Teachers / School

[Toinho]

On 29/03/2019 at 21:07, RandoEFC said:

It's interesting reading how many people didn't think much of their teachers. Obviously I'm biased but the expectations that people have of what their teachers should be capable of is mad when you compare it to other fields.

Take football management. Top managers get worshipped for being able to motivate players who are already earning six figures a week and organising these already incredibly talented individuals to play as a cohesive unit, and people think that's a difficult job. 

Replace the highly paid and talented footballers with hormonal, distracted teenagers that are having to learn everything from scratch. Do you really expect there to be thousands of individuals up and down the country who are capable of making these great connections with all 30 individuals in every class they teach and inspiring them to great things in their subject? Talk about unrealistic.

At least in the UK, for what teachers are paid, the type of publicity they get and the fact that they are constantly battling waves of paperwork, disruptive children and unhelpful parents to boot, it's a minor miracle that the majority of the time, most kids in the country have somebody teaching them who's committed to their job, supportive and knows what they're talking about. You just aren't going to get the Oh Captain My Captain moment from every single teacher who's brave enough to try and teach 30 teenagers about trigonometry. Teachers are only normal people too who spend most of their time shattered and mildly annoyed about how much work they have to do, just like everyone else.

Very good post. Do you get the old “teaching is easy, anyone could do it” crap from people in the UK? I’m not talking about a majority of people but I often read comments along those lines and bite my tongue. When you’re teaching 16(small class!) 5 and 6 year olds for hundreds of hours a year I think we all deserve those holidays people bang on about(you’re a teacher? You only work part the year don’t you?)and more respect from the general community. 

Sometimes I envy those who can leave their work at work and not think about their job or how to manage young children and their varying levels of learning difficulties and or disability 150 times a week.

[RandoEFC+]

1 hour ago, Toinho said:

Very good post. Do you get the old “teaching is easy, anyone could do it” crap from people in the UK? I’m not talking about a majority of people but I often read comments along those lines and bite my tongue. When you’re teaching 16(small class!) 5 and 6 year olds for hundreds of hours a year I think we all deserve those holidays people bang on about(you’re a teacher? You only work part the year don’t you?)and more respect from the general community. 

Sometimes I envy those who can leave their work at work and not think about their job or how to manage young children and their varying levels of learning difficulties and or disability 150 times a week.

Get it a bit but mainly from people who really are clearly ignorant so it doesn't really sting too much. Get a bit of "part timer" stick from my family and housemates but only in jest as they know I work every evening and Sunday afternoons.

I do think that most people would make decent teachers if they were trained well to be fair but a lot of people who stick their noses up would run miles in the opposite direction when faced with the reality of the workload and expectations.

[Dr. Gonzo]

School wasn't so bad. I liked almost all of my teachers except most of the maths teachers, but I got good-decent grades even in the classes where the teachers were a shite. Got in trouble a few times, but nothing ever very big except for the time I thought I'd get expelled because my friends and I had gotten high as a kite one day at some point in the day and I got caught. But I didn't get expelled so that was good.

That time of my life was great fun, tbh. Living life like every night had a massive party at the end of it and getting very little shite from my parents despite it because my worst grades were still pretty good grades.

[MUFC]

Bit off topic. Between primary school, high school and college. If I had to choose which was the best, I wouldn't be able to do it. From the age of 5 to 11 in primary school, followed by high school and college. It was years upon years of drama and craziness. These years were mental, I was in so much trouble during this period. What shocked my friends was that I somehow managed to avoid getting kicked out or even suspended.  

[Waylander]

1 hour ago, MUFC said:

Bit off topic. Between primary school, high school and college. If I had to choose which was the best, I wouldn't be able to do it. From the age of 5 to 11 in primary school, followed by high school and college. It was years upon years of drama and craziness. These years were mental, I was in so much trouble during this period. What shocked my friends was that I somehow managed to avoid getting kicked out or even suspended.  

Mine was similar with regards fighting. There were bullies and idiots and when I was called to the head of year asked me why I did what i did and told him.

Never got detention though as I approached 15 realised unless I changed I might miss out on the 6th Form so turned the other cheek or at least didn't react. Recall two younger bigger kids one day on the way home  calling me something that rhymes with merchant banker not in a friendly manner and making the mental decision not to react. Didn't like it though looked to the future. Once in the 6th form it changed most of the idiots were gone.

Never really liked either schools a lot of average or demotivated teachers. The odd one was inspirational though the exception unfortunately. 

[MUFC]

8 minutes ago, Waylander said:

Mine was similar with regards fighting. There were bullies and idiots and when I was called to the head of year asked me why I did what i did and told him.

Never got detention though as I approached 15 realised unless I changed I might miss out on the 6th Form so turned the other cheek or at least didn't react. Recall two younger bigger kids one day on the way home  calling me something that rhymes with merchant banker not in a friendly manner and making the mental decision not to react. Didn't like it though looked to the future. Once in the 6th form it changed most of the idiots were gone.

Never really liked either schools a lot of average or demotivated teachers. The odd one was inspirational though the exception unfortunately. 

The racists were a strange bunch in school with their name calling and comments. But if you saw them outside school. They'd never say anything when on their own. They'll either look away or let on, which is just odd.

[Guest]

@RandoEFC I personally think that cycling should be on the curriculum now. A lot of people cycle and some if them dont know the rules if the road. There is cycling proficiency however that is a one of thing. They would necessarily need to go on the road if they had enough room. Could that be done or would there be legal and practical issues?

[RandoEFC+]

Cycling proficiency in the UK usually gets done while you're in primary school by an outside agency who specialise in the health and safety and safeguarding issues around teaching kids to use bikes on roads. That teaches you the nuts and bolts of cycling as a form of transportation. Anything further you'd have to do in PE lessons. Think about the equipment you had access to when you were at school. Considering that a PE lesson would usually have as much as 60-80 kids in it at times, the sheer cost of providing enough bikes and helmets of all different sizes would be staggering before you even get into conversations about health and safety, liability, etc. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, RandoEFC said:

Cycling proficiency in the UK usually gets done while you're in primary school by an outside agency who specialise in the health and safety and safeguarding issues around teaching kids to use bikes on roads. That teaches you the nuts and bolts of cycling as a form of transportation. Anything further you'd have to do in PE lessons. Think about the equipment you had access to when you were at school. Considering that a PE lesson would usually have as much as 60-80 kids in it at times, the sheer cost of providing enough bikes and helmets of all different sizes would be staggering before you even get into conversations about health and safety, liability, etc. 

What if the kids provided their own bikes? Admittedly some might not have bikes but most do so the cost of providing them with some might not be much higher that  providing equipment for other sports. I mean I remember us being taught baseball in school which seems odd to me as it is a minor sport in the UK. Would you be in favour of cycling being taught if the cost and practicality of it was ok? 

[RandoEFC+]

4 hours ago, Gunnersauraus said:

What if the kids provided their own bikes? Admittedly some might not have bikes but most do

Naive view I'm afraid. You're underestimating the number of families who can't afford basic stationary or have to wait until pay day to afford a scientific calculator or a pair of actual school shoes, let alone bikes and helmets as required PE equipment.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Naive view I'm afraid. You're underestimating the number of families who can't afford basic stationary or have to wait until pay day to afford a scientific calculator or a pair of actual school shoes, let alone bikes and helmets as required PE equipment.

Really. I suppose it was quite naive now I think about it. What about teaching more road safety? I know road safety is taught but would it be practical to teach more? Like I said you do see cyclists who dont seem to know the rules of the road. Obviously it's not always that some of it is just recklessness but at least some of it is lack of knowledge 

[Beelzebub]

" Educational authorities are generally unaware of the fact that teaching demands a great expense of the spirit. No clergymen is required to preach for a certain number of hours each day, but a similar effort is demanded of every teacher. This makes the teacher harassed, and puts them out of touch with subjects other than their own.... "

- Bernard Russell 

[Danny]

Spent 4 hours in the library so far trying to finish an essay on race and racism and the procrastination has been horrific.

[Bluebird Hewitt]

11 minutes ago, Danny said:

Spent 4 hours in the library so far trying to finish an essay on race and racism and the procrastination has been horrific.

I've been similar today. Trying to do some assignment work around the introduction to web concepts and just struggled to really get into it. Watching Cardiff getting slapped by Hull now.