Without all due respect
Teachers are more qualified and better paid than ever before, and a TES survey reveals that they hold their own profession and skills in high regard. Despite this, they are viewed as low-status by the public and politicians alike
When Gwen Smith started teaching in 1958, the only qualifications she needed were A levels – and the tutors who gave her a place on a prestigious training course were equally interested in her hobbies. “They weren’t after just brains, they wanted something more,” Smith says. “They didn’t want bluestockings. I think they wanted to know how well I would relate to children.”
Fast-forward more than half a century and every teacher has to be a graduate – many even hold master’s degrees. But while the pay would be almost unrecognisably high to teachers of a generation ago, and the introduction of teaching assistants would seem something of a luxury, the status of the profession is vastly diminished.
“Teachers were held in more regard in those days,” says Smith, who retired four years ago at the age of 70 after having a triple heart bypass. “Everyone knew less about teaching than they do now. But we were held in more awe,” she says. “The job was more private. There wasn’t the situation of school vying against school. We were all held in the same esteem – unless you really messed it up, of course.”
What Smith and her fellow veteran teachers notice now is that, despite the leaps and bounds made in teachers’ working conditions, together with bigger financial rewards, they are almost universally derided, with slanderous aphorisms such as “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach” making an unwelcome return.
So it is surprising to find that, despite the barrage of constant criticism, today’s teachers are extremely positive about their profession and confident in their own abilities.
A new survey by TES has found that a conclusive 92 per cent of teachers believe that their job is more difficult than those of their friends or relatives. And they feel positive enough about their role to promote it – perhaps surprisingly, 63 per cent of the 1,041 people questioned said that they would recommend teaching to others. A total of 84 per cent said that they felt skilled enough to do something other than teaching and 61 per cent said that they were confident enough in their skills to switch careers.
You can read the full version of this article in the April 20 issue of TES.
Comment (5)
This poor perception of teachers is what can be the nail in the coffin for many stressed, burnt out teachers. The feeling that no matter what they do it's never enough and worse still never good enough is perhaps why so many are leaving teaching (especially NQTs). How can teachers earn the respect of the society and community which they serve? What more can they do?
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17:58
20 April, 2012
MindfulTeacher
Solutions:
1. Amalgamate all unions or replace them with one professional body (akin to the doctor's BMA) so that the public's current perception of the many egotists at Easter conferences venting forth on froth rhetoric resulting in zero impact, is stopped.
2. Introduce accountabiltity (careful now!) to schools so that Heads, governing bodies and individual teachers who choose to ignore/deny that there's anything wrong with how they do things after having contributed to successive 'satisfactory' / 'inadequote' ratings, can be sacked.
3. Empower effective Heads to exclude more easily and without the red-tape and interference of members of some governing bodies who are only interested in the prestige (lol) of their position rather than the success of the school.
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20:43
20 April, 2012
One Horse Town
The fact that this summary of the main TES article makes not even the most glancing reference to the demise of the GTC(E) which took place within the last few days, coupled with the equally cavalier a-historical perspective of previous contributors here tells a lot, though certainly by no means all we need to know, about this issue.
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10:28
21 April, 2012
BigFrankEM
The primary reason politicians dislike teachers so much is that teachers implement their policies. It is clear that the policies don’t work, it is inconceivable that the politicians are at fault, therefore it’s the teachers.
It may be owing to the overwhelming bias of Oxbridge arts students in Government, both in power and the bureaucracy, who went to extremely nice schools and necessarily did extremely well that they appear to have no grasp of the nitty gritty of daily teaching. And at which point in history was it decided that schools should sort out society’s ills?
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11:42
23 April, 2012
Gurney Halleck
The problem is that most people think they know what teaching is about because they went to school, and that of course gives them a clear understanding of what teachers do, does it? The other problem is that we are seen as overpaid, glorified babysitters and when we go on strike for fair pension rights or any other issue that impacts on our professional role we are seen as causing untold inconvience because the parents have to look after their own darling offspring
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14:16
27 April, 2012
purpleanna