Being &#x27;too good&#x27; for teaching primary

I understand your irritation and frustration. Teaching is probably the most undervalued subject in the UK recieves far less respect than it deserves and used to recieve.

Reply 2

OP

an Siarach

I understand your irritation and frustration. Teaching is probably the most undervalued subject in the UK recieves far less respect than it deserves and used to recieve.

I know... and I thought it was bad in Germany :frown:

Little did I know!
I'm pretty happy with my current choice though, as I like the sound of many alternative career paths' too.
But anyway, I think teachers are such undervalued and underpaid heros, it makes me sad sometimes.

Reply 3

kellywood_5

17

I totally agree! I get that all the time too. I want to be a secondary school teacher and my family are always saying to me 'why do you want to teach? With your grades, you should be a lawyer or something!' But if everyone thought like that, no good people would teach, so the kids of the future wouldn't get the chance to become lawyers or doctors or whatever!

Reply 4

Maireleghra

People need to wise up. Where I live teaching is still valued, though you do get funny looks when you say you get AAB in your A-levels and yet you're doing primary teaching. Maybe this is because of the limited places on courses in Northern Ireland (i think there's about 300/400 first year places in the entire country) and the fact that the grades they ask for are very high (English and primary in my college was AAB).

All children deserve the best start in life, and so the people who are allowed to teach them should be given the respect that duty entails. I mean would you trust your lawyer with your five year old five days a week for a year? Probably not...but you would trust a teacher to give a fundamental grounding in life and society as well as an education.

Reply 5

OP

Maireleghra

People need to wise up. Where I live teaching is still valued, though you do get funny looks when you say you get AAB in your A-levels and yet you're doing primary teaching. Maybe this is because of the limited places on courses in Northern Ireland (i think there's about 300/400 first year places in the entire country) and the fact that the grades they ask for are very high (English and primary in my college was AAB).

All children deserve the best start in life, and so the people who are allowed to teach them should be given the respect that duty entails. I mean would you trust your lawyer with your five year old five days a week for a year? Probably not...but you would trust a teacher to give a fundamental grounding in life and society as well as an education.

I couldn't agree more. I find is shocking that many universities in England have such low entry requirements.
I appreciate the interview processes, but due to the huge amount of applicants, those are a bit superficial as well. Some unis require maths and english tests, which should be a standard.

I am not saying that just because you didn't get all As and Bs you shouldn't teach, but appropriate experience and strength should be shown in those cases.
In Germany, you don't stand a chance to get onto a course that ends in a Primary Education qualification unless you have at least 2.0 (with 1.0 being the best), but some universities, especially in Berlin, Dortmund and Cologne, you need at least a 1.8 or even better.

Reply 6

MissSurfer

17

I totally agree as well.

I've always considered becoming a teacher but when I tell people that they just laugh and say 'oh! you don't wanna be a teacher!!'. It's so annoying. The last person who said this to me was actually just an admin officer at a school, so it's not as if she's got a super amazing job is it?

MissSurfer

Reply 7

aalish

I think that the universities should be allowing only the 'good' people to do teaching, as it means better teaching standards for the future.

For example, I have a friend and as nice as she is, her brain cells don't really talk to each other much. She's a primary teacher and was still trying to get a C in GCSE maths all the way through her first degree (which she scraped a 2:2, just). I think at the time that she passed her GCSE, she had taken it 6 times in order to get the C to get onto a PGCE. And now she's a primary teacher. It worries me that she's responsible for shaping young minds.

Reply 8

andy5788

14

It's all nice and well saying we need high entrance requirements, but do you not think the requirements are low for a reason? Teaching (among the "better" students) is not very popular, as there is a lot more money in the private sector.

Reply 9

Starr

There is no such thing as being too good to teach! I applied to medicine and primary teaching and chose teaching in the end (it was a very hard decision) I got places for both.

I've got:

A foundation studies in art and design (worth 2 A levels)
2 A's in A level sociology and psychology
1 B in AS biology
1 C in AS chem,

these I believe are fairly decent.

One thing I would like to point out though is, people who 'get' their subjects with ease, little effort and still get A's, don't always make good teachers because they've never had to think of 7 different ways to learn one thing. Teaching requires this because not all children learn in the same way, so things need to be explained, with patience, over and over again and in different ways till they all get the picture;.

Starr

Reply 10

OP

As long as the N.C. is in place the way it is now, teaching will always be considered as something .... mediocre?
I believe teachers should have more say, more impact and should be more flexible.
SOW etc make me panic.... and with all the testing and earlier testing and whatnot....
I am not really making a point here, am I?

Sorry!

Reply 11

ChemistBoy

16

aalish

I think that the universities should be allowing only the 'good' people to do teaching, as it means better teaching standards for the future.

I agree, but teaching must be seen as a viable profession financially and socially to allow this to happen.

Reply 12

silent ninja

19

Well the image of teaching is summed up by: "if you cant make it, teach."
The majority of my teachers throughought secondary school got C's and D's, yet there are teachers out there with even lower grades.
A few of my graduate friends couldnt find employment, and are now going for their PGCE's-- out of passion and desire to teach young people? I think not.

Highly undervalued? Yes, kinda like engineers in society.

Reply 13

Arminius

14

Its all about money really, people see the highest paid jobs as the best. The best people usually want the best jobs.

Teaching is a very valuable profession, but its not paid as well as it deserves.

Teaching isn't particularly attractive salary wise, but i know for a fact that senior management can get paid an awfull lot, considering all the holiday they get. Its just the salary of a standard teacher isn't very high.

Reply 14

MattG

Surely there is more to teaching then just the GCSE's/A levels/university degree you get?. I doubt any of these 3 can really show how good a teacher you are/will become.

Reply 15

clairey87

I only needed to get CDE to get on my teaching course and this is because your personality is far more important than your academic ability in teaching. Teaching is not a waste of time and I don't think you can be "too good" to be a teacher. If it becoming a teacher was seen as a waste of time, then why is it one of the hardest courses to get onto? I don't know of many other degrees where you have to go through such intense interviewing!

Reply 16

ChemistBoy

16

clairey87

I only needed to get CDE to get on my teaching course and this is because your personality is far more important than your academic ability in teaching.

I would have to disagree, surely to imbue the knowledge into youngsters, one must first have to possess it? I agree that this appears to be the attitude shown by the establishment, which is why I am turned off teaching now. I fully realise that one must possess more than a keen intellect to be a good teacher, but some recognition that academic excellence is a positive trait in prospective teachers would really be nice.

Teaching is not a waste of time and I don't think you can be "too good" to be a teacher. If it becoming a teacher was seen as a waste of time, then why is it one of the hardest courses to get onto? I don't know of many other degrees where you have to go through such intense interviewing!

CDE? Hard? The intense interviews are to make sure that you really want to do it, if you have any doubts then get out.

Reply 17

clairey87

Surely by having 3 A-levels, no matter what the grades, you have to be fairly intelligent! Plus, your personality is far more important in teaching. My mum has had students in her class who have been AAA A-level students but are useless teachers because of their personality. Those interviews are tough!

Reply 18

ChemistBoy

16

clairey87

Surely by having 3 A-levels, no matter what the grades, you have to be fairly intelligent!

Not really at all.

Reply 19

OP