....because as we all know, it's free childcare for most parents!

I've been teaching for 11 years and I've worked in a range of other professions including packing and operating machinery on the factory floor and I can truly say that I have never worked so many hours in any other job as I do in teaching!  I clock up on average 50-60 hours per week and work through almost all the 'loads of holidays' I alledgedly get!  If we were paid by the hour, the government wouldn't be able to afford us!

Parents have a very naive and negative view of the teaching profession: 13 weeks holiday a year, 9 till 3 job with an hour lunch hour, etc, etc, etc, but the attitude that annoys me the most is the view that school is unpaid childcare!  Every year I ask children why they are at school and apart from the blank faces that I see, the most popular response given by 10-11yr olds is, "so mum and dad can go to work."  No wonder they have no sense of what they should be hoping to achieve during their education (a subject for another post perhaps).

Every other profession, except teaching and the medical profession, have the right to make a stand over work-related issues.  Sadly, instead of the parent's recognising that the vast majority of teachers want to improve the quality of teaching and learning for their children and supporting them, they gripe and moan because for them it simply means that it will be inconvenient!  How dare teachers force parents to take responsibility for their children for a day? !!!!

"school is unpaid childcare"??? With a starting salary of £20,000??  I wish I had an "unpaid" career like that.  And I'd gladly work a 50-60 hour week if I got the money teachers do (in fact I did work that number of hours until a year or so ago) but no way did I get anywhere near what teachers earn despite all that overtime and not from the comfort of my own home.  If teachers are so unhappy with their lot maybe they should quit the profession and do something less strenuous - I'm sure there are plenty of manual jobs which are far cushier.

Sorry but I have to stick up for the Teacher's, 12 months ago I wouldn't have.

I have been learning to be a Teaching assistant for the last 12months and its opened my eyes up.  Teachers have a lot of preasure and sometimes that is from angry parents!  Teachers study for years for the proffession like accountants, docyors etc but do they get their pay?...The anser is no!

Yes they have an hrs dinner but half of that is getting ready for the afternoons subjects.

Yes they get 13weeks holiday, but don't they pay top wack for the privilage of going on holiday is it not 2 or 3 times as much?

 We should support our teachers at the end of the day they are learning our children. 

They should also be able to discipline the children in the old fashioned way, I work within a class of 9/10yr olds and there is a group of children if you try to correct them they look you up and down if you are dirt..This is at Jnr school I hate to think what they will be like in secondary school.

I agree they should have the power to discipline but other than that teachers shouldn't have any gripes.  If a starting salary of £20,000 a year (and the satisfaction of a, supposedly dedicated, career) is not enough then there are other options available to them - unfortunately many of them don't include a starting salary of £20,000 p.a. and the ability to work from home.

...like I said...many parents have a very naive and negative view of teaching!  A lot of the posts in this forum, including this thread, prove my point!  Parents only 'see' a 6 hour window of teaching a day unless they are more involved in school life.  Where do parents get the idea from that we do most of the work from the comfort of our own home? Most teachers arrive at school up to 1 hour or even 2 hours before the gates open and I for one, am still there when the caretaker throws me out at 6pm!  That makes it a 9-10 hour day on site. Only some work can be completed at home, it would be impossible to take all the resources home every night.  My boot is constantly full of work-related resources and books as it is.  On average I do another 2 hours every night at home and up to 8 hours over the weekend.  Sometimes clocking up a 70 hour week!

Parents also seem to think that all teachers are earning a small fortune. After training for 4 years at university and running up debts on student loans, my starting salary was £13,000 not £20,000. It was 5 years before my salary reached £20,000.  I have many friends who work 35-38 hour weeks for £20,000 AND they clock off - taking no work home with them!    Roughly calculated, a teacher earning £20,000 pa working on average 60 hours for 39 weeks a year, earns little over £8 per hour!  It would be interesting to compare this hourly rate to other unqualified jobs with little or no responsibility.

 I know many teachers who have joined the profession after a career in other areas of industry and commerce and they are stunned at the expectations placed on teachers, for example regularly giving up lunch breaks and their own time to attend meetings, undertake management responsibilities and complete paperwork. 

Yes, teaching is a vocation, it has to be - you wouldn't stick it if it wasn't. Teachers need to be committed to their profession in order to sustain the pace. However, teachers are entitled to work-life balance just the same as any other profession/job and recognise that this will enhance the quality of education that they provide.  Like I have already said, sadly many parents view school as 'childcare provision', something that they have a right to.  Why else do many parents jump up and down if teachers are striking because they claim it 'harms their child's education' yet the vast majority show little or no interest in supporting their child's education in any other way, including listening to their child read at home or helping them learn tables and spellings?

I suggest parents spend a week working alongside a teacher in your local school to get a fuller flavour of the position that teachers are in. Not only will it be enlightening but it will also make parents a little more appreciative of the hard work, dedication, time and commitment that most teachers unreservedly give to the children in their care 

A lot of "Like I said's" in there and nothing new being said so just to reiterate if life is so bad being a teacher there are always other options - many of which do not pay half as well as teaching.  Life could be worse so isn't it about time teachers quit whingeing.  

 

If all the teachers quit, who would teach the children?

Why would they all quit?  Despite all their whingeing they know where their bread's buttered.

Seems to be a few exponents of "the old school of discipline" in here. Now I do not know what age you are but let me share something with you -

When I started primary school teachers could give you the belt and I got belted almost weekly from the age of 5 - not right and never conjusive to a learning enviroment.

corporal punishment was banned when I got to 1st year of High School but not before i was belted several times from a few old sadistic teachers. Yes I misbehaved but was this ever justified?

I cannot believe that you are advocating inflicting physical pain on a child as punishment. I am not naive enough to think that there are not some who richly deserve a bit of pain but c'mon what message are we sending them? It is ok for me as a teacher and adult to inflict pain on you but not ok for you to go outside and do the same in the playground to someone who is younger and more helpless than you!!!

Can you not see how hypocritical and divisive that is?

BTW i have the utmost respect and admiration for teachers and the very difficult job they do with professionalism and dedication. If they need to strike to get a fair deal then so be it.

Discipline seems to be off topic considering this is a discussion about teachers striking for more money but yes I for one think corporal punishment should be reintroduced because some kids no how matter you try reasoning with the little darlings just go their own sweet way.  And yes it may seem hypocritical but when all else fails it seems to be the only option (and the only one some of them respect and/or seem to take notice of).

Ok but there is no way on this Earth that I will allow another adult to visit violence upon my children, regardless of their position.

violence begets violence and that is not a good lesson to be teaching kids.

One man's idea of violence is another's idea of discipline.  No doubt some people would object if teachers so much as shouted at their poor darlings (however badly behaved their poor darlings are).  As far as I'm concerned once they are in school then it should be up to school staff to discipline them how they see fit.  And in some instances a caning is the last resort for (to be polite) unruly kids.