"Ruth, there should be more teachers like you."

Bert, there are many, many teachers that have dedicated their lives to teaching. It's a vocation for many of them. I just do supply (substitute) teaching and TA work alongside my other job. I take work in SEN units when I can because it's really rewarding and enjoyable. But working in schools has given me a really useful perspective. Mind you, because I work in some pretty rough schools with some fairly low-ability groups, you generally see more of the negative side of the education system. You find that you are working with the same challenging classes and groups of kids in the same schools over and over again, because it's their teachers who have the highest incidence of stress-related absence.

"The thing that surprises me is that the good teachers aren't even more critical of the bad ones than we are. After all, they are the ones that give the whole profession a bad name."

Well, I go into classes as a TA in addition to taking classes on my own, so I see a range of teaching. Usually it's the "bad" teachers who require the most additional support. But how are we defining "bad"? A teacher who doesn't care? (I don't think I've met a single one of those.) Who "can't teach"? (Often that's as much about the environment adn the support they are receiving as it is about their ability.) Who is too authoritarian? Who has lost control of the class? Let me try and explain something pretty fundamental which I think differentiates the time when you were teaching from the present day. At one time, society was constructed in such a way that certain professions incurred an innate respect: doctors, vicars and priests, teachers, etc. Nowadays, respect has to be "earned". So a kid walks into a classroom and, depending on how they've been brought up, what they've been taught at home, what their peers say, what they've seen on telly and in films, they don't necessarily see a teacher as someone who deserves respect; the teacher has to prove themselves. They have to assert their authority pretty early on, or the class will run riot. It can be exhausting and demoralising, especially for a young and inexperienced teacher. And with some of the more challenging groups of kids, if they see a chink in the armour, they are likely to go for the jugular. I was teaching a class yesterday morning who are notorious within that particular school. The TA said to me: "This is the group that made Mrs X go off sick." Apparently they had bullied her so badly about her physical appearance, and had so thoroughly disrupted her teaching, that she had been signed off with stress for the past 3 months. Now, within that group you are only talking about maybe half a dozen kids who are causing the problem. But as a result of their complete pack mentality, the rest of the class, and the rest of the classes that this particular teacher would normally have, have had supply teachers for the past 3 months.

Keep in mind that the schools I work in really are the sharp end. And the classes I often end up with are the sharp end of the sharp end, as it were. Some schools are much better at dealing with the discipline problems than others. Even in the rough schools there are plenty of good, motivated classes who do great work. Good leadership at the top is key. One of the schools that I work in is in special measures, and has one of the highest proportions of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children of any school in the country. But it is also a model of good practice as recognised by the department of education in terms of keeping those kids in school, through maintaining contact with their communities, celebrating their cultural traditions and developing strong networks. The school's results are improving. And it is a really nice school to be in, with interesting kids and welcoming staff. Not all schools are so well-led, nor so supportive of their staff.

My heart goes out to the teachers who are having to deal with the minority of kids who can be anything from disruptive to frightening. All this bunkum we hear on various threads about our poor little darlings who are so tired and stressed because they're being tested to death...in my experience, they're much more likely to be knackered because they've been running rings around some poor, beleaguered teacher all day.


"And I wouldn't say teaching is a thankless job."

Teachers nowadays get blamed for an awful lot, with very little acknowledgement of the great work they do, which is often in challenging environments with limited resources. Some would even have the audacity to suggest that they do their job because it's an easy ride, and because of the holidays. I think a bit more general acknowledgement of the work they are doing and of the service they render to society would be not only welcomed, but long overdue.