Everyone needs someone that they can talk to about their day. It’s difficult for any professional to feel safe doing this with colleagues unless there is the appropriate culture and structures in place. Hence, a lot of people rely on people in their personal lives. Friends that you can gripe with at a weekly coffee date, or a partner that you can call in tears during your lunch break when things are bad. But for many teachers, their friends and family don’t even understand what they are going through.
Teaching’s image problem.
Teaching has a real image problem. Many people have no idea what you do, and what is worse, most of them THINK that they know what you do. Everyone who has been through school thinks that they know all about it. They know what happens in schools, what being a teacher is like, and what makes a good or bad teacher.
but teachers can find this particularly difficult.
To complicate the problem further, school teachers aren’t paid adequately. That doesn’t just affect your bank account as a teacher but also how people feel about teachers. They’re not skilled. They’ve got an easy job. It’s a backup option because those who can’t do, teach.
There has been work worldwide to raise the public perception of teachers. If you’re a teacher, you’ve heard about the education system in Finland, where a Master’s degree is required. Many other countries are starting to lean this way as well, and it’s not only to raise the quality of teachers; it’s to make sure that people can’t doubt the quality of teachers.
In Australia, there is now a compulsory literacy and numeracy test that you need to take before you can be a registered teacher to prove that you’re in the top 30% of the population for literacy and numeracy. Many teachers complained about it being demeaning, but the purpose was that then, no one could say that their teachers were illiterate or innumerate.
Did the pandemic change the perception of teaching?
For many teachers, the pandemic has been a real eye-opener. It has become clear through this time precisely what the general population thinks of teachers and their role in our communities. It’s become clear that many people think of teachers as little more than babysitters to look after children so that their parents can go to work.
Unfortunately, teachers’ friends and families are often not immune to these lines of thinking. Many teachers feel like they cannot talk to their loved ones about their work because they would not understand. Any complaint about workload or how they are treated is met with “you get ten weeks of holidays during the year! What do you have to complain about?”.
The importance of having someone that you can talk to.
Teaching is a stressful job. You need to be on all of the time in front of the students, constantly aware of what you say, how you say it, and how you act. You deal with student behaviour, which often makes you feel unsafe. You don’t have enough time to do any planning or marking during the day, so you come home and stay up into the night getting ready for the next day. It is essential that you have someone to talk to and debrief.
I firmly believe that all teachers should have a therapist that they can see regularly who understands. I’ve found mine invaluable. I realise that there are many barriers to this, the big one being the cost. I know that my local public school system will fund three therapy sessions for each staff member during the year, which is certainly a start.
Relief teachers can be particularly isolated as they may not have any colleagues at a school that they can talk to. There are many online community groups for substitute teachers as well as teachers in general where you can get some support.
The public perception of teachers needs to change, but that will not happen in the short term. In the meantime, teachers need to be supported by those who understand their work and the pressures they face every day. We are losing teachers, even more so during the pandemic. It is essential for our children’s future that we recognise the importance that teachers play in all of our lives and value them so that it is an aspirational profession.
