I wouldn’t be a teacher for all the tea in China. And I drink a lot of tea.
Not because of the kids, but the parents. I think it must be a tough gig, and I don’t care how long the holidays are.
The current crop of parents (I’m one) is more engaged with their kids than previous generations, and that’s great. We want to know who our kids’ mates are, what their mates’ families are like. And we want to know everything about what’s happening at school. Above all, we want our kids to be happy. But is that happiness coming at the expense of teachers’ satisfaction? Does it matter? Of course it does. Because teachers are important and if there’s no joy in the job, they’ll leave. I think we need to back off a bit – take a leaf out of our parents’ book.
When I was at primary school, mum knew my teacher’s name (but rarely her first name) and possibly where my classroom was. That was about it.
Teachers hit me reasonably regularly. Sister Carmel* would use a plastic gladioli (snatched from a vase at the feet of a statue of Our Lady) to whip girls on the backs of the legs. I never told my parents, because they’d be furious. Not with Sister Carmel, but with me. In those days, parents sided with the teacher.
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Absolutely agree with the above article! I am lucky enough that I have managed to foster a really great relationship with most of the parents whose children I teach (I am a high school teacher in Western Sydney). I work very hard to keep them in the loop, using strategies like sending emails to parents when I give homework or assessment tasks, which also means their children (and the parents) are unable to say not enough notice was given, they didn't know about it, they lost their diary, or any other of the raft of excuses given for non-completion! I make sure that I make at least 1 positive phone call to a parent every week, as I find that if you have told them something great about their child's progress and performance before, they are much more likely to listen if there is an issue!
This aside, there are always parents that approach the teacher defensively (even before I've opened my mouth!) and there are always parents that think that because they have the ability to reproduce (congratulations) that they are as (or more) qualified in education and child psychology as a professional with at least 4 years of university education on the subject. Thankfully, I have found these parents to be rare and found that, when approached the right way ('we're in this together', 'very unusual behaviour for him', 'really is such a bright young man', 'usually so pleasant', 'what can we do together to help her?'), most parents are really great allies!
Basically, parents just want to know that you like and value their child and are trying to HELP them rather than just BLAME them, and teachers just want parents to respect their professional judgement and support them in their dealings with your child.
Much of this debate seems too polarised. It's ridiculous to make teachers into some kind of saintly beings. They are just people. Some of them are good at their jobs and some aren't, just like hairdressers, doctors and builders.
Some teachers are very ignorant people who lack insight and wisdom. Some are excellent and inspire their students. Most fall somewhere between those two extremes.
Teaching should be a higher profession. You should have to get higher entry marks to get into teaching courses and then you should be paid more to be a teacher, instead of looking at your school leaving marks and then saying, 'Well, I guess I'll be a teacher.'
I loved the male teachers I had for the last three years of primary school -- all beards, long socks and shorts and gentle conduct. But, I was a good girl who did my work, so I only know them from my perspective. It's impossible to know how they dealt with 'problem' children. I hated the boiler, Mrs M, I had for grade 3, who used to smoke at her desk (!), shake my friend off her chair because she didn't know the maths answers and who yelled at me because she said I was telling another friend the answer when actually I was saying something else. My friend said, 'If you don't tell me, I won't be your friend.' And I replied, 'Well, if you won't be my friend, I won't be your friend.' (Genius comeback, I know). But, no, Mrs M, 35 years later, I was NOT TELLING HER THE ANSWER!!!!!
Adding to my last comment, just to bring the story into the modern era, this is exactly when Mrs M could have done with my mother going into the school to tell her to get a grip on herself. I now wonder if there was a tipple to go with those cigarettes. The thing is, my mother probably wouldn't have gone to the school over that and I may not have even told her.
University entry scores are based on popularity of the course, they are not set by universities. The more people wanting to do the course, the higher the entry score. Many universities have quite high scores for entering Education degrees. When I entered mine 5 years ago at Sydney Uni the minimum score was 84 UAI (now ATAR). Many of my peers had achieved scores about 90 and some above 95. I do not know anyone who made it through the minimum 4 year degree (now minimum 5 year degree) that went into teaching because they looked at their UAI and thought, 'I guess I'll just go into teaching!'
And having your mother 'tell the teacher to get a grip' is totally inappropriate! Teachers DO NOT work for parents. Parents ARE NOT consumers of a product provided by schools. Parents are more than welcome to engage constructively with the school system and community and most teachers (myself included) welcome this kind of engagement. Apart from anything else, if it is against the rules for you to speak during class, you spoke during class and a reprimand is a reasonable measure. I would be FAR more concerned about shaking a child off her chair, but I wasn't around at this time and am unsure of protocol!
My dear child,
First, well done for getting good marks and also your degree.
Second, now you can learn to properly comprehend what you read.
Sadly, you missed all my points.
I said that some teachers are good and some are not, just as in other professions, therefore the debate need not be so polarised. I don't think anyone could disagree with that.
How parents view particular teachers has nothing to do with whether they believe the teachers work for them. If you become a parent, you will not stand by when an ignorant or incompetent person interacts with your child in a manner that you find intolerable.
The argument about the marks is relative, but it wasn't the core sub-topic in my comment. Teachers are not paid as well as many professions. Again, this is a fact and it does impact on the product delivered.
The fourth paragraph was a personal anecdote from my history, which you didn't need to get judgemental about. I don't know what the 'protocol' was then either because I was 8 but I'm sure that smoking at the desk, throwing books out of windows and shaking children off their chairs was not correct protocol. Wouldn't you say so too? I'll give you one guess.
As for my experience, you completely missed that point. The issue wasn't about talking in class. It was about the teacher having a go at me for supposedly telling my less academically inclined friend the answer that she was supposed to provide. It has nothing to do with protocol and everything to to with being sensitive and respectful. In other words, don't tell a child they are doing something/or did something that they didn't do.