| CB27
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| Sadurian Mike
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| 908322. Thu May 10, 2012 10:52 am |
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...said the soon-to-be ex-Ofsted chief, Sir Michael Wilshaw....
Is this guy a complete prat or has he been cherry-picking the schools he inspects? |
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| suze
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| 908323. Thu May 10, 2012 10:53 am |
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"What we don't need are leaders in our schools whose first recourse is to blame someone else", he says.
Why doesn't he rephrase that as "What we don't need are ministers in our government whose first recourse is to blame someone else"?
And then go and fuck himself. |
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| strawhat
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| 908333. Thu May 10, 2012 11:10 am |
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What a fuckwit.
To take a leaf from his book. Stress is what the new generation of aspiring teachers feel when the job is rubbished and torn apart by people of high influence on a weekly basis. |
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| Spud McLaren
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| 908391. Thu May 10, 2012 4:48 pm |
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| Sir Michael Wilshaw wrote: | | "What we don't need are leaders in our schools whose first recourse is to blame someone else" |
That one sentence, on its own, resonates with the words kettle, black and teapot.
| suze wrote: | | And then go and fuck himself. |
I think he's done quite enough of that already. |
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| Zebra57
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| 908718. Fri May 11, 2012 7:17 pm |
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| It is about time that someone was appointed to lead Ofsted who spends more time trying to progress the education system than in self publicity. Standards are important but you do not improve the system by continuing to belittle the teaching profession. Ofsted itself needs to take a hard look at its levels of success and decide whether it is satisfactory or even fit for purpose. |
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| CB27
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| 908745. Fri May 11, 2012 10:46 pm |
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Changing the conversation a bit, I was against the way the Free Schools concept was set up, but I'm reminded why an alternative method of schooling can actually show significant results.
My uncle and his family live in a kibbutz in Israel, and his wife was a teacher there for several years. I assumed all this time that the incredible academical knowledge of their three sons were due to her work with them at home, but the other day she told us that from next year the Government are funding an extension for their school to allow kids from nearby villages and towns to attend as well because of the very high academic achievement of their school.
I didn't quite understand all she explained about the reasons for their success, but one thing did pique my interest when she said that the concentrate studies in maths, literacy, music and languages between ages 6-12 so they achieve college level education by age 12, but they minimise studies in subjects like history, geography and others, and only increase them after age 12. The way she explained is that they decided kids can learn certain knowledge better when they're young and can learn other knowledge better when they're older if they are able to spend more time on them.
It's obviously quite a radical shift from the normal way of trying to have a balance of different subjects through the school lifetime, and I don't know if it works for everyone, or can work under most teachers, but knowing my cousins it seems to have worked well for them.
If some fo the free schools are allowed to try new ideas then maybe it can be worth the effort. |
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| swot
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| 908764. Sat May 12, 2012 4:12 am |
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| Perhaps Mr Wilshaw should watch this. |
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| Sadurian Mike
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| 908778. Sat May 12, 2012 4:42 am |
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| I love that! |
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| Arcane
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| 908780. Sat May 12, 2012 4:46 am |
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A teacher I know sparked a discussion by revealing after quite a few years of teaching, he had his first death threat the other day - from an 8 year old.
The comments and ages that followed were quite horrific. Things like "Die, you bitch" and "I'll come to your house in the middle of the night and beat your head in" or "I"ll send my dad around to beat you up" - from kids as young as 6.
Stress? No, course not. |
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| djgordy
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| 908819. Sat May 12, 2012 7:38 am |
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| If teachers do get stressed, a least they can go home at half past three every day and have the whole summer off to get over it. |
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| Sadurian Mike
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| 908830. Sat May 12, 2012 7:59 am |
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| Unless, as most do, they have other work to do after classes end. Lesson planning, marking, and so on. Plus any after-school activities that they get involved in and parents seem to expect. |
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| Arcane
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| 908832. Sat May 12, 2012 8:02 am |
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| And in places like Australia, long distances to drive - sometimes over an hour in each direction. |
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| djgordy
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| 908835. Sat May 12, 2012 8:07 am |
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| Just wind them up and let them go............ |
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| Neotenic
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| 908846. Sat May 12, 2012 8:45 am |
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| Quote: | | And in places like Australia, long distances to drive - sometimes over an hour in each direction. |
A long commute is hardly exclusive to either particular countries or particular jobs.
But on the original subject, I find myself thinking that the poor chap actually has a reasonable point to make, he just made it in a bad way and it has then had an additionally distorting layer added to it in the reporting.
I certainly think that Ofsted have missed a trick in not publishing the full text of his speech, so that the more abrasive comments can be taken in their proper context.
I also see from his bio that his last role before joining Ofsted was as principal of an academy in a particularly fierce part of Hackney - so I would wager that he's going to have as good a handle on the pressures and issues that teachers face as anybody.
His critical mistake, I feel, is in phrasing his argument as "teachers think their job is stressful, but it's nothing compared to what I experienced in the past" - which is obviously not going to engender much sympathy.
I find myself thinking that the problem is really that any job can be stressful - but amounts of stress can not be quantified and directly compared. A job that one person may find tremendously stressful will be a walk in the park for others.
I don't find my work particularly stressful (hell, I don't really find very much stresses me at all) - but I'm sure that there are others that would have a total meltdown if they were tasked with producing the same outputs and analysis in the timescales that I do without breaking a sweat. It's just we're all built to do different things.
I think there is also an increasing tendency (again, far from limited to teaching) for people to say that they are 'stressed' when what they really mean is that they are 'busy' - and, again, saying that you are 'busy' is pretty standard small-talk fare in a work situation.
So I certainly don't think that there is any case to be made that teaching is any more stressful than many other jobs, and I do think that teachers at times have a particularly disproportionate chip on their shoulders about the relative importance of the work they do. Kids can turn into dysfunctional adults despite the very best teachers available, and build successful lives despite the very worst.
If nothing else, there is no applicable metric that can be applied to measure stress - and I can't help but think that if anyone finds their job too stressful, irrespective of whether they are a teacher or a tree surgeon, then they are very probably doing the wrong job. |
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