Unpopular Opinions

[Pocketrocketman1888]

3 minutes ago, phart said:

There is a hige authoritarian side to this, hysteria sweeping America, and we'll no doubt feel the waves.

Thought it was sweeping Brum too...

[Alan]

Teachers as a collective are moaners. Always have been.  Half of them are teachers as they couldn't get any other job.  Think back at school and how many were genuinely competent.  Everyone has been to school so they have a rough idea of job and then when they start work they have forgotten about environment, work and stress while ignoring fantastic holidays, decent pay and teaching hours 9 to 3:30 with 1 hour lunch.  The constant holidays messes up families with big childcare issues.  It's a job that can be done by unqualified people via home schooling and results of kids largely depends on their family circumstances and postcode so is overrated in skill.

[vanderark14]

16 minutes ago, Alan said:

Teachers as a collective are moaners. Always have been.  Half of them are teachers as they couldn't get any other job.  Think back at school and how many were genuinely competent.  Everyone has been to school so they have a rough idea of job and then when they start work they have forgotten about environment, work and stress while ignoring fantastic holidays, decent pay and teaching hours 9 to 3:30 with 1 hour lunch.  The constant holidays messes up families with big childcare issues.  It's a job that can be done by unqualified people via home schooling and results of kids largely depends on their family circumstances and postcode so is overrated in skill.

thats not an unpopular opinion, thats just you being ignorant. 

If you honetly do think teachers work 9 to 3.30pm with 1 hour lunch then I suggest you go and seek help because thats a fucking ridiculous suggestion. 

 

 

[Jim Beem]

40 minutes ago, Alan said:

Teachers as a collective are moaners. Always have been.  Half of them are teachers as they couldn't get any other job.  Think back at school and how many were genuinely competent.  Everyone has been to school so they have a rough idea of job and then when they start work they have forgotten about environment, work and stress while ignoring fantastic holidays, decent pay and teaching hours 9 to 3:30 with 1 hour lunch.  The constant holidays messes up families with big childcare issues.  It's a job that can be done by unqualified people via home schooling and results of kids largely depends on their family circumstances and postcode so is overrated in skill.

My wife’s a teacher. 

I agree with Alan 👍

[killiefaetheferry]

6 minutes ago, Jim Beem said:

My wife’s a teacher. 

I agree with Alan 👍

To be fair he does specify ‘teaching’ hours 9-3.30 which is broadly correct, but ignores the context of all the other hours spent planning and assessing etc. I’m at the end of my first year in teaching and am using my excellent moaning training, as quoted by Orraloon, to good effect. But then I’ve also got 15 years experience of learning from the bestest moaniest moaners in the world on this fine forum 👍

[Huddersfield]

11 minutes ago, Jim Beem said:

My wife’s a teacher. 

I agree with Alan 👍

I take it she doesn’t read this forum then. Otherwise let us know how the divorce/funeral planning is going. 

I spent years working in high stress environments, long hours, etc & retrained as a primary teacher in my 50s. The way teachers’ hours are calculated (in England at least; don’t know if it’s the same in Scotland) is convoluted, but any notion that they work, on average over 52 weeks, the 32 hours per week they are paid for is rubbish. 

There isn’t necessarily any greater workload than I was used to, but what is different in teaching is the relentless pressure every day. You can’t put off a task to prioritise something else. You will typically have a few dozen books to mark every day; not doing them is a disciplinary offence in many schools & you WILL be checked up on. Every single book must be marked according to the school marking policy. On top of that your planning has to be submitted & usually approved weeks before. A one-hour lesson can easily take two or three hours of planning, including preparing & printing resources. 

Then you have staff meetings, year group meetings, time to prepare & put up classroom displays, book scrutiny, observations, moderation. Then you have to fit in SEN planning, meeting parents because little Lucy called Little Bobby a rude name & that’s bullying. My working hours in the classroom were generally 7.30am-6.00pm, plus a few hours a week at home. 

There will usually be a percentage of every holiday when the building will be open. The Head will tell you to rest, have a break, come back refreshed, then dump a load of crap on everyone so they end up in the building during holidays. 

Speaking as someone who spent years in management & senior management, the culture of management in schools shocked me to the core. But that’s a whole different story!

So, yes, most teachers I know really want to make the curriculum exciting and to support critical thinking. A quick glance through teachers forums shows that. But the space needed in your head to do that effectively, day after day just isn’t there. Nor is the space on the timetable to incorporate it into drumming capital letters and punctuation along with relative clauses and fronted adverbials. 

I have no doubt there are some utter dimwits employed in classrooms. But you have to teach teachers how to teach (as opposed to deliver a curriculum) & that, I think, doesn’t really happen. 

[killiefaetheferry]

7 minutes ago, Huddersfield said:

I take it she doesn’t read this forum then. Otherwise let us know how the divorce/funeral planning is going. 

I spent years working in high stress environments, long hours, etc & retrained as a primary teacher in my 50s. The way teachers’ hours are calculated (in England at least; don’t know if it’s the same in Scotland) is convoluted, but any notion that they work, on average over 52 weeks, the 32 hours per week they are paid for is rubbish. 

There isn’t necessarily any greater workload than I was used to, but what is different in teaching is the relentless pressure every day. You can’t put off a task to prioritise something else. You will typically have a few dozen books to mark every day; not doing them is a disciplinary offence in many schools & you WILL be checked up on. Every single book must be marked according to the school marking policy. On top of that your planning has to be submitted & usually approved weeks before. A one-hour lesson can easily take two or three hours of planning, including preparing & printing resources. 

Then you have staff meetings, year group meetings, time to prepare & put up classroom displays, book scrutiny, observations, moderation. Then you have to fit in SEN planning, meeting parents because little Lucy called Little Bobby a rude name & that’s bullying. My working hours in the classroom were generally 7.30am-6.00pm, plus a few hours a week at home. 

There will usually be a percentage of every holiday when the building will be open. The Head will tell you to rest, have a break, come back refreshed, then dump a load of crap on everyone so they end up in the building during holidays. 

Speaking as someone who spent years in management & senior management, the culture of management in schools shocked me to the core. But that’s a whole different story!

So, yes, most teachers I know really want to make the curriculum exciting and to support critical thinking. A quick glance through teachers forums shows that. But the space needed in your head to do that effectively, day after day just isn’t there. Nor is the space on the timetable to incorporate it into drumming capital letters and punctuation along with relative clauses and fronted adverbials. 

I have no doubt there are some utter dimwits employed in classrooms. But you have to teach teachers how to teach (as opposed to deliver a curriculum) & that, I think, doesn’t really happen. 

Good moan.

[Huddersfield]

Just now, killiefaetheferry said:

Good moan.

Average by my standards. I did get good marks on the Professional Yorkshireman training but the absence of a pint in front of me detracted from the full effectiveness. 

[Orraloon]

1 hour ago, Alan said:

Teachers as a collective are moaners. Always have been.  Half of them are teachers as they couldn't get any other job.  Think back at school and how many were genuinely competent.  Everyone has been to school so they have a rough idea of job and then when they start work they have forgotten about environment, work and stress while ignoring fantastic holidays, decent pay and teaching hours 9 to 3:30 with 1 hour lunch.  The constant holidays messes up families with big childcare issues.  It's a job that can be done by unqualified people via home schooling and results of kids largely depends on their family circumstances and postcode so is overrated in skill.

I don't think that is a hugely unpopular opinion. It just doesn't get voiced often enough in case the sensitive souls get offended. 

[killiefaetheferry]

1 minute ago, Orraloon said:

I don't think that is a hugely unpopular opinion. It just doesn't get voiced often enough in case the sensitive souls get offended. 

Hey! That’s like, hate speech or sumfink 😡

[ParisInAKilt]

Tough job teaching, couldn’t do it myself. 

Probably be easier if teachers could focus on teaching rather than social engineering and dealing with mental health / behavioural issues. 

[Orraloon]

1 hour ago, vanderark14 said:

thats not an unpopular opinion, thats just you being ignorant. 

If you honetly do think teachers work 9 to 3.30pm with 1 hour lunch then I suggest you go and seek help because thats a fucking ridiculous suggestion. 

 

 

I know loads of teachers. Some of them do a lot of hours. Lots of them just do the basic minimum. They don't need to do extra hours unless they want to scale the ladder to promoted posts. Plenty teachers are quite happy to just remain being basic teachers. They will put in a few extra hours here and there to make themselves feel a wee bit better. You have got to try quite hard to get sacked from teaching. Until recently it was almost impossible to get sacked. 

[ParisInAKilt]

1 minute ago, Orraloon said:

I know loads of teachers. Some of them do a lot of hours. Lots of them just do the basic minimum. They don't need to do extra hours unless they want to scale the ladder to promoted posts. Plenty teachers are quite happy to just remain being basic teachers. They will put in a few extra hours here and there to make themselves feel a wee bit better. You have got to try quite hard to get sacked from teaching. Until recently it was almost impossible to get sacked. 

Sounds like psych nursing 

[Orraloon]

38 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

To be fair he does specify ‘teaching’ hours 9-3.30 which is broadly correct, but ignores the context of all the other hours spent planning and assessing etc. I’m at the end of my first year in teaching and am using my excellent moaning training, as quoted by Orraloon, to good effect. But then I’ve also got 15 years experience of learning from the bestest moaniest moaners in the world on this fine forum 👍

I am guessing that you have done a proper job for a few years between leaving school and going back there again? I think that should help you a lot in your teaching career.

[Orraloon]

15 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

Good moan.

Not nearly up to the standard I'm used to hearing. Needs to try harder.

[Orraloon]

17 minutes ago, ParisInAKilt said:

Sounds like psych nursing 

It's the same in most walks of life. It's just that teachers have managed to take the Art of Moaning to new extreme levels that most of us aren't capable of achieving. They must work quite hard on their moaning skills, I will give them that. But if they spent just half of their moaning time trying to organise their day, their lives would be so much easier. But then they might not have enough to moan about? Catch 22.

They have just had a 13% pay rise but they are still moanin like fuk. There is something in that which deserves a wee bit of admiration, I suppose. 

[Huddersfield]

16 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Not nearly up to the standard I'm used to hearing. Needs to try harder.

I’ve deliberately avoided my ‘shooting cats that think they can come into my garden should be legalised’ opinion. I can bore the backside off anybody whilst causing major offence at the same time with that one. 

[ParisInAKilt]

17 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

It's the same in most walks of life. It's just that teachers have managed to take the Art of Moaning to new extreme levels that most of us aren't capable of achieving. They must work quite hard on their moaning skills, I will give them that. But if they spent just half of their moaning time trying to organise their day, their lives would be so much easier. But then they might not have enough to moan about? Catch 22.

They have just had a 13% pay rise but they are still moanin like fuk. There is something in that which deserves a wee bit of admiration, I suppose. 

Very true. The art of moaning is an underrated skill, valuable in the public sector. That’s a right good pay rise as well. Wouldn’t begrudge anyone more money. 

[Orraloon]

19 minutes ago, Huddersfield said:

I’ve deliberately avoided my ‘shooting cats that think they can come into my garden should be legalised’ opinion. I can bore the backside off anybody whilst causing major offence at the same time with that one. 

Get yourself a powerful water jet. They do not like a good hosing. 

[Huddersfield]

I did precisely that to the dirty little bast little kitty the other night. He scarpered like anything & I then spent the next half hour waiting for the neighbours braying on the door.

[Jim Beem]

1 hour ago, Jim Beem said:

My wife’s a teacher. 

I agree with Alan 👍

This was slightly tongue in cheek but to be honest he has a point. My wife went in to teaching late after going back too Uni having spent years bringing up our kids and doing fairly low paid part time jobs. She really enjoys it and compared to what she used to get, thinks she is well paid , likes the hours and the holidays. She does often complain to me that a lot of her colleagues, usually those that have been in the job years and even worse, stayed at the same school for years are moaning bastards with a sort of weird, negative, almost entitled attitude. She often jokes to me that I should let her know when she gets like that. Which of course I will.  😃

[Orraloon]

21 minutes ago, Huddersfield said:

I did precisely that to the dirty little bast little kitty the other night. He scarpered like anything & I then spent the next half hour waiting for the neighbours braying on the door.

I think the hosing technique might have less consistent results when used on humans.

[dan cake]

Steve Clarke's first 2 Scotland games have left us with feck all to be optimistic about

[Pocketrocketman1888]

1 hour ago, dan cake said:

Steve Clarke's first 2 Scotland games have left us with feck all to be optimistic about

Hes not picking huns tho

[Mox]

In the same way that you need to be a certain age to vote, there also should be an age at which you're right to vote is removed.