Is teaching really that bad?

[letmepeeinpeace]

I'm looking into training to be a TA which may lead to teaching (not sure yet). I'm finding mumsnet does not find teaching a positive career and I'm finding posts saying 'don't do it' 'I teached for a few years and it was hell'. Is it really THAT bad?!

It depends. If you have good SLT and a nice class it can be great. If SLT are crap or panicking about Ofsted it’s horrible.
I’m at the stage where the workload isn’t terrible. Quite often I skip off home at 4.30 (start at 7.30) with nothing needing urgent attention- but I ignore anything I think won’t actually benefit the children which can be a bit dangerous!!!
It’s the parents these days. It’s all rights and no responsibilities from many of them. You can tell they despise us too a lot of the time and that can be upsetting. The children are great though- I laugh, proper out loud laugh, several times a day and I get to read daft books and act like an idiot a lot. I don’t think most other jobs allow that.

Do they Arcadia? Has anyone said that?

Arcadia - I left teaching, earn more money and I am a lot less stressed.

Arcadia I don't think other jobs are less stressful and better paid. Dh's job is certainly less stressful but he's paid rather less but doesn't pay as much tax and ni as I do, or the student loan What I do think is that I can't sustain my current work load indefinitely.

I retrained as a TA 12 years ago. Previously a Personnel and Admin Manager. Much prefer TA work. For last 2 years gave been a HLTA so cover ckass when teacher on planning. Pay is pretty good £20K for 35 hr week in primary. Won’t go to teach though. Too much expected.

I have been a teacher for 6 years after being a TA for ten years. TA pay is a good wage for someone who has children and perhaps is not the main wage earner- no holidays childcare to pay for and no work at home. Being a TA will not lead you automatically to being a teacher but might help a little. I would not recommend that being aTA shows you what a teacher is like- it didn't prepare me at all!

Arcadia, that’s very sweeping. No one on this thread has claimed that.

I’m a TA and I really love it. I work in an outstanding school with excellent behaviour, which obviously helps.
I would absolutely not be a teacher. Every teacher I know works at least 12 hour days. At weekends. In the holidays. And they still never feel ‘done’.
It’s just not compatible with a family at all.
TA pay is really really low. I’m lucky as a single parent I get my wages topped up to a decent level by tax credits to enable us to live off it. It’s also ideal for me as a single parent in terms of not needing any childcare and having the holidays off to be with the children.

TA work is totally different: your home life is your own, less classroom responsibilities, far lighter workload. Teaching in primary and secondary will take over your entire life.

HE is quite nice but the contracts are rubbish.

Arcadia they are.

Teachers seem to think that all other jobs are somehow less stressful and better paid

No they don't. The only reason many people feel compelled to stay in teaching is because of the pay. I'd love to have a total career change, but at age 46 with over 20 years' teaching experience, nothing else I'd be qualified to do would pay me anywhere near as much.

As for the stress, also not true. Teachers know that teaching is probably more stressful than most equivalent level jobs, equally stressful as others and less stressful than a few. Saying "God, teaching is stressful" isn't code for "Everyone else has it easy".

Also it's worth bearing in mind that teachers don't only whinge about the job because it's hard on them. They moan because the system is bad for everyone, including kids.

Teachers seem to think that all other jobs are somehow less stressful and better paid
Don't take the bait guys. Give it a few pages we'll have other goady comments like:

• But you COULD leave at 330 if you wanted
• At least you get the holidays off
• Must be nice having half the year on holiday
• childcare isn't an issue for teachers
• namedrop any other professional and make some innacurate or irrelevant comparison
• some comparison to nurses (seems to be a good go to at the moment on MN)

Leave it longer and we might start getting thr big guns out about how teachers hate parents and hate children.

Yes. Don't do it.

Do literally anything else.

It is terrible but it doesn't have to be and I imagine in some other countries it's quite nice.
Used to be nice here too.

I had had a stressful career in publishing before I started teaching, absolutely nothing prepares you for the pressure of being completely responsible for 30 children. If you've ever arranged a children's birthday party, imagine that experience for 6 hours a day 5 days a week, whilst trying to teach them about fronted adverbials and improper fractions at the age of 7.
In addition to being completely on top of the kids, you also have to plan and resource 25 amazing creative lessons each week, and then also mark 120 books a day. I worked over 60hrs a week and never saw my DH or DD. It is physically gruelling, and emotionally draining.
Hats off to those of you that do it, but it nearly destroyed me.