General Chat

The belief of the general public that "teaching is easy" is so common and so very wrong.

I didn't believe what hard work it was until I actually did it .............. and I didn't believe how tiring it was until the end of the first term.


It really annoys me when people say "oh, teachers don't do anything, they don't deserve an increase (or they're paid too much)"

I taught in one of the few remaining Grammar Schools in 1967, in Cheshire which was a holdout county against Comprehensive schools in the 60s. It was girls only ............. and that mean that life was much easier than teaching in a junior school, a comprehensive, or mixed. The girls still had a respect for the teachers, parents still backed the teachers ...................... because it was costing them! They had to buy the uniform, etc .............. and there was still a cachet to having their daugthers attending the "Grammar" school.

I did not however enjoy teaching ............... I had always said I would "never" teach, but needs must.

I found I got little personal satisfaction from the job, even from making a break through by reaching a 14 year old that everyone else had given up on.

Strangely enough ............. I seemed to have made an impression in spite of that.

I got a pm through Friends Reunited a couple of years ago from one of the girls I had taught for the first 2 years of her time at the school. She said she just had to contact me, and say that I was the best teacher she'd ever had at the school.

Now, that DID touch me!

Terry I remember those as 1/3 pint glass milk bottles with the foil type top. You had to push a hole in, then drink through a waxy straw that got soggy really quickly *shudders*

to be honest i feel sorry for her
she died without her family close by

alone as if nobody cared :-(

Gins


I didn't let someone else choose my kitchen.

We had our daughter and architect, with training also in indoor "fittings", design a kitchen for us, as many people do. She designed everything to modern-day standards, as any designer would have done

Choice of cabinetry, appliances, etc was ours.

Where we went wrong was that I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong with the design plan ..... basically it was that the modern standard width for counters was too wide for our kitchen, and took away 18-24" from the usable floor space in the middle of the room ......... and that made a HUGE difference in usability when more than 1 person is in there.

As I couldn't say what exactly was wrong ........ OH went ahead with having it all done. It was only a few weeks after it was all finished, when I'd thrown several "spasms" about it, that we realised what I'd seen, but not understood, was wrong.

must get my son to read this page he is at uni and wants to be a teacher

on thatcher have thought long and hard of what good she did for me and can only think of one thing
she stopped the milk
i was milk monitor and some of those crates were lethal on delicate young fingers used to try and get in first to pick the best one used to call some of them something can't remember what the edges were not rolled over on some and cut in a treat

Indeed many people would regard being shut in a room with 30 odd children of any age as a cruel and unusual punishment.

Too right Rollo

I am not so daft as to teach kids!

Ive done my prep and tomorrow, when I get back from teaching, I shall be marking a shed load of assignments...........oh joy

I must have been a wasp in a previous life :-(

I have none about staying, Rollo.

Margaret Thatcher got her wrecking ball started as Minister for Education where Herr Heath reckoned she could not do much damage.

"And as for teachers and lecturers working hard......boy dont I know it. Im knackered and have to prep today for tomorrows lecture and Tuesdays lecture and on it goes............."

I taught maths for a year in Manchester. It really is bogglingly hard work and unlike, say, coal mining, there is no time off it just goes on and on and on lessons, prep, marking, extra curricular this that and the other, Saturday sports .... Since my day it the paperwork is now pretty bad too.

Without the holidays to recuperate I am sure the whole profession would go nuts. Indeed many people would regard being shut in a room with 30 odd children of any age as a cruel and unusual punishment.

I have a long held belief that if teachers hours actually giving lessons were restricted to 20 hours a week then the quality of teaching and hence results would improve no end to everybody's benefit. It would also help to ban mobile phones from classrooms and lecture theatres.

Moi? I thought that if I was going to work as hard as that I might as well get some real money so I left. No regrets.

My Dad said that he was taught by Michael Foot in the 1930's, although there's nothing about a spell of teaching in his Bio.

He said that MF was very inspirational. Although he was supposed to be teaching economics, he frequently drifted off into Politics.

Michael Foot has never been a tick candidate for me .

I shook hands and spoke with him when he visited where I worked in a Government office , he didn't have a clue ,what my work entailed when I tried to engage him in conversation ...perhaps his work schedule didn't allow him that. !

As for his 'duffle coat ' /' donkey jacket ' at the Cenotaph ..whilst it may not have looked as smart as the others, it was neither , the man would not demean himself at such a ceremony.

The nearest he got to No 10 was buying a small terraced house of the same number in a valleys town.

Nevertheless he was a gent and loved by loads ( I'm guessing on the second bit !! ).
As you may also guess from the first line of my post !

Ah, OK, fair enough....................I'm still happy to be part of the 'six'!

It was a poll done by an reputable independent firm, Gins, the Mirror has spun it but the figures are as found by the firm.They wouldn't get much repeat business if they allowed themselves to be anything other than independent.

Guinevere

Not sure how much I trust the 'Mirror' but add my name to list of please ;-)

Sylvs, you let someone else chose your kitchen.............silly girl!

And as for teachers and lecturers working hard......boy dont I know it. Im knackered and have to prep today for tomorrows lecture and Tuesdays lecture and on it goes.............

Zack. Good post. I once saw Margaret Thatcher at close distance. She was campaigning, and she was in her 50's. She moved very quickly and purposefully through a crowd, small in stature and easily missed. She had amazing skin, very smart and beautifully coiffeured, quite a lot prettier that her photos and with lovely and piercing blue eyes and nice smile.

Our opposition at the time was led by a brilliant politician on the Left called Michael Foot. Never in a million years was he going to be elected Prime Minister. He was the only person who dressed in a duffle coat on Remembrance Sunday. He also looked as if he had better places to be.

Traditional Labour voters loved Foot, but he was never going to get a majority and he was eventually dumped for Kinnock.

Kinnock did an amazing amount of good in controlling his left wing (remember Derek Hatton from Liverpool) and he almost beat Thatcher for top spot. But he was always like a horse in a handicap race carrying too much baggage - too Welsh, too ginger, too verbiose.

Finally, Mrs T was wrenched out of office and middle voters were hoping for a "wet" like Clarke or Heseltine to be leader. But, possibly with influence from Mrs T still, the grey man John Major was elected in her stead.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man for Labour - a dour Scotsman called John Smith. Universally admired, he would have wiped the floor with a wounded Major. Smith inconveniently died young. And, then, for better or worse, Labour opposition had Tony Blair. Young, attractive, the country was in love with him, it seemed. And he came in on the same "honeymoon" of popularity that Mrs T engendered and that she managed to revive briefly during the Falklands conflict.

So a weakened opposition could not do what most people wanted to do after the Falklands - remove her from office. :-( I see Milliband as being another Michael Foot incidentally - someone with great socialist credentials and a great intellect, but unelectable as Prime Minister. It is like a nightmare repeating itself 30 years later for me. :-(

Hello All,
I have watched from Australia with interest the comments on Baroness Margaret Thatcher, firstly she came from down the lower rungs of the ladder, like many in Oz she got through University despite that blot ,good on her
She then went into politics with the support of her husband and family ,she quickly made it to the top,
Margaret like Princess Ann had the face and profile that made her look aloof so this made people think she was stuck up,but I truly think she was not .

She had an plan and she stuck to the job, she had many hard decisions to make and the determination to go with it , she reminds me of our Prime Minister Julia Gillard you either love her or despise her, to a lot of people everything is black or white , I like to look at the big picture.
Julia has had to make some hard decisions and for this I do admire her.

Margaret was a very smart person a no nonsense person, I think possibly a hard person, but I think she needed to be otherwise she would not have lasted so long in the job which is a record
I cannot agree with all this nastiness this woman is dead and we are supposed to respect the dead I know that some of the decisions hurt many people but people should remember that these plans would have had to be approved by the Majority of Parliament.

To her family you have my sympathy Baroness Thatcher,May you Rest in Peace
from an interested Australian.

Reading back through this I was beginning to think I was in the minority in thinking Thatcher was not to be universally admired so it was refreshing to wake to the news that, despite opinions expressed on this site, I am in the majority as far as the great British public goes.

The Mirror commissioned a com/res survey -

"reveals that six out of 10 fiercely object to the £10million cost to the nation of Wednesday’s ceremonial send-off. Among them, one in three are even Tory voters. A further 15 per cent expressed no preference.

Almost six in 10 of those interviewed in the ComRes/Sunday Mirror survey also said they believed Baroness Thatcher was the “most divisive” prime minister ever. And our poll reveals that voters disagree with David Cameron’s description of The Iron Lady as “the greatest British peacetime prime minister” by 41 per cent to 33 per cent."

BTW ......... Anthony Nutting was the son of a Baronet who lived in Leicestershire, his 2 older brothers were killed in WW2, so he inherited the title when his father died in the early 70s. Yet, he was picked as the candidate in one of the 2 Oldham ridings.

Mind you, Winston Churchill first ran for Parliament in Oldham, back in 1899 .......................... and was defeated!


I did upset Nutting ................ I kept asking him a certain question about why something was not being done or had not happened. I forget exactly what it was now, something to do with where door knocking was not happening I think ............................. but I remember his final exasperated reply ........

........ "If you feel so strongly about it, go and do it yourself"!!!!!!!



I was a snotty nosed, new, uni graduate at the time, killing time while looking for work!



and, yes, I was having a hard time finding a job, even back then ................. mainly because the line of work I desperately wanted to be ................ genetics counselling ............... then required not only a degree in Genetics (which I had) but also a Medical degree, which I did not. I gave up applying for those jobs in September, and began to apply for teaching jobs.

I'd also tried to get a job in Forensics with New Scotland Yard :-D

I never claimed unemployment, or welfare. My father supported me with bed and board from June until I started work as a teacher in the following January. Plus I got odd jobs here and there, and used what little savings I had to buy essentials.


I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I got my first pay cheque as a teacher at the end of January ............ monthly take home pay was about £85. I'd never had that much money before!

I had just broken the £100 take home pay per month barrier in my last 2 months before leaving the job in July 1967.


That take home pay (equivalent) doubled when I began working in Texas in September! OH's had done the same


Boy, did we ever feel rich!!

Sandie



families, eh???



I wonder if what has happened is that the statement re her humble beginnings was first published back then, when it was true in comparing her with her male compatriots in the party ...................

and it has just been repeated again and again without referencing it to the "modern day"



although ...................... I wonder what is the percentage today of what might loosely call "upper" vs "lower" in the Tories vs Lib Dem vs Labour?!!




I do like to try to bring out what is relevant from my knowledge and experiences from back then!

I did leave the UK, willingly, in 1967, and although we have kept up with a lot of what happens, I don't have that almost innate knowledge anymore, the kind that comes from living in the country.

Elaine ..............



Oldham


where are you from?

Ooh Sylvia~

I'm with you on the kitchen change ,I'm finding my heels being dug in at the mo regarding decisions on the kitchen,,,that's just me and hubby.

My 2 are 24 and 27, dau has ideas on kitchen...but they are not going to happen !

Sorry to go off track..Errol.................

Humble Mrs T may have been in the Tory eyes of those days and todays ,thank you for your reply and explanation.

I still cannot accept her being quoted as being a humble person in the literal meaning of the word, Gives out the wrong signals.
Don't get me wrong, I've voted Tory,and get the gist of what you have said..

Thanks Sylvia~~~