have these days off working parents have to tolerate in the state sector although of course the holidays are longer.

I am not superior to anyone. I never said I was. Just because I can afford school fees doesn't make me in the eyes of God some kind of superior being. That would be ridiculous.

I have joined this chatroom purely to defend the majority of TES users and praise the TES staff with whom users of the site regularly and respectfully communicate.
TES is like any other chat room on the web - you get the good, the bad and the ugly. This is also the case in any profession! TES fora may well have its antagonists but the greater majority of TES contributors are decent and supportive people who may or may not be educationists. I have to back Eva in what she has said but I would also like parents to consider the fact that some teachers who are close to breaking point (for whatever reason) support, cherish and encourage each other on TES when things have been tough. I don't mean simply the mechanics of the job but the fallout of working in an increasingly stressful environment. I first taught in 1993. My students have always been difficult to manage because that was my choice to work with them and that is my training. I am a behaviourist. My last post was as a Behaviour Manager in a large secondary school. The deterioration of behaviour in schools over 15 years is terrifying. Some teachers are going into war zones. I know, I used to have to try and create peacetime! However it would be niave to suggest this is the case in every school. Good Headteachers can be hard to find and LA's have to take on acting heads who can be inexperienced deputies or worse - they end up employing someone unsutable for the job. As hard as Headteachers are to find, they are harder to get rid of if they fail to lead effectively. Some heads are more frightened of scandal than they are justice and so the minority of disaffected children and their parents can rule the school. I cannot tell you how often I have been asked to deal with a parent threatening the Head with the press. Again, this is not always the case. Weak Heads create destructive working environments. This impacts on staff morale and therefore affects student morale which manifests in terms of results and behaviour. Teachers are going for each other in schools run by weak managers. Bullying is rife. Please don't think it only happens in the playground. Good teachers, encouraged to work in failing schools because of their skills, are being destroyed by the frustration and consequences of weak management and can end up the target for persecution by bitter and twisted managers and staff. TES as an organisation is more than aware of these issues and TES users support one another when people are at their lowest - some at the point of suicide. Do not underestimate how destructive schools can be as a work environment when things are not going as they should. Please allow teachers to vent their spleens on TES. Sometimes unwise things are said I know, but think of how far that person has been pushed emotionally and professionally. I stress, this is not the case in all schools. Again reading other TES posts confirms this. Some teachers talk positively and with encouragement about their own schools. This in itself gives comfort to some just knowing there could be some hope in finding a teaching post elsewhere.

Hey some of you will love this - just eating my lunch reading the Times.. page 11 - privileged parents with very strong leftist views against private schools who send the children to inner city comps do brilliantly at GCSE and A level and 15% go on to Oxbridge. I suppose that proves my point about genes sometimes trumping environment and advice to working mothers to ditch the guilt because your children are largely born not made.

Ah but it' not all rosy. The one thing that didn't work was social integration - why they parents sent them to mixed inner city comps in the first place - the white clever middleclass children were largely in top sets and didn't socially mix with the other types of child.

The teachers were so pleased to have those chilren amongst them they gave them lots of extra attention

"Agree with Fembear. I am a teacher and have been shocked by some of the postings on TES. I disagree with Evasmith - what teachers do and say on a website that is representative of the teaching profession is other people's business - it is on the world wide web, it's not a private conversation."

Evasmith - I direct your attention to the statement above. I may not be a teacher but my sister is one and I read the TES threads in response to this mumsnet thread.

How professionals speak about children or indeed any client group they work with in a public place is important. and as another poster commented - the fact these types of discussion are not complained about by the less unprofessional teachers on TES is very sad.

As I stated. I work with individuals who present with extremely challenging behaviour. I have also worked with youth forensic populations (who are quite likely the very same ones some of your colleagues have spoken so disparagingly about). You do not have the monopoly on jobs with challenging and difficult circumstances.

Letting off steam is fine in private. The venting of such unpleasant views in a public place - which the internet is - is wrong. Treating children and adults with respect, understanding and diginity, including not forgetting you are prosessional, is my business.

You strike me as someone lashing out because you know your behaviour is unacceptable. Maybe you ought to seek support or supervision to help develop your practice as a teacher in private.

This is quite a grim picture of life in our schools today.

I see they only interviews 124 families, Labour activists etc.

i wonder if you compared had the children gone to say Westminster School and the inner City comp they really did better at the comps or are they comparing these children against other children in the comps.

By Xenia on Thu 21-Feb-08 13:22:45

oh ffs Xenia, get a grip about genes and education.

In the eyes of God? Xenia, you are clearly insane.

As a Teacher I know two things are certain in schools.

1/ If your child does well it is becasue of how you brought the child up.

2/ If your child does badly it is down to the teaching that your child received.

To whoever said that their child would give the teachers a piece of her mind.

1/ Can she afford to loose it?

2/ I will bet that she will do it on the last day in whatever school uniform that she wants to wear whilst still being protected by the school rules that she hates so much.

It is a grim picture of life in some schools today. Not all.

ROFL

At BBJ

Xenia, your point about salary and ability just doesn't stack up. There are hundreds of professions which are badly paid but full of hugely talented people ; teaching, University lecturers, research scientists, publishers, writers to name a few. The BBC is widely regarded as the world's greatest broadcaster but the vast majority of its salaries are a joke.

Eva Smith and I are two of the many measured posters on TES. I think we are probably wanting to be a voice for the many others cut from the same cloth. We do not have a monopoly on jobs with challenge and difficulty of course we don't but we also do not say we do. However it must be accepted the job has got far worse in recent years and there are social and political theories and causes but that is not what is being discussed now. It is a shame really as more empathy may be found if these factors were considered! Some of the comments made on TES are outrageous and you will find the regular posters will police them beautifully and TES will get rid of offensive posts once they have either found them or they are made aware of them.

hunkermunker if you bothered to read my post properly it says "us the teachers" thereby implying that I am a teacher. But then you did not read it properly. I suppose one of your brats also does not read properly or concentrate but causes disruption to lessons.