Fair enough
I work with a lot of teachers, and my wife is also one. A lot of your points ring true.

I think the public perception of teachers is largely driven by the gobby, lazy bastards who you so aptly described in your first group. Which is a real shame, because I firmly believe that the majority of teachers - certainly the younger ones, do actually want to be there and do want to make a difference.

What pisses me off the most is the assumption from the loudest gobby, lazy bastards, that no-one else does a job as stressful, works as long hours or for shit pay. I enjoy telling those gobshites that teachers are fucking lucky; a national pay-scale whereby you're guaranteed a payrise at least for the first 6 years just for pitching up (fuck performance related pay!) and a tidy final salary pension where you only pay 6.4% of your salary for the privilege of membership. The taxpayer makes up for the shortfall so you don't have to pay more - heaven forbid - or rather, your unions will forbid it!

FWIW, I couldn't and wouldn't do the job. I do think it's pretty well paid, or at least remunerated, when you consider the pension, and we all have stress in our jobs, but I think you're on a losing battle when it comes to trying to educate the spawn of Britain's council estates.

By the way, your comment about teachers' life expectancy is bollocks. Life expectancy for teachers is actually longer than the UK average. For teachers retiring at 60, male teachers' life expectancy is a further 26 years, and for females it's 28, compared with 20 and 23 years respectively for non-teachers. Stats. courtesy of the Gov. Actuaries Dept.
(Tighthead, Sat 29 May 2010, 19:41, Reply)