Are teachers making a mockery of the education system?

I'm not against striking if it's for a good cause. I won't comment on whether I think that's the case here as I've not looked into it, and it's besides my point anyway.

My sister is getting married abroad in September and she's likely to face a hefty fine for the time her three children spend out of school. Anybody that has children knows what a ballache it is now to go on holiday during term time.

But how do schools have the cheek to talk about the disruption it causes when staff are going AWOL when it suits? I don't suppose the penalty my sister pays in September will be written down against the money she lost yesterday from having to stay at home.

It's farcical.

I'd sack the whole bloody lot of 'em and get some teachers in who actually want to teach - rather than line their own pockets.

My niece and nephew's school went against the strike and stayed open because the headmistress is against any form of strike action in the education system. Good on her.

If you don't like your pay or your pension fuck off and find another career. Simple.

They get a damn site more money than nurses plus thirteen weeks a year holiday. Plus I don't buy the bullshit that they work sixty hours a week.

I used to date a teacher (female before anyone tries that) and she used to get home at 6pm and be planning until almost midnight every single day, before starting work again at 7am. 

Not saying thats unique or anything but it was a very demanding job.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:I used to date a teacher (female before anyone tries that) and she used to get home at 6pm and be planning until almost midnight every single day, before starting work again at 7am. 

Was it a Sharia school? Most English schools don't start till 9am.

The teachers don't work the same hours as the kids.

The teachers deserve every penny, they have to plan their next day when most other folk are eating their tea.

give them more money, more holidays and more school dinners.

btw I'm not saying they deserve more money, more holidays or anything like that, I just don't agree with the notion that teaching is a piss job.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:btw I'm not saying they deserve more money, more holidays or anything like that, I just don't agree with the notion that teaching is a piss job.

It's not an easy job, but certainly at primary school level the teachers are basically teaching the same thing term after term. When I've dropped my sister's kids at school at 8.45am the teacher car park is all but empty, they clearly roll up at 8.55am.

This 60 hours a week is simply bollocks.

It is a piss easy job, teaching the same things over and over again.  They have books with the answers in... Every now and again a but of extra work would be required, but that's the same in a lot of jobs.  They get loads of holidays too.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:I used to date a teacher (female before anyone tries that) and she used to get home at 6pm and be planning until almost midnight every single day, before starting work again at 7am. 

Not saying thats unique or anything but it was a very demanding job.

Sorry, but she was a shit teacher, then.

If you're having to spend 17 hours a day, five days a week "working" and your job only involves teaching a few five year olds that 2+2=4 and they shouldn't eat crayons......


.....you're clearly not very good at it and should give up and start doing whatever it is that Magoo does for a living.

Hipster, are you sure she wasn't just avoiding you?

Natasha Whittam wrote:Hipster, are you sure she wasn't just avoiding you?

  

Natasha Whittam wrote:Hipster, are you sure she wasn't just avoiding you?

Maybe.

Breadman wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:I used to date a teacher (female before anyone tries that) and she used to get home at 6pm and be planning until almost midnight every single day, before starting work again at 7am. 

Not saying thats unique or anything but it was a very demanding job.

Sorry, but she was a shit teacher, then.

If you're having to spend 17 hours a day, five days a week "working" and your job only involves teaching a few five year olds that 2+2=4 and they shouldn't eat crayons......


.....you're clearly not very good at it and should give up and start doing whatever it is that Magoo does for a living.

Yep you're exactly right. 

Not sure why i brought it up to be honest.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:

Yep you're exactly right. 

Not sure why i brought it up to be honest.

I enjoyed it....a brief look into the world of Hipster Nebula. Who'd have thought you date!

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:

Yep you're exactly right. 

Not sure why i brought it up to be honest.

I enjoyed it....a brief look into the world of Hipster Nebula. Who'd have thought you date!

It was a thrilling 4 days, and I have this anecdote to show for it. 

It's also opened up a far reaching debate on here. So positive in the main.

My mate's a teacher and he says the hardest bit is not punching the stroppy, teenage bastards.

When we were at school, if a teacher told you to do something you did it.

If you didn't, or you gave 'em any lip, you got twatted with a stick.

Nowadays, it's all "isolation" for a period (ie sat in a room fucking about on Facebook on their iPhone for a bit instead of learning) and you can't lay a finger on the little fuckers.

Bring back the strap!

Me and the missus have been planning how to stop work so we can go into semi-retirement and travel the world so we thought it would be a good idea to do a TEFL qualification, the idea being that if we were in Thailand or Brazil for 6 months we could earn a few bob whilst there to keep the good times going for longer.
So we enrolled and did a 20 hour weekend course which now have to follow up with 100 hours assessed online training and a placement to get qualified.
We thought it would be a piece of piss too, but lessons do require a lot of planning and there's a lot of stuff to learn about dealing with disruptive kids and engaging everyone - far more work than we'd banked on.
However, we still reckon that once we've produced a lesson plan for e.g. an intermediate  business English class, we'd be able to use it again in the future, so in theory the work load will reduce over time.
One thing we have learned is that in Thailand for example, teachers are highly respected and students would never be disruptive - the problem is getting them to be a bit more up front in order to learn.
So whilst teachers have a problem in the UK dealing with gobby little barstewards without the right to sort them out, it's a cultural issue and not necessarily a problem elsewhere in the world. 
All part of the price we have paid as a nation for swallowing American culture and social values hook, line and sinker over the last 40 years or so. We are no longer British.

I also decided to get a TEFL qualification in order to be able to travel a bit and still earn a few bob.

I did it about ten years ago and set off with high hopes.

Unfortunately the students (mostly adults) really struggled with the subtlety and nuance of the English language more than I imagined they would and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

In the end, I gave up and got the bus back home from Wigan and I haven't been back since.