Ellianne, all of the following are fairly snide.
'This is actually the 3rd thread this week that has been hijacked along the lines of teachers deserve no criticism.' (hijacked is very emotive language. You imply that you are free to say what you want with no comeback)
'most of whom don't come close to being real heroes.' Really? When was the last time someone threw a chair at you, came into your office with a weapon or had an illegal allegation made against you that could end your career? All of those have happened to me as a teacher.
'I just wish it were allowed on GN to occasionally publicly criticise a teacher' But it isn't occasional OR about a single teacher. It is able teachers as a group.
Why do you feel the need to criticise teachers? We are currently in school, among people who are frequently asymptomatic super spreaders. We do it for not great pay and rather than facing occasional criticism, actually face a barrage.
Frankly, teaching is near enough an impossible job in the UK. Rather than criticising teachers, why don't all of those who think we are lazy or do s**t jobs, go to the people who make it an impossible job and get the working conditions changed, so we can do what we signed up for and actually spend the majority of our time educating, rather than data entry, report writing and other assorted administration that never benefits children?
I don't need to be called a hero. But I would like those that think it is possible to be a teacher and be lazy stand in front of 35 difficult teenagers, to meet all of their individual needs, manage at times violent and aggressive behaviour and actually impart some actual learning.
Even the worst teacher will be working in excess of 45 hours a week. By the time you've factored in all of the face-to-face teaching time, mandatory box ticking, meetings, duties etc. Missing any of those would result in being put on a disciplinary within a month. I am of course ignoring planning and marking, because those are the things that ARE able to be neglected in the short term.
No, not all teachers are super-teachers. But any teacher not meeting the basic requirements of the job would be out. It might not be possible to sack a teacher, but there are many underhand ways of getting them out. I have witnessed bullying, victimisation, unmanageable working conditions. All of which result in the teacher eventually going.
As my parting salvo, I would say that UK teachers are regarded as being among the best in the world. You only have to look in the TES teaching jobs section. The whole world aims to recruit us. I currently work for three times a UK teaching salary overseas and do approx. half the work.