Letter: We’re teachers, not babysitters
Saturday 9th July 2011, 12:15PM BST.
Letter: Regarding the recent industrial action by some teachers’ unions and the PCS.
As a parent and teacher I would like to express my great disappointment at the comments made in the media by non-teachers, predominantly parents.
I was not one of the teachers expressing their concern at the unconsidered decisions made by the Coalition Government by taking industrial action, although the union I belong to might well consider action should discussions not progress satisfactorily.
What does concern me is the way that teachers are perceived. We are exactly that – teachers. We have trained for four years or more and have a huge bank of knowledge to impart to learners, but we are considered to be little more than babysitters or child minders.
So many of the reports concentrated on the inconvenience parents were being put to, having to find alternative care arrangements for their children. Is that what we are? A babysitting service? I think not.
Please don’t forget, some teachers will have had to take a day’s unpaid leave to look after their children because school was closed due to the industrial action of their colleagues.
I have experience of occasions where pupils have been unwell, sometimes needing hospital treatment, or have needed to be taken home because of an incident, but their parents were unwilling to collect them because it would be inconvenient or it would mean taking time off work.
When you are a parent your child’s well-being comes first, of course, and if that means taking a day’s unpaid leave so be it.
Mrs Christine Tully
Shrewsbury
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I think the letter writer is missing the point.
We parents have to live our lives according to our childrens needs, we parents have to organise our lives around the legal responsibility of sending our kids to school, but most importantly we parents have to work in order to pay for all this.
If we parents went out on strike the authorities would be quick enough to hand out fines for not making our children go to school. There is a covenent between parents and the state that sets out the availability we have to go out and earn the money that pays for the state. Many hard working parents will have had to work for nothing to fund your union’s tantrum: at least you got the day off.
Teachers whining like this just goes to show how out of touch they really are.
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I know its going to sound wierd and far fetched but some Teachers are parents too!
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Actually, I think you will find you are tarring all parents with the same brush. I actually supported the teachers striking and understand their reasons. Some people generally don’t give a hoot about their kids, thats a sad fact of life, but I have never met a parent yet who thought of teachers as babysitters. I am a working mum who is very lucky to have understanding employers, but many people find it difficult to book time off work with less than a weeks notice (which is what we had at our school). We don’t have any family within 200 miles to come and look after our daughter should the school close (for whatever reason), so I sympathise with the parents who struggled to find alternate arrangements for their children. Not everyone can afford to take unpaid leave and not all employers are accomodating, so perhaps you should stop and think of other people’s circumstances before assuming all parents had a good old moan about the school being closed, and their reasons why.
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Andy,
There is no legal responsibility to send your child to school – but there is a legal responsibility to provide an efficient education for your child. The responsibility lies squarely on the parent’s shoulders, most choose to send their child to school.
And as for teachers with a vast knowledge base – this isn’t true in most cases – I am a trained teacher myself and you don’t need to be a mastermind champion to teach – just the knowledge of education policy and access to educational resources.
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I think this lady has missed the point.
People who have children registered with the education authority have a duty to ensure the children attend school.
School holidays are put in place for the year and British family life is structured around the dates given, and short of the school falling down or ill health the school expects those children to attend and so the majority do attend, if not the school is soon on the telephone or implementing fines and so they should .
Teachers strikes are unimportant to other employers, they expect staff to turn up for work unless they have booked a day off or are ill. Many do not permit you to bring your children due to H&S rules in to work, firemen, police, nurse,factory worker,shop worker,car park attendant etc etc it is ridiculous to expect and indeed allow people to take children in to the work place and i would say the suggestion by the government for people to be allowed to do this was also ridiculous.
I would also add many employers would neither sanction or were unable to sanction employees days off with such short notice and why should they at cost to them . Parents mainly would need to look to family members to assist, again fine if you have elderly retired parents who live locally and are capable , but you cant just leave your children with anyone. The other option would be take the leave unsanctioned not a wise choice in the current climate and again why should you lose your job etc for striking teachers or whatever a person striking does for a job . The Vast majority of parents do not consider teachers to be babysitters far from it and I believe the comment parents refuse to come in even if the child is ill is a little sweeping. I agree with Mrs tully your children should be your first priority many others would agree with this also which is why they wanted them in school on that day as the school year had been planned for.
So much of the reports focused on the inconvenience to parents the reason for that is it was,very, very inconvenient for parents, and employers and anyone else affected by industrial action, that is what it is meant to do, inconvenience and to be honest teachers do not give a jot about any of the parents in work or the conditions they work in and the feeling is possibly mutua, and a little arrogant to think otherwise.
My final point is, it is only my opinion why are teachers still permitted to strike in this day and age ? I would also add when I was employed by the council , government , and private employer, I was not permitted to talk to the press with regards my employment or what takes place in that work environment , although I accept mrs tully is expressing her own private opinion on this subject but as a teacher and employed by I assume the government, local council has she not in breach of contract .
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The letter writer has a valid point, What comes first, your children or money?
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You’re right Mrs. Tully, you’re a teacher, paid to be so 5 days a week during term time. None of you are paid to walk out in a strop when you feel like it, your letter has just highlighted how arrogant you really are!
And top priority for parents IS their child’s well being and that includes not having their education disrupted by a teacher’s temper tantrum!
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I think ‘temper tantrum’ and ‘strop’ are very silly ways to describe totally justified strike action. I was among the many people very much behind the strike, regardless of how ‘inconvenient’ it was. Teachers have a difficult job to do and the government suddenly moving the goalposts and changing how much money they will get at retirement is disgusting to anyone with any sense.
If you had been saving money for years and someone came along and said ‘Actually, you’re not having that back, we’ve decided that’s not how it works anymore’, I bet you’d have something to say about it.
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I’ve been self employed for about 30 years now and guess what Sue, the pension plan that I started paying into all those years ago, isn’t going to pay me anywhere near what was forcast…that’s life, it’s tough sometimes.
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I think that the so called teachers who have taken strike action should think of others. Hundreds and thousands of people were effected by your actions. Thousands of people had to take UNPAID time of work also to compensate for your acts.
As for using the words temper tantrum and strop!! I think that is the correct words for them. Very childish behaviour when you dont get your own way really!
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I don’t think it’s a case of putting your children over money, but some people may very well struggle to take a days unpaid leave. Not everyone earns vast sums of money and can afford to take time off without pay. Also, some employers are reluctant to accomodate situations like this and in the current economic climate I can fully understand why someone would feel concerned that this will reflect badly in their work record. Also, we have all been issued with letters from the school stating that NO holiday is to be taken during term time, so closing the school for a non-school related reason seems a bit unfair. We already have teacher training days which as parents we have to accomodate. It can be diificult.
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