Teachers

I would not want to be a teacher. The though if standing up in front of even 30 5 yrs old would scare me to death. Good luck to them all.

It takes a strong and confident person to do the job. Some should not be in the job if they cannot keep order or excite the kids about a subject.

My DS was a clever but fidgety easily distracted child. (Still is fidget.) He had a particularly good primary school teacher at 9ish who was quite tough with him. She always complained about his lack of concentration etc, but she understood him very well and he really liked her.

Same with the wonderful Head master at that school. Totally in charge but very kind and well liked by the children and parents.

...and there was I thinking GN was a University of Life!

As you see. Second cup.... slurp.

Well picked up, absnet . I only meant that gransnetters, like any other bunch of people, will cover a whole range of characteristics, and that labels are not really very useful. Hadn,t drunk all my coffe by then.

Bags How many people go straight from school to university to Gransnet?

Could have added gransnetters to the list.

I think the same could be said about any group of people who happen to have the same label. Bankers, MPs, software engineers, graphic designers, etc. Which proves that they're all human, I suppose. There! Sorted!

Couldn't agree more about consultants. Also some Doctors!

And some hospital consultants.

Sometimes, just sometimes some teachers who've gone through school, university and straight into teaching, show incredible ignorance of the outside world or problems faced by families outside the shelter of academia.

Just sometimes.

Yep!

I was told by one teacher my son was mentally retarded! He has an IQ of 147.+
He was just bored. In a different school he flourished.

I had two inspiring teachers; two really hopeless ones; and a raft of others who did OK. I guess that is probably a reflection of other professions too.

Nostalgia is not what it used to be

Holding my hands up – there are teachers who can be massively damaging, who belittle and put down and destroy any belief a child or young person may have in themselves. This is, of course, a massive betrayal of their function but it truly happens. There are, equally, hugely inspiring teachers who encourage their pupils/students to look further than they thought and expect more of themselves.

I remember both kinds and sometimes I do hear echoes of the attitude that got it wrong when I overhear ex-teachers – or even current teachers – talking. I have to say I think my life would have taken a completely different course if a couple of things/people had been different – one of them was a teacher. Of course, who knows if it would have been better?

Have replied on other thread

When in doubt - let's bash teachers? Or doctors? or nurses? Do you ever stop to think you are being very hurtful? It may seem very witty to you but what about other people's feelings?

My daughter is a teacher!

So now we're having to put up with teacher-bashing.
Your reasoning being........................................??
What next?

There is a nice line in Judith O'Reilly's book (the doing good one) about teachers, and healers and rescuers. It's tricky to take it out of context without losing meaning, but I'll try. She talks about the idea of doing good being important in life, and ends the 27 Feb entry with this:
"Do those who believe in the critical importance of doing good for their fellow man carry that belief through to the choice of their job? I find that uplifting, that those in jobs that heal us or teach us or rescue us aren't just taking the pay cheque at the end of the month, but that every day they walk the walk with or without a turban and a sword at their side."

The references to the turban and the sword are via Sikhism, in which apparently the men's turban "acts as a sign of disciplined holiness ... while the sword represents the call to uphold justice and protect the weak."

Nobody becomes, or stays, a teacher just for the money. She's right about that.

Work. In all its many forms.

If there's a wrong end of a stick you can bet your life some people..................!

I'm not even a retired anything. I would love to be a retired housewife. What are you a retired of JO?

That obvious, eh?