School holiday now?

Good post, Corners, and I think it sums up the whole debate superbly. Those of us who have spent the best part of 40 years in teaching didn't do it for the pay or the holidays. We did it because we saw it as a vocation; we were proud of what we were doing, making a difference to young lifes. It was a vocation we loved and the testament to our success is the number of former students who still keep in touch today, long after they moved on.

I feel rather sorry for those who didn't experience the same joy from their working lives. Some are so up tight about it they won't even admit to others what they did for a living!

Still, we must treat them with respect since we probably know as little about what their work involved as they do about ours!

+1

Very true there Mr M. Many a time I've been somewhere busy, shopping centre, football matches... and my old pupils have come up and said hello and some even say how I actually changed their lives, sometimes by teaching by them going on to further study which they had never considered, sometimes by sorting out their home problems. We are very lucky. 

Oh dear,  - have you not heard the phrase " self praise is no honour."

Still I suppose that if nobody else will, its the only way that people in boring  uninteresting  jobs can hear any good comments.

On the radio,this morning  there was a discussion about a council somewhere in yorkshire, (Barnsley I think) who have come to the conclusion that the long school holidays are having a detrimental effect on children's education and have started to address this by shortening the summer break. A step in the right direction obviously. I did enjoy the discussion as we drove to the garden centre, especially the contributions from knowlegable people who were agreeing that the current school holidays should be greatly reduced. Something I have been saying for years. 

K

You're a bit behind the curve on that one, K.

Two comments -

Barnsley (if you look back I brought this subject up a few pages ago) are not reducing school holidays, they're simply shortening the summer break and lengthening the October half term. When it was reported on TV several days ago (it's not a new story) they interviewed some parents - what was the first response they got? "Oh well I'll just take my children out of school in July anyway"!

Secondly, and not for the first time, it seems you are contradicting yourself - if teachers don't express pride and enjoyment in what they do you condemn them and if they do you call it "self praise".

Of course, in all the debates we've had about this over the years, you yourself have never made it clear what your working life comprised - did you enjoy it? Were you successful? Did you have a sense of pride in what you achieved? It would be nice to now more than just "private sector". We could then heap praise on you and move on from this constant obsession of yours (which I'm guessing by now is far more of a wind-up than a serious attempt to debate issues!)

You're a bit behind the curve on that one, K.

Two comments -

Barnsley (if you look back I brought this subject up a few pages ago) are not reducing school holidays, they're simply shortening the summer break and lengthening the October half term. When it was reported on TV several days ago (it's not a new story) they interviewed some parents - what was the first response they got? "Oh well I'll just take my children out of school in July anyway"!

Secondly, and not for the first time, it seems you are contradicting yourself - if teachers don't express pride and enjoyment in what they do you condemn them and if they do you call it "self praise".

Of course, in all the debates we've had about this over the years, you yourself have never made it clear what your working life comprised - did you enjoy it? Were you successful? Did you have a sense of pride in what you achieved? It would be nice to now more than just "private sector". We could then heap praise on you and move on from this constant obsession of yours (which I'm guessing by now is far more of a wind-up than a serious attempt to debate issues!)

yes me too

When someone is not open with me about what their jobs were in life I am forced to asume that they spent years in eith a penal or a psychiatric institution and as a precaution I treat them accordingly.

When someone is not open with me about what their jobs were in life I am forced to asume that they spent years in eith a penal or a psychiatric institution and as a precaution I treat them accordingly.

Of course, they could just be too embarrassed to let folk know. Nothing wrong with that, of course - not everyone can be one of life's achievers! 

When someone is not open with me about what their jobs were in life I am forced to asume that they spent years in eith a penal or a psychiatric institution and as a precaution I treat them accordingly.

Write your comments here...Hi Nav, When I was interviewing prospective job applicants and there were unexplained gaps in their employment record , that was something I was obliged to consider.  HOWEVER -

This forum, quite rightly does not require that its members give out personal details like their past employment, their shoe size, how much money they have in the bank, how much they are earning,  or the last time they gave money to charity as a requirement of membership.   If it ever becomes a requirement I would expect a rapid diminution in forum members

IMO If anybody chooses  to boast about their job all over the internet, then they should not complain when others discuss or are critical of that type of work.

As I have so often said on this forum, I am a pensioner Thats my job and that's what I get paid for.

K

As this thread has, for several pages, become an area of wind up posting, rather than start the task of deleting numerous posts,I'm suspending it and asking our Community Manager to consider its future.

Many thanks.