Why do so many teachers dislike their job?

As a trainee teacher I speak to many teachers and am surprised at how many seem to dislike their job and regret going into teaching. I am aware that many people dislike their jobs as it is often simply a means of making money to get by in life, but I (admittedly naively) thought that teaching was slightly different.

As a trainee I can see why the profession is infuriating due to constant pressure, endless bureaucracy, being under valued and a million other things, but it is disheartening to constantly hear teachers moaning about the job. You wonder if it is worth all the hassle.

Are you a teacher/trainee? Do you regret entering the profession? What do you like about the job?

(edited 12 years ago)

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Reply 1

Woodworth

Poor pension plan and few holidays i suppose.

Reply 2

js374

I know a couple of teachers from when I was at uni and I would suggest it is having to deal with rude little s***s every day of the week. Then being blamed when the little scrotes don't get their full complement of A*-C grades because they were too busy dealing drugs to do any work.

Reply 3

Besakt

Some students probably make their lives a living hell.

because kids suck.

I think the most obvious reason is the lack of respect they get from both pupils and parents - pupils will misbehave in the class, and when the parent is consulted they're unlikely to accept that their child is in the wrong so they'll lash back at the teacher.

The increasing bureaucracy doesn't help either. I know a brilliant maths teacher who has no departmental responsibilities what-so-ever but because of increased demands for statistics by Ofsted, he spends practically all of his free periods analysing pupil data and collating it in spreadsheets to work out whether people are on track. Ofsted require targets to be calculated to 9 sublevels from KS2 to KS3 (so that's low 5C, mid 5C, high 5C, low 5B...) but don't provide any input to do that whatsoever and half the primary schools don't send anything other than the grade itself (5C) up to secondary anyway. That also transfers into pressure for all the other teachers as if a group of people in a class fail to achieve, it's the teacher's head that they seem to think will go rolling and as a result of it many teachers feel like they're compelled to put on after-school sessions for failing students, at the expense of their home life.

Add to that the way they've seemingly been abandoned by the government (threats for failing schools, pensions, silly physical contact rules) and it's no wonder so many of them feel grumpy.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 6

mld

When I qualified there was no National Curriculum, no paper work, I could teach what I wanted except there was an exam at the end, I wasn't watched and judged by my peers, there weren't school tables, in fact it was quite a nice job,

Now it's paperwork, NC levels, moderation, league tables, and the list goes on.

Perhaps teaching now is better as the grades go up consistently, or maybe we teach to the exam now, rather than wandering off at a tangent now and again.

Reply 7

XxelliexX

my biology teacher complains all the time, lol, he said a couple of weeks ago that if he sees his teacher who told him to become a teacher again he's going to punch her :')
and last lesson he said that if we all fail and he gets blamed and sacked he doesn't care because he's nearing the end of his career anyway... :s-smilie:

it's quite sad in a way :frown:

Reply 8

Jon of the North

Because kids are little ****s, and there's simply no respect anymore. It's not worth the daily hell of dealing with them.

I genuinely cannot see the appeal of secondary school teaching.

Reply 9

im so academic

Original post by Woodworth

Poor pension plan and few holidays i suppose.

Few holidays?

Even if they work a bit during the summer holidays, they practically get the August off!

Reply 10

Dr. Bassman

Most teachers expect to be teaching kids who are super-attentive and keen to learn, and expect to be seen as really positive influences.

In reality, they're teaching kids, who are often rude, obnoxious etc. and the ones that aren't like that get weighed down and so aren't really noticed.

Reply 11

username895805

Piles and piles of marking I suppose and rude students.

Reply 12

geetar

Mainly, I imagine, the bad behaviour and lack of interested students. Also, it must get quite repetitive teaching the same stuff, in the same manner, all of the time.

Although I can definitely think of worse jobs.

Reply 13

Carnationlilyrose

It sometimes seems that parents aren't expected to have any responsibility for their children any more and every time something goes wrong in society as a whole, the government of the day (and it's the same whatever political shade it is) will announce that responsibility/thoughtfulness/not stabbing people will now be taught at school as part of the curriculum. Nothing ever gets taken out of the curriculum, so everything gets compressed to fit it all in, and then some really important things get short shrift because there's only so many hours in a day.

Reply 14

rachaelizabeth

It saddens me to see that teachers don't enjoy their job. Ever since I was young I've wanted to be a teacher, and I'm now in my last year at sixth form, still aspiring to teach maths to secondary school or sixth form students. So many teachers seem to hate their job that it makes me think twice... But I can't see myself doing anything else.

Reply 15

willbee

Well at the schools I just left, the teachers are under stupid amounts of pressure to get a certain amount of grades from students. Students are no longer responsible for their own work or grades, teachers are. Also, there was a fair amount of bullying from the bosses at my school(s). At my main school, the Bursar refused to give support teachers and dinner ladies their full pay, which led to a lot of people quitting because they were owed money for like 3 months. And at the girls' school where I studied drama, the head teacher actively bullied the departments where students didn't do as well, namely Drama and Art, and so he's currently trying to get rid of these departments as they bring the school's grade averages down.

It's all a bit ridiculous tbh. That said, I'm going to train to be a teacher cos i don't know what else to do with my life.

Reply 16

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by thegodofgod

I'm guessing it could be because the degree they did didn't lead to a decent enough job, or that they felt that they had to become a teacher?

Only speculation though :colondollar:

One of the problems is also the perception of some people that it isn't a decent job. Why is it not? Why am I supposed to feel I've underachieved? Why am I not apparently doing a valuable job? How are you able to apply for medicine if teaching isn't a decent enough job? (And before you ask, it wasn't me who negged you.)

Reply 17

IB_19

From what I've experienced, teachers feeling fed up is usually due to the unruly students in their class. They have very little power to do anything other than offer verbal warnings, detain them or call their parents.

Verbal warnings do very little to solve the problem. Students usually use this as an opportunity to impress their peers and anger the teacher even more, as the teacher can't legally use force. With detentions, do teachers really believe that 20 minutes to an hour after school will change their behaviour? Some students are likely to change depending on how seriously their parents take the news. Other students won't care, and will repeat these offences. Lastly, calling parents very much depends on the parent. Decent parents will see this as the time to ensure their child refrains from misbehaving; whereas other parents will go insane. I recall an event from year nine where the mother of a boy threatened to beat a teacher up. If they live in such an environment, they are less likely to change their ways. At parents evening, you only have to look at the expression on other parents' faces to realise they are disinterested.

Therefore teachers may feel irritated that their efforts to teach and improve a child's attitude are being hindered. I would consider implementing a number of policies:

Spoiler

Clearly I've addressed one issue and I know that there are other reasons why teachers dislike their jobs, however I believe this to be the most fundamental reason and it really needs to be dealt with. Some people say that some teachers are naturally bad, well then they should be prevented from entering that profession.

Another reason could be that the nature of education now requires students to be trained to pass exams.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 18

LTC1409

Original post by *Darcie*

Surely you just answered your own question. Why am I looking for a perm teaching post again? That being said, the majority do it for the kids (even those who drive you crazy)! I think most teachers would agree to that!