I might be wrong but I don't think he was upset by your uplifting post last week so much
but perhaps wanted to show the other side of teaching.

I've taught in Primary and Secondary schools, I've also taught in Sixth form colleges and a university.

I've also experienced very similar situations to both of you. Teaching Y1 is fantastic - emotionally demanding but amazing when you reach the end of the year and see how your class can now read, do tens and units, sit quietly and be great fun. I loved every moment in the classroom - yes the OFSTEDs were a pain in the arse but that's part of the job, as are the sometimes difficult parents.

I've just finished teaching A and AS English Literature and Language in a local college. Most of the kids wanted to be there and for some of the time worked hard. I also had some who were only interested in their mobile 'phones and leaving early so they could have a fag. I was there covering for another teacher who had simply packed up her stuff one day and walked out. While I was there another teacher flipped, screamed at her class and left - she returned a month later but was still unhinged. In the English department one member of staff spent half the week having medical appointments for stress related health problems but still loved her job, even if it was killing her. Another member of the department was up to two in the morning every day sorting out coursework - she was planning to hand in her notice. The other member of the department lost her father while I was there but only missed one afternoon for his funeral - she's retiring next year, if she lasts that long.
And as it's a college the lessons start at 10.15 (staff arrive about 8.30 and do paperwork) and finish at 5.30, unless you're also teaching evening classes in which case it's 7.30. No free periods at all during the week but a lunch hour of 1 hour and 45 minutes, unless you've got tutorials - which happened three times a week, then you got half an hour.
I was lucky because I was only there for a term.

I'm sticking to teaching in a university - pay and conditions might not be brilliant (still no permanent contract in sight) but no parents to avoid and the hours are good.

I love teaching and it can be a brilliantly rewarding job but it can also be dangerous, stressful and demanding.

I've also worked in offices where I had to account for every fifteen minutes of my time so it could be charged out to clients. The stress there was nothing like that of teaching.

Teaching is like being on stage every single day. If you're feeling hungover, miserable or just plain pissed off you have to hide it because you're a professional and controlling your class is like keeping an audience happy.

And kids can smell fear.

All that said, I still love it but I'd never ever want to do it full time again because I value my sanity too much.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Sun 18 Jul 2010, 0:06, 1 reply)

I also thought the OP was genuinely pleased for the nice primary school teacher
and wasn't trying to have a go. I spent an unpaid year doing my teaching qualification, then left after less than a year's work. Don't know what the stats are like now, but back then in the late 90s they indicated that 40% of newly trained secondary teachers left the profession within three years and didn't come back. I would be surprised if things had improved.

The problem is that the managers of schools have a vested interest in blaming their staff for badly behaved pupils. It means they can continue to brush the problem under the carpet and pretend that their school is a brilliant successs. In bad or borderline schools, longserving 'ordinary' classroom teachers tend to survive because the managers are friendly with them, or frightened of taking them on because they are stroppy types. Newly-qualified, newly-appointed staff get the worst classes and only token support. In a way that's understandable; the turnover is so high that there probably seems little point in helping a newbie when there's a good chance they will jack it in fairly soon.

I was asked to stop sending disruptive kids out of the room, because they tended to wander off and break stuff. Of course that made keeping control nearly impossible, but it was still easier than arranging for a manager-teacher to patrol the corridors. I've also been sworn at and all the rest - the worst problems are the kids who randomly wander into your lesson to abuse you and cause havoc. Quite often you've never met them before and have no idea who they are. While you are busy trying to persuade them to go away, the class you are supposed to be teaching is kicking off. By the way, the penalty for walking into a classroom with the express purpose of disturbing a lesson that you were never supposed to be in is ... to write a two-line note saying you are sorry.

This is the bit that I think primary teachers of very young children sometimes don't get - their job is bloody draining with 30 little mites clamouring for attention, but within a few weeks they will be familiar with most of the kids in the school; they stay in one classroom all the time; they don't get barged or threatened in the corridors and, essentially, you CAN make a five year old comply with your instructions. You can't do that with a fifteen year old and there is always the risk that they could seriously hurt you if you push them too far.

For such a teacher to turn around to a secondary colleague and say "I'm sorry you seem to hate teaching / children so much, you should leave" is, just perhaps, a little bit presumptuous.
(slowly play it cool, Trig, Sun 18 Jul 2010, 1:23, closed)

My mum
teaches year 1 and had one child so badly behaved that when he kicked off one day it took SIX adults to physically restrain him and stop him hurting any of the other children. Yes, six. He was six years old.
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Sun 18 Jul 2010, 9:39, closed)

Then you have 6 people who need to be trained so no one gets hurt.

(waxdart hello., Mon 19 Jul 2010, 16:04, closed)

They were trained
and using the proper techniques. That's the scary thing.
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 14:33, closed)

But if you hate any job then you should get a new one.
I have no doubt that teaching teenagers is a sodding nightmare, and one I wouldn't do, primary teaching is a little more than just handing out a glue and glitter.

I have a great deal of respect for anyone who teaches secondary as I know I couldn't do it. However don't underestimate a ten year old who is kicking off, or a five year old for that matter.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Sun 18 Jul 2010, 17:49, closed)