Teachers do have a hard job, I know I have worked in secondary schools. (should have stuck with it, I know, I'd be retiring on a fantastic pension about now) They also get fantastic benefits including long holidays and a great pension scheme. They can even go down to part time at the end of their career without endangering pensions. Policemen get to retire even earlier - and they never seem to go anywhere without a buddy - even to a meeting with a headteacher for example. Lots of people in the private sector work just as hard as teachers and for less reward. So I am not entirely sympathetic. I don't think this is about the recession or cuts though - it is the issue that we are (in general) very happy to live longer healthier lives, long past retirement in many cases but there is not willingness to recognise that pension age has to change. It is just not sustainable. We are heading for a situation where a good proportion of adults live longer after retirement than the time they spent as working people. How does that add up? (How does it add up - do a degree and a masters then have a gap year to recover, as they do. So you start work at about 24. You retire at 60, with possibly a sabbatical or two in between. So about 35 years of work. If you live to 95 as increasing numbers are.... then that's a 35 year retirement. Yes it does add up.)
There has just been a generation of retirees that have benefitted from both good pensions, often with an early retirement option, followed by good health. This has built up an expectation that this pattern is somehow an entitlement. When pensions were first introduced for the working man they were mostly dead within a couple of years.