Teachers......are They All Moaning B******s?

[Arti]

Once again, teachers are moaning about this, that and the other. I don't like the ongoing austerity measures, but they are necessary. Stop moaning about earning £22,000 a year and getting 13 weeks holiday a year. If you're not happy, go and work in a factory for 50 hours a week at £6.19 an hour with 4 weeks holiday per year.

[Connemmara]

same for GPs - as quick as you get into see them - as quick as they can to usher you out.

[Prudie]

I just wish the many people who knock teachers on this site would go and do a day in a secondary school and then come back and say what a doddle it is.

[sherrardk]

Prudie for best answer! (Also, if the people in the factory had paid more attention at school and listened to their teacher they might not be working in a factory for £6.19 an hour with 4 weeks holiday.)

[Tilly2]

Well if you're not happy Arti, go and get a job as a teacher.

[LyndaB]

I couldn't agree more. Nobody is saying that teaching is any easy job (I wouldn't do it for a gold clock) but like someone has already said - pack it in, go and get a job paying the national minimum wage in a shop or factory (if you can), work bank holidays and weekends for no extra pay, don't get any holidays at Christmas or Easter - and see if they prefer that any better!

[Arti]

I've never suggested that a teacher's job is 'a doddle'. I have no doubt that it is a hard and demanding job. Working in a factory for 50 hours a week is also a hard and demanding job that pays a lot less than a teacher's job. Not very often you hear factory workers moaning at every given opportunity though. I've had jobs that I didn't like, for one reason or another. You know what I did.....left and got another job. Over a year (taking into account holiday periods), teachers work fewer hours and get paid more than the average worker. You could argue that teachers have had to earn qualifications to get their job while the average factory worker probably hasn't; that's why they get paid more than £6.19 per hour. It just seems that since the year dot, teachers always moan about something.

[B00]

I work in a crappy co op store on a till, betcha I moan about my job wayyyyy more than a teacher!

[LyndaB]

Arti - you're my hero xxxxx

[Psybbo]

The one job I could not do is that of a teacher. I know their day does not end at 3-4 pm, marking and after school duties, the stress from difficult pupils and the ever changing and updating(?), improvements (again ?) of the education system. I take my hat off to those who are dedicated to making a difference.

[B00]

I envy them their holidays- that's it, they can keep everything else!

[Arti]

B00: I'd love to be served by you in your shop.

[ummmm]

You really think they have 13 weeks holiday?

I suppose you also think the work 9am to 3pm?

What a load of tosh!

[Arti]

Ummmmmmmm.....yes teachers only work 9-3 blah blah blah....and the Earth is flat. Do you have any relevant argument or shall we all work on the teacher myths of yesteryear?

[gness]

I think the most frustrating thing about being a teacher is that it should, and could be the most wonderful job. Teaching young minds...passing on your hard earned knowledge and best of all...seeing a child flourish and achieve...that is such a tremendous feeling.
But of course we now have Mr Gove.....a complete eejit.....parents who see school as a baby sitting service but are only too quick to jump down the throat of a teacher who dares to reprimand their ill brought up little precious...Your desire to teach has turned into crowd control at best....
And of course someone will always come along to ask if they are all moaning b******s.
Before you ask....I have worked in factories..shops and a school. The latter I loved but was by far the most difficult. x

[andres]

I am not a teacher but my daughter has been one for over 30 years. I would rather work in a factory and at the end of the day go home leaving work behind me until the next day. Teachers can't do this.
Teachers ,especially secondary ones have extra curricular activities and piles of books to mark. Not to mention aggrieved parents wanting to know why 'little Johnny has been reprimanded for thumping a classmate. Or 6 foot tall pupils throwing their weight around.Oh and what about class upon class of disaffected children where one child's mother has gone to live with another's father and vice-versa. Children who are bullied because they don't have the 'right ' trainers or school clothes. Kids who don't have anything to eat before they leave home for school. No money for dinner . Teachers finding them something to eat or finding a blouse or blazer in the school jumble box. Lending them some money for food.Teachers not able to get down to the job of teaching because some of the kids have so many personal problems.Unruly kids , foul language,disruptive behaviour. Lots of teachers having breakdowns . Supply teachers having to be brought in making it difficult to maintain continuity of lessons.Get real anyone who thinks teaching is easy .I wouldn't do it for all the tea in China!!!!

[Tilly2]

Have you got some sort of link to the Moaning Minnies? Where is this moaning going on?

[sherrardk]

When I finished teaching six years ago I was on way more that £22k but for that I had extra responsibilities. I would arrive at 8 and there would be at least two after school meetings a week. You would also have to do a 'playground' duty. You never got to have a lunch break uninterrupted. The marking and preparation was hideous. The pressure to get your students to reach their targets who horrendous - one student half a grade out and you would have to explain yourself. Parents evenings, options evenings, report writing, UCAS references, OFSTED, etc, etc. This is without the stress of having to actually get through a lesson without 'incident'.

[Arti]

Great answers, Gness and Andres. No sarcasm. I agree with nearly all of what you say apart from a couple of things. Yes, a teacher's day doesn't end when they get home, but their inordinate amount of holidays more than makes up for that.
All of the complaints that teachers make today are the same complaints that teachers have been making for 30-odd years. So why go into the profession? It's like walking, voluntarily, into a fire and then complaining that it's hot.

[coccinelle]

There is going to be a big shortage in teachers in the next few years and beyond, as which kids who have seen with their own eyes how a teacher is treated want to do that as their job? or if they do they'll be doing these 'courses' all the time..... It's sad to ponder on who is going to educate the next generations; I'm sure it's going to be a computer!

[gness]

D'you know Arti....sometimes some of us have such a passion for a subject or, in my case a desire to work with deaf children, that we con ourselves into thinking we will be to one to overcome all the obstacles...the one to make a difference and that the joy we get from doing the job well will make everything else pale into insignificance.....and then along comes OFSTED or another new initiative...... or you get stabbed by a pupil.....
Yes the holidays are good....not that there isn't work or trips to undertake in the holidays but we knew that....
So try not to look at it as moaning because most teachers say....This is wrong..or..We want this.... because it's for the good of the pupils.....Never met many teachers who didn't care passionately about the children they are paid to teach. x