I always vow I won’t engage when people get arsey about teachers, but I’m about ready to leave this thread so will throw in some things to think about.
If anyone knows the poem ‘for the want of a nail, a shoe was lost’ (Google it if you don’t) teaching is a bit like that. If I rely on poor pre planned lessons that the children can’t access, behaviour will go to pot. I teach in an inner city school. I love it: it’s in an area that is vibrant, cosmopolitan and culturally mixed. It also comes with a lot of challenges, poverty, deprivation, hostility. Many of my students don’t speak English as a first language. If I stick a wall of text in front of them, they can’t access it. I’m not being a martyr when I make it accessible for them, I’m saving my own arse - I don’t want to deal with horrendous behaviour all day.
On the other end, I have an A level class where one girl is going to Oxford in September. It’s a real mix and I like that, but it does mean I can’t just churn out lessons on the system from 2011 with references to AFs (remember those, anyone?) and expect them to get on with it.
If I was a martyr, I’d work constantly. I don’t. I probably AM a martyr in that I don’t want my own children to spend longer away from me than they need to, but I am fine being a martyr in that sense. I probably have to spend an hour or so planning every other day and probably take one set of books home a week and one at the weekend. I am not a career teacher and I’m not interested in nonsense sort of things but I have been doing it long enough to know what works and what doesn’t, especially with students who aren’t always easy to engage.
So feel free to be rude to me, or sneer at how stupid I am because I’m chatting in the non existent staffroom, or scoff at how other jobs are hard too. Except check your comprehension as I don’t find teaching hard at all. It is simply the difficulty caused when I’m there, but not there.