You're probably right. I think there's a historical view that teachers just moan about their job without having a view of the real world. In my experience, people coming in from other professions discover pretty bloody quickly how difficult the job is.
Oh dear this is rather worrying for me! My granddaughter (who lives with us) is currently studying for her A levels, with her intention being to do teacher training at uni. She wants to be a primary school teacher - is it secondary school teaching your son is doing.
In terms of workload, you couldn't be further from the truth. Secondary has different challenges in terms of behaviour and dealing with stroppy teenagers though.
The work is very different. I'm secondary and don't have the same sort of stresses in setting up classrooms and sorting out a bunch of kids in the same manner (not sure i could do it). On the other hand the marking, reports and parents evenings/ demands are insane as i have 140 pupils pass through my room each day and 170+ overall. Actually find the stroppy teenagers fine, i used to work in family courts with stroppy adults though and they were worse so I guess with kids at least I can hope they'll grow into something better.
This is mainly the reason she is going for primary, although from the work experience she has been doing in primary I don't think the little ones are far behind!!
The marking thing is interesting and perhaps depends upon the school. I was in a primary class of 33 today and taught 5 lessons. That's 165 books to mark, so not far off. I've spent a while working in secondary to try and sort out transition between ks2 and 3, it's been massively eye opening - the reaction from the secondary teacher who I swapped with was interesting to say the least.
I think it does indeed all depend on the school to be honest. I know that to mark my own childrens books (6 and 8) would take me much less time than, for instance, my A level class books ( I spend 10-15 hrs a week marking but only probably 3-4 hours a week planning, I would have guessed it was the other way around in primary teaching but have little to base that on). Honestly, I'm never going to argue secondary is harder than primary. I think they are similar but essentially different jobs and it's a mistake to assume that others have it easier as everyone tends to fall into the trap of seeing what's more difficult for them but not what's difficult for others (myself included!).
Absolutely agree. I used to think working in early years would be a doddle with minimal workload. Then I tried it and quickly changed my mind. Theres not of "my jobs harder than yours" in education. We've all got incredible challenges across the spectrum - it's not a career I'd recommend in hindsight if you want a work/life balance.
Are you a primary teacher in that part of Essex then? My Mrs is a primary teacher and worked in that area until the move to Herts two years ago.
I love how these threads can evolve.. From a dirty Mag flashing his knob to a debate about teaching!! Unbelievable Jeff.
I honestly don't know what to say.. it's right up there (beyond actually) with the mag obscenities - post league failure - in 'the toon' centre in '96
