"I now want to get into teaching" bandwagon

peanuthead

Powerhouse wrote: »

Sorry, what books are you buying? You should get your school textbooks from the school and of what you need in college, you might buy one and get the rest in the library. Just that when you say you got most of them on adverts, it seems like a lot of books.

Yeah that does make them sound like a lot. But actually all the texts and stuff I got from the school in May, but I got in touch with someone who did the course in the same place I'm going and I was to buy 2 books off her, but then she actually just gave me a couple more for free. So I didn't buy a huge amount or anything, but then I did get the history of Ed too.

I'm not into libraries really - could do without the stress of having to battle my way past people to get the last copy kind of thing.

jbravado

Powerhouse wrote: »

I have already touched on this but it seems to have remained unread so I'll say it again. Some teachers here are portraying their job as hell on earth, utterly stressful and horribly demanding. There is a certain arrognace to this in that it seems to be implying that many of the new entrants could not possibly be capable of coping with this. It is impossible for any prospective teacher to know the actuality of the class-room until they end up there. This was also the case for those who are telling us about the pressure too. But the link between not perhaps fully appreciating difficult aspects of the job and not being able to cope when they emerge is being implied and that seems unfair and inappropriate.

There is also an assumption here that stress and pressure are two concrete labels which can be hung on a particular job. Stress and pressure are abstract, subjective things which affect people differently. You might find dealing with 25/30 children terrible, but somebody else might be a natural and much better at coping with this situation. They might be quite comfortable letting a bit of banter or messing go in the confidence that they can rein it in easily while another teacher might not be able to cope without complete control at all times.

The stress thing is often a bit of a non-argument anyway as it cannot really be challenged. If you say to a teacher "why do you stay in the job then?", you'll often get the "coz I luv it" riposte. As I often say if you do "luv it" how bad can it actually be? Or do you really think that you are that great that you can cope with/love a terribly stressful job that not many others can do?

Well, I have news for you - there are 60,000+ teachers around the country, very ordinary people, who teach year in year out. Some do it well, quite a few do it badly, the rest just get on with it. Much like most jobs really. But the idea that it is some kind of esoteric insuperable challenge only for the few doesn't stack up when you see you next door neighbour at it.

As for "do people not realise the jobs situation?" - yes, I am sure people do, but there are two answers to this, one is that many people will always determindly believe that there is one reality for the rest of the population but that it'll be different for them when their time comes, and the second is that the situation is not different in any other job these days. You wouldn't believe the number of unemployed Solicitors that are out there, to give just one maybe less than broadly publicised example.

Amazing post.
One of major concerns about getting into teaching is being exposed to or having to deal with people of the Ops ilk.