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minor things that make you fume

Armel said:
Aren't you being a bit too negative about your previous profession mate? A friend of mine is 30, he teaches physics and biology (16,17 year olds) and he's having the time of his life. 1/3 of the year vacation, finishes at 15.25, free public transport (trains, busses ...), and after taxes he makes 1800 € and at the end of the year he gets stuff like thank you cards et al. He says as long you avoid concentration schools that it's a fun occupation.
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Armel said:
Aren't you being a bit too negative about your previous profession mate? A friend of mine is 30, he teaches physics and biology (16,17 year olds) and he's having the time of his life. 1/3 of the year vacation, finishes at 15.25, free public transport (trains, busses ...), and after taxes he makes 1800 € and at the end of the year he gets stuff like thank you cards et al. He says as long you avoid concentration schools that it's a fun occupation.
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Your mate isn't a UK teacher, I can tell!
Free public transport? Zero perks like that here. In the UK we (and the kids) have fewer days holiday than anywhere in the developed world. My last school finished at 3.50 after which, most teachers stay on a further 2-3 hours catching up on marking or doing unpaid marking on behalf of exam boards for coursework. Then there are the utterly pointless meetings and training sessions so that you know what the right thing (currently) is to say to an ofsted inspector, if they should call.

Don't get me wrong, teaching kids, and opening their eyes to how the universe is, is a wonderful thing to do - especially if you're confident enough not to just stick to the tripe you're supposed to cover in the curriculum, and you get their heads into interesting stuff.

It just comes to the point where you've heard, one too many times, that some other social ill should be taught about in schools as a knee jerk to a story in the press, teachers are expected to become replacements for bad parenting, and you start realising that too many parents just see school as a free childminding service, when they complain that there's a training day and the child THEY decided to have is at home!

Worse is realising that, despite getting top results, year in year out, you've under pressure to become one if those teachers who HAS to teach to the exam for league table purposes. And, in science, so often the exam board has it wrong! Lost count of the number of times I've had to say "this is the real science, but this is what you have to say to get a mark in the exam" - I almost end up teaching double the content!

In the end I thought, 'bugger it - if society wants to pay footballers and actors ridiculous amounts for the simple luxury of entertainment, and expect its education on the cheap, it is time to work for myself'.
 
chrismpw said:
Your mate isn't a UK teacher, I can tell!
Free public transport? Zero perks like that here. In the UK we (and the kids) have fewer days holiday than anywhere in the developed world. My last school finished at 3.50 after which, most teachers stay on a further 2-3 hours catching up on marking or doing unpaid marking on behalf of exam boards for coursework. Then there are the utterly pointless meetings and training sessions so that you know what the right thing (currently) is to say to an ofsted inspector, if they should call.

Don't get me wrong, teaching kids, and opening their eyes to how the universe is, is a wonderful thing to do - especially if you're confident enough not to just stick to the tripe you're supposed to cover in the curriculum, and you get their heads into interesting stuff.

It just comes to the point where you've heard, one too many times, that some other social ill should be taught in schools, teachers become replacements for good parenting, and you start realising that too many parents just see school as a free childminding service, when they complain that there's a training day and the child THEY decided to have is at home!

Worse is realising that, despite getting top results, year in year out, you've under pressure to become one if those teachers who HAS to teach to the exam for league table purposes. And, in science, so often the exam board has it wrong! Lost count of the number of times I've had to say "this is the real science, but this is what you have to say to get a mark in the exam" - I almost end up teaching double the content!

In the end I thought, 'bugger it - if society wants to pay footballers and actors ridiculous amounts for the simple luxury of entertainment, and expect its education on the cheap, it is time to work for myself'.
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I was with you right until your last paragraph. What a crock of [Poor language removed].
 
The Cowboy said:
Avoid what?!
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Sorry bad translation from the word concentratieschool; schools where there are a lot of pupils with low social, cultural, economical capital (e.g schools with loads of migrants et al).

In similar fashion you have the word kok (a chef), same pronunciation different meaning.
 

chrismpw said:
Your mate isn't a UK teacher, I can tell!
Free public transport? Zero perks like that here. In the UK we (and the kids) have fewer days holiday than anywhere in the developed world. My last school finished at 3.50 after which, most teachers stay on a further 2-3 hours catching up on marking or doing unpaid marking on behalf of exam boards for coursework. Then there are the utterly pointless meetings and training sessions so that you know what the right thing (currently) is to say to an ofsted inspector, if they should call.

Don't get me wrong, teaching kids, and opening their eyes to how the universe is, is a wonderful thing to do - especially if you're confident enough not to just stick to the tripe you're supposed to cover in the curriculum, and you get their heads into interesting stuff.

It just comes to the point where you've heard, one too many times, that some other social ill should be taught about in schools as a knee jerk to a story in the press, teachers are expected to become replacements for bad parenting, and you start realising that too many parents just see school as a free childminding service, when they complain that there's a training day and the child THEY decided to have is at home!

Worse is realising that, despite getting top results, year in year out, you've under pressure to become one if those teachers who HAS to teach to the exam for league table purposes. And, in science, so often the exam board has it wrong! Lost count of the number of times I've had to say "this is the real science, but this is what you have to say to get a mark in the exam" - I almost end up teaching double the content!

In the end I thought, 'bugger it - if society wants to pay footballers and actors ridiculous amounts for the simple luxury of entertainment, and expect its education on the cheap, it is time to work for myself'.
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There's lots of poorly paid / out of work footballers and actors mate.

It's only a tiny minority that earns the big bucks.

I think to sum up, you left teaching because you'd burnt out.

No shame in that x
 


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