Nice People 13: Nice Save

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

Or, does teaching mostly attract the "almost rans". I had a conversation with somebody a few years ago that stuck with me. They hold lots of group conferences involving the police, social workers, medical professionals, legals and teachers - and invariably find the teachers are the ones who are most "stressed" by being in the conferences and having to present their knowledge and take on board what needs to be done. This is in an area of child protection. They felt that teaching attracts a similar group of stress-heads who find anxiety everywhere and a "can't cope" attitude.

I'm not sure that's fair. Doctors, police, legals and medical professionals would be used to presenting info to panel. My sil is a social worker and it is an everyday occurrence for her. That would not necessarily be the same for a teacher. They are used to being assessed, but child protection is a different arena. I'd be stressed too in that situation.

Generally I meet more stressed social workers than teachers. It is a very high stress job though.

Jazee

When DS was at primary school and doing the first tests, the teacher said he had to resit them. When I asked why, it wasn't because his answers were wrong, just that they weren't the correct right ones. (Hope that makes sense). He always has been a lateral thinker. These tests for littlies are bonkers.

hjd

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'm not sure that's fair. Doctors, police, legals and medical professionals would be used to presenting info to panel. My sil is a social worker and it is an everyday occurrence for her. That would not necessarily be the same for a teacher. They are used to being assessed, but child protection is a different arena. I'd be stressed too in that situation.

Generally I meet more stressed social workers than teachers. It is a very high stress job though.

My DH was a (physics) teacher for many years. Doesn't teach any more, works in admin in school.
He gets very worried at the thought of addressing a group of adults, other than at work on his subject. Teachers don't get to meet non-teaching adults/people not directly involved in school generally during the course of the working week.

GDB2222

Have you seen Prevc's WR jump? He almost ran out of hill. He's going downwards so fast that he really cannot afford to land where it's flat.

LydiaJ

hjd wrote: »

For a few years I proof-read reports for DH's school, to catch the worst of the howlers before they went out. Standards are pretty low - the demographic is a lot of young teachers. One of the things I always made sure was picked up and corrected was that no comparison, favourable or otherwise, should be made with anyone else (especially siblings).

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

PasturesNew wrote: »

Before there were any standards, didn't many teachers do less as there was no measure to reach? Or did they do more because they were a different type of people back then, with teaching being a vocation without a degree being required, whereas these days of requiring a degree they're mostly dissatisfied as they compare their incomes to those of other degree holders like Doctors and bankers?

Or, does teaching mostly attract the "almost rans". I had a conversation with somebody a few years ago that stuck with me. They hold lots of group conferences involving the police, social workers, medical professionals, legals and teachers - and invariably find the teachers are the ones who are most "stressed" by being in the conferences and having to present their knowledge and take on board what needs to be done. This is in an area of child protection. They felt that teaching attracts a similar group of stress-heads who find anxiety everywhere and a "can't cope" attitude.

There are vast numbers of teachers in this country - more than three times as many state school teachers as police officers, and about five times as many teachers as social workers. It's inevitable that within that number there's a huge variation in what kind of people they are and how competent and/or how stressed they are.

If it is, in fact, generally true that child protection is particularly stressful for teachers compared with other professionals, it's probably because it's (a) really important but (b) very difficult to do anything about when you spend almost all your time dealing with 30 children at once. Police, social workers, medical professionals etc get to deal with children one at a time, where the "issues" are the focus of what's going on. Teachers are supposed to fit the child protection stuff in as if by magic while the main focus is on, you know, educating the class.

Got interrupted by my kids half way through typing that, so X-posted with the others. Completely agree with what they've said - multidisciplinary case conferences are NOT a normal part of the job for teachers. I've been teaching since 1993 and have never had to go to one. In the course of my normal working life, I do a lot of presenting to kids (obviously) and a fair amount of round table discussion with other teachers about various things, including kids. If I did have to go to some kind of case conference with police, social workers, etc, I don't think I'd be nervous about being part of a discussion, but I would be outside my comfort zone having to do some kind of formal presentation - never having been to such a thing I'd feel I didn't know enough about what was expected of me to feel confident that I was doing it right.

zagubov

hjd wrote: »

My DH was a (physics) teacher for many years. Doesn't teach any more, works in admin in school.
He gets very worried at the thought of addressing a group of adults, other than at work on his subject. Teachers don't get to meet non-teaching adults/people not directly involved in school generally during the course of the working week.

I had to give a public talk in the town hall, decades ago. I could count the number of attendees on one hand. Still scared the living daylights out of me. Later I gave talks at educational conferences and felt a bit better. I'd taught a lot of adult courses by that point.

Got be honest, it's stressfull enough teaching different age groups such as mature students and young adults. How people cope with classes of dozens of kids is baffling. I take my hat off to those in the school sector.:T

LydiaJ

zagubov wrote: »

I had to give a public talk in the town hall, decades ago. I could count the number of attendees on one hand. Still scared the living daylights out of me. Later I gave talks at educational conferences and felt a bit better. I'd taught a lot of adult courses by that point.

Got be honest, it's stressfull enough teaching different age groups such as mature students and young adults. How people cope with classes of dozens of kids is baffling. I take my hat off to those in the school sector.:T

It's all about what you're used to. The last time somebody told me he couldn't imagine being able to do my job, and I said I couldn't imagine being able to do his, the person I was talking to is a special forces army captain!!!!

tom9980

michaels wrote: »

Had they lost some?

Don't think we had any of the teachers saying DD1 instead of DD2 or vice-versa this year which made a change Does everyone else think the school doe snot have enough ambition for their own children, as long as they are working to the required minimum SATS level there seems little pressure to get them up to their best possible level or I am just being a pushy parent?

Edit: Was going to remove doe snot which spell check of course didn't object to but it is snigger worthy so I will leave it....

I think it can depend on the willingness of the teacher and other staff to push on children its really hard when you have 30 kids to feel happy with the time you spend with them to help them progress. Wife does feel terrible guilt at times because with 32 children she struggles to have enough time to give them the help they need, she just does not have time. So it is very much up to parents to help out and indeed for us to try and ensure class sizes are smaller in the future.

In wifes school she has a child who has an SEN but in maths he is gifted to the extent they changed the timetables of her class and the one above so that he could attend maths with older children more to his ability. Despite this and many other efforts she still regularly has the parents of this child on her back about various issues which are mainly related to poor parenting.

vivatifosi

Saw a sign outside my local Timpsons today. It said that if you are unemployed and your interview suit needed dry cleaning, they'd do it free of charge.

AIUI they are also big on rehabilitating criminals... so good to hear about companies giving back, when there is so much in the press about dodging tax.

zagubov

vivatifosi wrote: »

Saw a sign outside my local Timpsons today. It said that if you are unemployed and your interview suit needed dry cleaning, they'd do it free of charge.

AIUI they are also big on rehabilitating criminals... so good to hear about companies giving back, when there is so much in the press about dodging tax.

I know that in Norn Iron the unemployed used to be allowed free travel on public transport for job interviews. Presumably we have (I hope ) something equivalent in GB. Wonders if NI Rail was ever privatised.:o