Walking in someone else's shoes?

Please forgive me but I have to let off some steam.

I returned from work today to find a comment on a public forum which basically said the teachers in any schools in a particular location who were not in school due to closures were taking any excuse for another day off and were wimps. This was followed up with a response that stated that the current conditions were yet another 'feeble excuse for another day off'.

I responded. As I would, wouldn't I? Calmly, rationally. Pointed out that it was nice to tar an entire profession with one brush. Also commented that maybe the wimpy, feeble teachers who couldn't go in might not have had any choice - even if they could get to work, maybe a decision had been taken higher up than the teachers that it wasn't safe - for the children journeying to and from school, for the parents bringing their children to school, for the adults (and I include ALL of the wonderful adults who work in schools, not just the teachers) who had to get there safely. I expressed my disappointment that I thought that this person was 'better' than the poorly executed and ill thought out comment.

So here comes the rant. It will, no doubt, wander aimlessly, but I will attempt to be balanced. Might be quite difficult though, as us wimpy feeblies are notoriously incapable of doing the right thing.

We choose to teach. We do the job, because for the vast majority of the time, we feel that we have something valuable to contribute, we see it as a vocation not just a job. We don't do it because of the holidays and we don't do it because it is an 8.30 to 3.30 profession. We don't do it so we can sit around in staffrooms whiling the hours away. To be a good teacher, you have to really want to do it and you have to believe in the value of education, of teaching young people and of contributing to their future. You have to be resilient, fair, firm. You have to be able to see past outbursts, over-reactions, moments of inappropriate behaviour and sometimes look really hard to find that glimmer that gives you reassurance that it is worth the effort.

You have to be able to manage the reactions and behaviour of not just the students, but of the parents, who in different circumstances will behave in different ways. Mostly, even an angry parent is only angry because they don't have the full story or they have concerns for their child and when they are listened to and worked with, the anger goes.

But sometimes, it doesn't.

We do not work in places where it is commonplace to see signs at reception that warn that verbal or physical abuse will not be tolerated. Unlike most other workplaces. Yet, in any school, on any given day, at least one adult will be on the receiving end of unpleasant or ill mannered comments (at best) or vitriolic abuse (at worst). But that's ok, right?

What we do is give willingly of our time - in the classroom, before school, at break time, at lunchtime (lunch - there's an interesting concept - it's rare that I get to eat a proper lunch and sit down for more than 10 minutes for a break), after school, in clubs, drama productions, theatre visits, trips abroad, study days in the 'holidays' - to support the children that walk through our doors.

Then after school, when all of these things are done, we give more of our time to plan lessons, mark books, annotate coursework, fill in paperwork for exam boards, rewrite schemes of work because the Government of the day has issued yet another edict, which means that the exam boards change their specifications, we have to buy another set of resources...it is constant.

Yes we DO get those holidays. Most teachers actually work through about 50% of that holiday time, leaving us back down at the national average. Most teachers do what I do and work for a signifcant proportion of their evenings and weekends, because that is what the position demands of us. A great many of us have children of our own who we also manage to bring up effectively, share our time with, support, do our best by and love. We try to balance our own lives with that of work. I am completely ineffective at work life balance - it's a nonsense to me.

So, to be tarred with a brush that says that, to all intents and purposes, we send a bad message and 'cause chaos to PROPER WORKING PARENTS who are forced to take days off due to your laziness' I found quite offensive. On my behalf but also on the behalf of my colleagues and friends. REALLY? AM I NOT A PROPER WORKING PARENT? I would really love to know what I need to do to resolve that situation.

I wonder if the schools had all been open and injuries had occurred due to icy snowballs or slips and falls on ice - broken bones, black eyes, bloody noses - if we would all be being criticised for having no regard for the safety of the children in our care - no doubt we would all then be irresponsible and uncaring, in addition to being wimpy and feeble.

As a profession, we cannot do right for doing wrong it seems. Yet, we carry on, subject to the whims of politics, the bias of the media and the ill informed opinions of a small minority of adults who have clearly never, ever spent a full half term in a classroom.

So please, before you denigrate us, try walking in our shoes.