The Student Room Group

Guardian 'Secret Teacher' on student teachers

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Reply 1
Only such complete ignorance of the world outside the public sector bubble could come from a teacher.

Starting a new career is tough. Those above you will expect you to work hard and you won't always agree with the direction management is taking?

There will be obstacles and there will not always be imminent rewards?

Well - welcome to planet earth, teachers. Join virtually every other job, career and profession that there is before clocking off early, having your long holidays and taking an extended sickie for stress.
Reply 2
Original post by Clip
Only such complete ignorance of the world outside the public sector bubble could come from a teacher.

Well - welcome to planet earth, teachers. Join virtually every other job, career and profession that there is before clocking off early, having your long holidays and taking an extended sickie for stress.


Clocking off early?

You're a fine one to talk about ignorance.
Reply 3


I'm starting my PGCE this September (School Direct route) having spent about 15 years working in a well-paid, but soul destroying profession. I'm really looking forward to it...but reading some of the comments on here, I really do have to question if I have what it takes to cope in the teaching profession. I 'think' that I'm prepared for the hard work, the long hours, the constant assessment and the endless paperwork, but I guess I won't find out for sure until September. :s-smilie:
Original post by bellylaugh
I'm starting my PGCE this September (School Direct route) having spent about 15 years working in a well-paid, but soul destroying profession. I'm really looking forward to it...but reading some of the comments on here, I really do have to question if I have what it takes to cope in the teaching profession. I 'think' that I'm prepared for the hard work, the long hours, the constant assessment and the endless paperwork, but I guess I won't find out for sure until September. :s-smilie:


I trained to teach after a similar amount of time in another profession. It was not an easy decision to make as I had a young family and we had to live off my savings for a year before adjusting to a significantly reduced income. I'm glad I did it though as it revitalised me. Best of luck for September.
Reply 5
Original post by jsc1985
Clocking off early?

You're a fine one to talk about ignorance.


Every teacher I know does a mediocre to poor job, working far fewer hours than anyone else in FT employment, even when you take into account marking.

Show me someone else in the private sector getting 14 weeks + leave per year.
Original post by Clip
Every teacher I know does a mediocre to poor job ...


Yet they got you where you are today.

Original post by Clip
... working far fewer hours than anyone else in FT employment, even when you take into account marking.

Show me someone else in the private sector getting 14 weeks + leave per year.


You're quite right. It's a doddle. Remind me why you don't teach again?
Original post by Mr M
I trained to teach after a similar amount of time in another profession. It was not an easy decision to make as I had a young family and we had to live off my savings for a year before adjusting to a significantly reduced income. I'm glad I did it though as it revitalised me. Best of luck for September.


What did you do before?
Original post by FireGarden
What did you do before?


I was an Independent Financial Adviser for 13 years.
Reply 9
Original post by Clip
Every teacher I know does a mediocre to poor job, working far fewer hours than anyone else in FT employment, even when you take into account marking.

Show me someone else in the private sector getting 14 weeks + leave per year.


Your ignorance is showing again.

It's so funny when children comment on things they don't understand. :smile:
Original post by Mr M
Yet they got you where you are today.

You're quite right. It's a doddle. Remind me why you don't teach again?


I commend you for that incredibly restrained response. Meanwhile, I'm hunting around for some kind of negative rep button and resisting the urge to scream.
Reply 11
Original post by Mr M
Yet they got you where you are today.


They really, really, really didn't.



You're quite right. It's a doddle. Remind me why you don't teach again?

Because I'm not a mediocre person.
Reply 12
Original post by Clip


Because I'm not a mediocre person.

Errr.... I'm sorry, this is too laughable to be taken seriously.

On the topic of the article: I can only hope that the emerging school-based routes into teaching are the better alternative to the overly stressed PGCE.
From my own perspective I found no University lecture as helpful and insightful as the ongoing "snippets" of wisdom - advices, tips and tricks - that the classroom teachers offered me.
Well then again, I consider myself lucky to be in a "bubble" of a good school.
Original post by TraineeLynsey
I commend you for that incredibly restrained response. Meanwhile, I'm hunting around for some kind of negative rep button and resisting the urge to scream.


Seen it hundreds of times.

Fortunately that famously left wing organ the Daily Mail tells it like it is.
(edited 10 years ago)
SD is just as stressful I think. I've got PGCE assignments to do as well as planning and teaching a 70% timetable.

I think it needs to be stressful to some extent, to ensure NQTs are prepared for the workload.

Totally agree about uni lectures v wisdom from teachers on the job.
Reply 15
No, you just have mediocre understanding of the teaching profession.
Original post by Clip
Because I'm not a mediocre person.


Never mind. Keep working at it and you might get there one day.
Original post by Mr M
Yet they got you where you are today.



You're quite right. It's a doddle. Remind me why you don't teach again?

This is a fabulous response! People these days are far too eager to blame and point the finger at those who are employed to serve the public. Although while I agree that the minority of teachers do scrape on the margin of laziness people need to give credit where credit is due, and without teachers you would not be where you are today and you certainly would not be writing in this forum.
Reply 18
Original post by Mr M
Never mind. Keep working at it and you might get there one day.


If I work really hard at trying to be crap, one day I might just about reach the standard of most teachers.
Reply 19
Original post by purplestudent
This is a fabulous response! People these days are far too eager to blame and point the finger at those who are employed to serve the public. Although while I agree that the minority of teachers do scrape on the margin of laziness people need to give credit where credit is due, and without teachers you would not be where you are today and you certainly would not be writing in this forum.


Why is it so hard to accept that most teachers (like a huge number of people in life) are actually just about scraping average?

It's so easy to throw stones at MPs and bankers and soldiers and policemen for being rubbish. Yet teachers are somehow automatically competent?

A lot of the people bobbing along in their degree courses with no real will or direction are going to be the next generation of teachers. They will find the PGCE and the classroom tough because they have no comparator. People going into a most professions find their early days hard going - because that's their first job.

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