Is The Teaching Profession so Black & White?
Newspapers On Education - Teachers Face Mental Health Issues...
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Fantisising Injury - 2
Classroom Behaviour
At its best teaching is a great job. That’s why I considered it. It wasn’t just my wife and I who had tears in our eyes when our son, who is currently in the midst of the interminable process they make you go through to get an Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis, played the piano in front of the school. So did one of his teachers, who went way above and beyond the requirements of her job in working to build his confidence and get him to a place where he could succeed.
But even moments of beauty like that can’t make up for the downsides for too many teachers when they conduct a cost benefit analysis on their own lives.
And the nation’s children lose out as a result.
My wife is a highly qualified, and extremely talented teacher. She would be an asset to any school. I know this because I have talked to people who have worked with her.
When she decided to go back to work after having children, however, she returned to the classroom not as a teacher but as an assistant. This is not at all unusual.
As a result she gets paid thousands of pounds less than she could earn, and her skills aren’t as effectively deployed as they might be.
But she’d heard and took note of the words of one of our friends who said: “You know, I’ve spent so much time ticking boxes and working for other people’s children that I’ve missed out on my own. If I could go back I’d do it differently.”
I have to say, I think my wife made the right choice. But it saddens me.
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