RANT: Teachers, why are you so whiny?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Change jobs, OP, and learn that people complain in every profession.

What a dolt. You should be ashamed of yourself for generalizing your rant. You could have said: "Teachers shouldn't complain so much in their privileged school cluster." But no, you extended your WHINE to make completely incorrect statements about education in general.

Shame on you.

Nope. I made it clear tgay I was speaking from my own experience in a well-off school district and that I know it’s not the same everywhere.

You buried that after a subject title of, “Teachers, Why are you so whiny?” and a first sentence addressed to “teachers”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Change jobs, OP, and learn that people complain in every profession.

What a dolt. You should be ashamed of yourself for generalizing your rant. You could have said: "Teachers shouldn't complain so much in their privileged school cluster." But no, you extended your WHINE to make completely incorrect statements about education in general.

Shame on you.

Nope. I made it clear [ ] I was speaking from my own experience in a well-off school district. I know it’s not the same everywhere.

I fixed your errors for you, OP. Thank a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Of course Summers off are a perk. And, I well needed rest for teachers to recharge. The pay sucks, and if you think it's fair you are so wrong. The responsibility is tremendous. Teaching children, some of whom may be hungry, some of them have no electricity or heat or air conditioning at home, some who may have addicted parents, some of whom have undiagnosed learning disabilities, you also have to deal with their parents. Parents who maybe didn't have a good experience in school themselves, and are not so great at dealing with the school system. Parents who may be a working two jobs to pay the bills. Parents who maybe have nannies do everything, because they can't be bothered. Parents who are entitled and demand you do all sorts of things for their child. And let's talk about the fact that teachers gave up a contracted raise in 2008 that they still haven't been given back, even though the Board of Education got a raise, the County Council got a raise, and even the Superintemdant got a massive raise after one year on the job.

OP, what you describe is not the reality for most teachers. You are tired and bitter and should not be working in a school, or anywhere near other people's children.

[Anonymous]

OP. This is my impression of some of the teachers at our high SES school as well and our principal who is never at the school and doesn't even know the kid's names. There are some great teachers but a good third to half of them are similar to your description. In the corporate world though it is the same scene with a good third of the workforce just clocking it in. At least in teaching, you have to be responsible all day for children. I just ignore any complaining now and just focus on my own kid which is what they want me to do anyway. If they want a raise, they can spend the time advocating for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amen. No other white collar professional whines like a teacher.

+1000

I agree with this. I am not saying teachers don't have and hard and respectable job, but the way they rant and complain and generally act like they think their job is so much harder than other jobs does NOT do good things to combat the existing "teachers aren't very smart" stereotype.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course Summers off are a perk. And, I well needed rest for teachers to recharge. The pay sucks, and if you think it's fair you are so wrong. The responsibility is tremendous. Teaching children, some of whom may be hungry, some of them have no electricity or heat or air conditioning at home, some who may have addicted parents, some of whom have undiagnosed learning disabilities, you also have to deal with their parents. Parents who maybe didn't have a good experience in school themselves, and are not so great at dealing with the school system. Parents who may be a working two jobs to pay the bills. Parents who maybe have nannies do everything, because they can't be bothered. Parents who are entitled and demand you do all sorts of things for their child. And let's talk about the fact that teachers gave up a contracted raise in 2008 that they still haven't been given back, even though the Board of Education got a raise, the County Council got a raise, and even the Superintemdant got a massive raise after one year on the job.

OP, what you describe is not the reality for most teachers. You are tired and bitter and should not be working in a school, or anywhere near other people's children.

The thing is, you could write a similar laundry list for pretty much ANY job. It's that teachers act like problems with the system/their days not running perfectly smoothly is a unique issue for them that makes them look bad.

[Anonymous]

At my school, our paras are awesome. Hardworking, care about the kids, close with the teachers. We highly value them and they value us. I hope you get to work in a school like that and can become a person like that someday.

[Anonymous]

I’m a teacher and I agree with a good portion of it. Especially the pay. I make just about what my roommate does in a corporate job, but she is always connected and works from home so many evenings. I definitely work less than her as a middle school teacher. Also, I get sick of colleagues complaining about the workload to get their Masters and then the little payout from it.

I don’t have any helpers to come make copies, but I do employ the peer grading technique for quizzes and small assignments. I only grade tests and even then it’s not that difficult if it’s a scantron test or online test. Bam! Done for me.

Most of my day is spent pretending the kids don’t stink, pretending I’m not eavesdropping on their conversations, and (some days) pretending I’m not as excited for the 3:35 bell as I really am. And also answering the parent emails. You guys email a lot! But, luckily, most questions are repetitive so I can do a fair bit of copying and pasting.

Also, you’ve caught us; the jig is up. We don’t start working on the next year’s plans until last minute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher and I agree with a good portion of it. Especially the pay. I make just about what my roommate does in a corporate job, but she is always connected and works from home so many evenings. I definitely work less than her as a middle school teacher. Also, I get sick of colleagues complaining about the workload to get their Masters and then the little payout from it.

I don’t have any helpers to come make copies, but I do employ the peer grading technique for quizzes and small assignments. I only grade tests and even then it’s not that difficult if it’s a scantron test or online test. Bam! Done for me.

Most of my day is spent pretending the kids don’t stink, pretending I’m not eavesdropping on their conversations, and (some days) pretending I’m not as excited for the 3:35 bell as I really am. And also answering the parent emails. You guys email a lot! But, luckily, most questions are repetitive so I can do a fair bit of copying and pasting.

Also, you’ve caught us; the jig is up. We don’t start working on the next year’s plans until last minute.

I hate the peer grading. Not fair to kids who may be struggling a little. No one should know each other grades. I agree a lot with OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher and I agree with a good portion of it. Especially the pay. I make just about what my roommate does in a corporate job, but she is always connected and works from home so many evenings. I definitely work less than her as a middle school teacher. Also, I get sick of colleagues complaining about the workload to get their Masters and then the little payout from it.

I don’t have any helpers to come make copies, but I do employ the peer grading technique for quizzes and small assignments. I only grade tests and even then it’s not that difficult if it’s a scantron test or online test. Bam! Done for me.

Most of my day is spent pretending the kids don’t stink, pretending I’m not eavesdropping on their conversations, and (some days) pretending I’m not as excited for the 3:35 bell as I really am. And also answering the parent emails. You guys email a lot! But, luckily, most questions are repetitive so I can do a fair bit of copying and pasting.

Also, you’ve caught us; the jig is up. We don’t start working on the next year’s plans until last minute.

I'd like to emphasize this. I made less than my boyfriend teacher for YEARS after we graduated. MUCH LESS. Maybe teachers are underpaid but so is everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:as a former teacher, it really bugs me when folks mention summers off. This is unpaid time, yes most school systems have a plan in place where you can take your pay so as to lessen your monthly take home and spread your 10 month contract out to 12. Some people can afford to only work 10 months out of the year, but many others scramble- you speak like teachers should be working during the unpaid summer months to plan... OP your the worst.

I do not care if it is unpaid or not. What other job gives you the choice of not working at all 1/6 of the year?

BTW, you misspelled "you're" in your last sentence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course Summers off are a perk. And, I well needed rest for teachers to recharge. The pay sucks, and if you think it's fair you are so wrong. The responsibility is tremendous. Teaching children, some of whom may be hungry, some of them have no electricity or heat or air conditioning at home, some who may have addicted parents, some of whom have undiagnosed learning disabilities, you also have to deal with their parents. Parents who maybe didn't have a good experience in school themselves, and are not so great at dealing with the school system. Parents who may be a working two jobs to pay the bills. Parents who maybe have nannies do everything, because they can't be bothered. Parents who are entitled and demand you do all sorts of things for their child. And let's talk about the fact that teachers gave up a contracted raise in 2008 that they still haven't been given back, even though the Board of Education got a raise, the County Council got a raise, and even the Superintemdant got a massive raise after one year on the job.

OP, what you describe is not the reality for most teachers. You are tired and bitter and should not be working in a school, or anywhere near other people's children.

The thing is, you could write a similar laundry list for pretty much ANY job. It's that teachers act like problems with the system/their days not running perfectly smoothly is a unique issue for them that makes them look bad.

+ 1 million. It makes them seem out of touch. "I being work home!" Who doesn't? "I do not get paid enough!" Who does? What do they think the rest of us do? Sit around and eat Bon bons? This has always been the head-scratcher for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher and I agree with a good portion of it. Especially the pay. I make just about what my roommate does in a corporate job, but she is always connected and works from home so many evenings. I definitely work less than her as a middle school teacher. Also, I get sick of colleagues complaining about the workload to get their Masters and then the little payout from it.

I don’t have any helpers to come make copies, but I do employ the peer grading technique for quizzes and small assignments. I only grade tests and even then it’s not that difficult if it’s a scantron test or online test. Bam! Done for me.

Most of my day is spent pretending the kids don’t stink, pretending I’m not eavesdropping on their conversations, and (some days) pretending I’m not as excited for the 3:35 bell as I really am. And also answering the parent emails. You guys email a lot! But, luckily, most questions are repetitive so I can do a fair bit of copying and pasting.

Also, you’ve caught us; the jig is up. We don’t start working on the next year’s plans until last minute.

We have known that for years. The "jig" is not "up." It never was "down" in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I disagree with all of what you said. You're stupid, and a moron.

Selection and education degrees should be much harder, and educators should be better paid.

I'm a high school teacher in a small k-12, and the elementary teachers on our team work incredibly hard. As a high school teacher, I put in many, many hours outside of the classroom reading and commenting upon student compositions, and I have never had a summer "off."

Also, my (subject area) MA was more rigorous than anything you could achieve, OP, judging by what you have written. Despite your enthusiasm for gossip and eavesdropping in the workplace (what SHOULD you have been doing at school while you were lurking around the teachers, scrambling to assemble the bits and pieces you overheard into a summary of someone else's job experience?), you know nothing about what it means to be a teacher.

Let's think about this together, OP: what SHOULD you have been doing with your time at work? I am glad you are not a para assigned to help my department. I know your type. Please, please concentrate on your own job.

[Anonymous]

There is a lot of whining. I have 3 sisters/in laws and my mom and MIL. These women all live in high paying school districts and they whine about everything. It is a hard job emotionally if you are doing it right. I assume this is their way of blowing off steam. I ignore. The profession also seems to be tone deaf about their many vacation days and pensions/benefits. None will admit that this is a perk that most in the USA do not get.