Could you be a teacher?

Idealist teacher
You are an idealist and still have faith in the capacity of teachers to be the midwives of dreams. But is there still a place for you amid the expediency and management-speak of education today?
 
'Dodgy Teacher'

Damn right.

I could never be a teacher, haven't the patience.

The first little git that got mouthy I'd give him a right hander :D

And that would lead to me getting the sack and probably prosecuted for assault.

Nope, couldn't do that job for all the cash in the world.
 
A lot of teachers find it hard and a lot of kids fail for one reason - respect.

The kids have no respect for the teachers because they fail to motivate.

The teachers need to stop being so much of an authority figure (when possible) and bond more with the kids. The kids would then respect the teacher, learn everything they say parrot fashion and not step out of line for fear of upsetting said favourite teacher.

My two penneth
 
Society is unbalanced , hence kids unbalanced..what they need is good old fresh air and Dirt...not enough dirt ...dirt..soil...mud...
and more dirt
 
Chris, I think you're right. When I was at school the subjects I excelled in were the ones where I liked the teacher.

However, I work in inner London schools and if you'd seen/heard some of the things I have coming from students to teacher, you may form a different opinion.

Too much attitude, some kids.

Don't get me wrong though, I don't want to be negative, I'm one of those fools who actually believe the greater majority of kids are ok.

When I was at School, aged about 13, the teachers could hit us. It wasn't really that long ago either.

I was taught French by a very attractive but soft young lady teacher. I took the Mick, frankly, disrupted classes, and behaved like a complete twat, looking back on it. For two years I came bottom in French.

Then we got a male teacher, a Mr Maurice. I tried the same thing with him. He used to walk round the classroom, dictating passages of French and making us all repeat them out loud.

When I tried to crack a funny, as he walked from the back of the class past my desk, he swung the very heavy text book he was reading from against the back of my head. So hard that my head bounced off the desk. That shut me up :D

He was a good teacher. In three months I went from bottom in a class of 30 to 5th because of him. And yes, once I got to know him he was actually an ok geezer.

Kids are heartless and cruel, they see a weakness in a teacher, they'll exploit it. Teachers have to be strong. A good teacher is to be really apreciated, they're quite rare, in my experience.

And before anybody asks, yes, I do believe students should have to put up with punishment such as the cane, cos it actually works.
 
Never in a million years (give or take) would I be a teacher. My wife teaches and to be honest I don't know why she continues in the job with all the cr*p she has to put up with. She is answerable to everybody - from pupils (and parents who feel they can come to school and let the teacher know how they should be doing their job!) to internal and external verifiers.
Holidays are a joke; she had 219 pieces of coursework to mark this Easter break. So 219 pieces at a quarter of an hour each ..... well, you do the maths!
Phew - sorry about the rant, as I said at the beginning, teaching is the last thing in the world I would do - I'll stick to my job as sewage disposal technician thank you very much.

Covenant
 
My girlfriend is a teacher and i have to say, we all go 'yeah yeah, teachers have it easy, all the holidays etc'. But the amount of time spent marking and planning lessons is ridiculous, and she works way more hours than i do for less money! And it's been said before here, but i could not put up with those children. They have no respect because of the society we live in today, it's too much of a nanny state. Parents need to take more responsibility for the disgusting, horrible, putrid little b*stards they spawn these days. Now, im sure most kids are alright, but some are just tw*ts and it's the parents fault.

The police have the same problem, no respect and you cant dicipline these day!!

Rant over. :-)
 
By Flops
Chris, I think you're right. When I was at school the subjects I excelled in were the ones where I liked the teacher.
Click to expand...

Well i disagree.. I loved the female sports teacher ...but i was crap at Netball and Rounders :p and the Biology teacher was fit and i was crap at that too !!!
 
Rush said:
By Flops


Well i disagree.. I loved the female sports teacher ...but i was crap at Netball and Rounders :p and the Biology teacher was fit and i was crap at that too !!!
Click to expand...

You, my friend, are confusing hormonal surges with excellence in a chosen subject :p

Which, of course, is understandable at that age :D
 
I'll telll you something.

As someone doing A levels right now, the standard of teaching is not actually poor, although even in the 6 years I have been at secondary there has been a huge drop in the pass rates and teaching levels, and the reason is not that the teachers are crap.

The fact is, they cannot discipline anyone, especially the new ones. The younger years are ridiculously cocky and arrogant, and it increases as you go down the school years. We were absolutlely scared stiff if a 6th former shouted at us in years 7 - these kids try and start fights with us :/

The problem is really not the teachers, it is the students. Parents need to be given a kick up the arse, and teachers need to be able to give their kids a kick up the arse. This poncy nanny state has given every kid free reign to do whatever the hell he pleases with no fear of punishment.

The only good teachers are the ones who are able to scare the hell out of the nasty little sods that they are trying to teach. I'm not making out I am some perfect student. I mean, I have been suspended, and been in my fair share of detentions and lets just say I havn't always been too pleasant to all staff.... But there are boundaries you don't cross. I got good GCSE results, and I am doing alright at the moment, but these kids just break rules for the sake of breaking rules. Its utterly pointless.

I think kids should be allowed to fight in school. I think they should get caned (or to that effect) and I think that they should bloody well be shouted down when they do something wrong.

Pathetic psycologist - style programmes and in depth student brain pattern analysis do not work. Being a friendly, nice, helpful teacher is the best way of getting kids to learn, but unless you can turn on the rage then you will never make it as a teacher.

My rant. Sorry its a little incoherant. There was more but I cut it short. :thumb:
 
This is all true, though kids shouldn't be allowed to fight in school because all that will happen is that the ones that DO want to fight will effectively MUG those who do NOT want to fight.

Lets not confuse here having a teacher you like to a teacher you would like to have your way with.

I'm on about a younger, energetic teacher (male or female) who has a good sense of humour and has respect for the kids. If someone steps out of line in an enjoyable lesson they will be punished, and they will regret missing out on fun.

But, sadly, the generations that have replaced mine in the world of eduction seem to have less and less respect. I would never talk back to a teacher unless i felt they were being unfair and then i would let them know exactly what i though - but i have always been Just. Not rude. Just.

School isn't just there for education, it is there for life skills and fun - i wouldn't have bothered to go if it was all about learning stuff parrot fashion - even in maths lessons we all had friendly banter in class with the teacher about his private life and i was top of the class there. In the one year that we didnt have that teacher (instead we had a horrible lady who was much more strict) i fell to bottom of the class. And got in trouble with her.

For fear of rambling, i'm off to choose some new paint for my room!
 
After what 30 years of primary school teaching did to my poor sister, there is no way I would recommend teaching, as a career, to anyone. It nearly burned & stressed her out. The paper work, political correctness, health & safety, & government targets has put many off from entering the profession.

The worrying thing is that has now spread into youth organisations, such as Scouts, and is now having a seriously detrimental effect.
 
Education & Teaching has gone down hill!
'Idealist teacher':lol:
You are an idealist and still have faith in the capacity of teachers to be the midwives of dreams. But is there still a place for you amid the expediency and management-speak of education today?

Could you honestly see me as a teacher!
 
Not quite on topic I know (you couldn't pay me enough to be a teacher)
But I heard recently that they're introducing the wearing of body armor at some schools in the UK!
Is that true?
John says it's about blo*dy time
He was shot in the back at school when he was 14
By kids who didn't even know him but were just trying out their new toy
(& I'm not talking about a bird gun)

Ironic thing is, the teacher who saw it was so busy telling the kids with the gun off
They didn't even notice John
& when he got home all his mum did was tell him off for ruining his anorak & getting blood all over his clothes :eek:
funny thin is, from where the scar is, if it hadn't deflected off a rib he'd've drowned in his own blood in minutes.
& he had to have had a broken rib
but he was never even taken to hospital!
Now he'll be fifty next year so this was a few years ago & I doubt things have improved since.
But, although he was smart enough to win a national prize in the one subject where a teacher took the time to bond with the kids & was gifted enough to actually teach them in the appalling conditions most teachers work in.
The school system itself failed him so miserably that he came out of it not even knowing what a vowel was!
& it's not the teachers' faults either
The classrooms were so packed that they were little more than 'holding pens' for the kids.
And 'traditional discipline' had no more effect than any of the 'softer' more 'psychologicaly appropriate' ( :lol: ) methods used today.
(personally I think any method loses it's effect once it becomes the norm & is taken for granted)
I have to say that I personally think that the whole system is failing miserably.
Kids are learning little
and teachers are overworked
overcome
& generally disillusioned.
I'm afraid that I think the entire system needs to be torn down & rebuilt from scratch.
Trouble is I have no clue as to how to accomplish this :(
 
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