Damn the teachers' strike

My daughter has only just gone back to school after the Easter holidays (Monday) and she's already off again today because of the teacher's strike, along with a million other kids in 91 local authorities as the National Union of Teachers calls a strike about its below-inflation pay settlement. How rude of everyone concerned to call the strike on a Thursday - they could have done it on a Friday so everyone could have had a long weekend? Or done it in a couple of weeks time when we've all had time to recover a bit longer from the holidays?

As it is, after two weeks of arranging play dates and trying to make sure she had something jolly to do while I was at work and she was on holiday - a feat of logistical planning any manager would be proud of, I was back on the case on Tuesday trying to find someone for her to play with this afternoon.

What about a mum's strike? It's bad enough having the holidays spread all over the place (Faith schools incredibly early, private schools just off forever and the rest of the State schools off for four days over Easter and then back and then off for two weeks - it's been the Hokey Cokey of holidays and hell for parents).  And now a teacher's strike! They've hardly been at school recently!

I know that most of the teachers do a great job - you'd have to pay me danger money to spend all day at the mercy of 30 boisterous five year olds, so I've some sympathy on the money angle. But a strike?

What with Gordon doing U-turns about tax, teachers strikes, power cuts (our electricity has been down twice in the last two weeks, for four hours at a time, always just as I'm making dinner), the credit crunch and soaring prices it's feeling just like the 1970s. Grrrrrrrrr

Read Caitlin Moran's blog about the teacher's strike

Comments

[Marc]

You should support the teachers in their 'reasonable' request re: pay. They do just about, if not 'the most important job in the world', guiding our future.

[Marc]

You should support the teachers in their 'reasonable' request re: pay. They do just about, if not 'the most important job in the world', guiding our future.

[Lazy Mummy]

Lucy - But you should hear my husband on the subject of my laziness. :) Of course the name was a bit tongue-in-cheek; I think when I first posted on AM, I was reading lots of stuff from people like Supermother and I just couldn't take any of it quite that seriously. :) (Not that SM takes it all that seriously either, actually).

There is a serious point to my online moniker though - I'm all about simplifying things, minimising hassle, outsourcing what I can to other people. Life's too short to be a) a perfectionist and b) bogged down in tedious rubbish (whether that's at work or at home). I'd rather be hanging out with my daughter or reading a good book or typing on AM than that! :)

[Deirdre]

Lucy
I would agree with the people who say that money does start to matter when you're in your thirties. But by then you can think about diversifying, maybe changing your direction, as LM said.
My advice would be the same as Jane2, to at least start off by doing what you most want. And I would add to that, get the very best possible qualification you can (which you appear to be doing, anyway), because that will always facilitate any career choices you make.
What I think, having been in work for over 30 years, and observed many colleagues over that time, is that a salary of £25,000 sustained over 15 years is worth more than a salary of £45,000 which ceases after two or three, whether because of redundancy, burn-out, or other negative reasons, and is then followed by nothing, or salaries of under £20,000 for dead-end jobs.

[Lucy]

Lazy Mummy - I'm not laughing at any job choice out there; I was being amused at the seeming difference between your rather modest nickname and the energetic persona you put across. I just reckon I'm not cut out for some of the jobs mentioned - could be wrong, and maybe in ten years time I'll have changed my mind. As to money - yes, sure. But (and I'm saying this ever so tentatively, because I'm really not sure) maybe it'll turn out ok? I live in hope, for spontaneous education reform, among other things.

[Lazy Mummy]

One final comment on this & then I'll shut up (thinking about office politics in private sector vs public sector vs academia). I'm reminded of a phrase an old boss used: "Every job has bs; you need to choose the bs you can cope with".

[Lazy Mummy]

Lucy -

Well, you may laugh at management consultant but I was only pulling a couple of random examples out of a hat, not trying to influence you one way or another.

Seriously though, whoever said money does start to matter when you hit your mid 30s onwards was right. If you have children & want to give them good opportunities in life (which as an educated person you will), you start to realise that money has a role (eg, you might decide the best schools where you live are fee-paying).

Perhaps a better example would have been corporate training. I know lots of corporate trainers (I did it myself for a year or two). Many of them have a background in or love for teaching, but often find there's more flexibility to run their own show than in an academic environment. Of course, that doesn't provide the research side of things, but the hours, pay, benefits, perks are often better than in traditional teaching settings, and the students are usually more willing & interested too. If it's the teaching stuff you're interested in, you should at least consider it.

And please don't think there's only intellectual stimulation in the academic world because that's a misconception.

[Lisa]

No problem Lucy. It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, it was a rant at the world in general as investment banking and bankers in general keep on being slagged off in the press.

I totally agree with the teachers strike. they're not paid enough, there's too much bureaucracy and they're not given enough authority or respect to deal with difficult children and/or parents. But I can see why people do it. One day I had a call from my mom who works with the weakest children, new immigrants and whatnot. She asked "what did you do today?" "Oh, the usual got screamed at by a managing director, and you?" "I helped a small child who has learning difficulties learn to read. He was so excited, he memorised a poem and kept repeating it to me".

[Lucy]

Cheers for comments, esp. the Career Development Fellowship (sounds interesting).

Lisa - I didn't mean to malign investment banking, only to say it wasn't for me. I certainly don't think everyone who works there is greedy! I just have a vague and probably quite inaccurate image of what you call 'fast and demanding' that's heavy on suits, stress, and attention to numbers that I couldn't hack (my ability to reliably transcribe numbers is rather less than that of an eight-year-old child). But then, I find the idea of standing on a stage terrifying - doesn't mean I'm not impressed when Patrick Stewart does it.

[Lisa]

Can I just briefly stand up for the much-maligned world of investment banking. Yes, there are lots of greedy people, unprincipled people and so on. However, that is only a small fraction of the story. Half of the workers in the bank are support staff (legal, compliance, finance, operations etc.) and some of us actually do worthy jobs. I work in Compliance, and today I have managed to stop two proposed transactions involving states with, uh, interesting human rights records. It's also incredibly interesting, fast-paced and exciting, but it does take a certain type of personality to survive (and I agree, not everyone finds reading about structured finance or stock market trends endlessly fascinating).

[j]

Lucy, keep an eye out for a Career Development Fellowship. Oxford does them, and I am sure there are similar schemes elsewhere. They are a special 3-year job where you get remission from all admin and some of your teaching, so you can build up your research and teaching experience. You get an academic mentor as well and they send you on the CETL academic practice course.
Or the trad version, the Junior Research fellowship- but that has no teaching at all , usually. There's more out there for scientists than for arts people cos the Wellcome trust and Royal Society run a lot of similar schemes.

your supervisor ought to be able to guide you, or ask for an academic mentor now.

[Baggofbones]

KM: I am very glad to hear that academic freedom does exist in some universities (can't quite see how, in the target-driven culture, but it is nice to think it still exists somewhere). We didn't even have the freedom to voice dissenting opinions ("You will be sat on very hard if you don't toe the party line", was my HoD's warning to me in advance of meetings - those were his precise words).

Lucy: I don't think there are any universities/departments that are "better" than others from a quality of life/work point of view. It seems to be a case of finding a happy match between your particular personality/interests and those of a Department. As KM says, such a match is still possible, but it seems to be a case of pot-luck. I had expected the Dept I worked in to be a great place, but it turned out not to be so. My predecessor had left after having been bullied - a fact I found impossible to believe when I started, but could imagine only too well when I left.

As for burning the midnight oil: wait until you have children!!!! The midnight oil might seem less appealing then... as might the fact that you could get a part-time job in the private sector for the same pay as you'd get as a university teacher (though, presumably, not the same potential - I stress potential! - for intellectual satisfaction).

It's also worth bearing in mind that even students who have an array of A-grades at A-level might not be quite as well educated as they appear on paper - though that's another story...

[mumoftwo]

I know quite a few academics; some high-achiever types who love the long hours writing, deadlines, travelling to conferences around the world etc, but others that don't and feel bogged down teaching quite dozy students in large numbers (tends to be my younger friends). However, like all public servants these days, they have to meet a lot of what seems to them unreachable and unfathomable targets. The extent to which this gets them down seems to vary between places. I can never forget seeing that wonderful neurosurgeon on TV about a month ago who took the B and Q drills over to Eastern Europe, working for charity for nothing, a truly amazingly skilled person, having to type down his 'activities' into the NHS computer each week (and finding you could only put in one activity per session, when he was multi-tasking all the time). He revealed he hardly operates in the UK now as he spends all his time in meetings and doing admin. I find this profoundly sad.

[Kim]

Interesting to read everybody's thoughts on this. I originally wanted to be a university lecturer, but at the time I got my Ph.D. (late 80s) it was hugely competitive and there just weren't many jobs in my field, so I went and did something else.

I've often regretted it, because research is what I love best. But I've also seen friends (one friend in particular) who became academics and who have done nothing but work their socks off for years and years. It seems to be an endless round of one stressful thing after another, with the need to draw in students, deal with budget cuts and publish, publish, publish to get a good RAE score.

I did do some part-time teaching at a new university a few years ago, and was shocked at how poorly resourced it was, and at how little the students knew, as well as the extent to which we were expected to spoon-feed students.

About pay, too - Lucy, low pay might not matter much now but it starts to matter when you hit 35 or 40 and see all your friends in the private sector pulling ahead and buying nice houses and affording stuff you can't afford.

Having said that, I agree it's important to do what you want to do, and if you enjoy it, then go for it. You can also do something else if it doesn't work out!

[Kieransmum]

Can I just say, in defence of academic life, that I know many young academics who adore their work, feel well-supported and although they work hard do have academic freedom and wouldn't want to be doing anything else?

[Lucy]

Lol - thanks Jane2, you make me laugh. I think I'll steer clear of investment banking! Good luck to both your daughters.

[Lucy]

Thanks, J. I think I may have been somewhat sheltered in my experience of uni as a student, too. We were taught in pairs, or alone, some of the time, and classes only occasionally exceeded 10-12, in which issues like personal interests, dyslexia, troubles with sight, etc., were cope-able with, which was a wonderful freedom. I also think uni work is just very well suited to dyslexics a lot of the time - a dissertation, which can be spell-checked and proof-read and so on, and later the opportunities for vivas, just seems tailor-made. Whereas I could see myself getting frustrated over A-level coursework - when I was at school and the work was supposed to be 'all your own', some people who were considered a bit dim were encouraged to leave in a few 'authentic'-looking spelling mistakes!
Is there some kind of split between types of university, or types of lectureship, that I don't know about, btw? Or do they just vary individually?
Thanks for writing ... a little forewarning is always good!

[Jane2]

Lucy
If you were my daughter, (and I have a daughter exactly your age, 23, who graduated with a First from a top-ten university in 2006), I would tell you what I told her; do exactly what you most want to do.
In her case, this was "using her Maths", but categorically NOT being a teacher. She's now training in a professional field and working full-time as well, which is very hard slog indeed, but she is so far enjoying it.
If you love the basic principle of what you are doing, the tedious bits, of which there are many in all careers including full-time motherhood, become bearable.
My other daughter, 20, also a Maths student, told me recently that what she was looking for in her career was "constant intellectual stimulation". She has ruled out academia, as she thinks it would be "boring".
If you love books and reading, go for it.
If you love only money, try investment banking (ghastly, from what I've heard and only suitable for the ultra-competitive alpha-plus).

[j]

lucy I think BoB and LM have an important point where they warn you to be aware of the differences between unis. I work somewhere where people are largely protected from the stresses that BoB describes, but they absolutely do exists and she is not exaggerating at all, from what I hear.

That said, there is also the life of fascinating research and collaboration with colleagues in other fields (aka grant proposals :)) is not always the road to ruin. BoB has obviously had a lousy time, I would hope that it is not true of our young researchers here.

Dyslexia: because of the post-16 code of practice on HE Unis are much more together about it than schools. It helps that Uk students get funding, though it is sill very hard if you are an overseas student. Dyslexic staff generally cope well because they have a lot of control over the timing and speed of their own reading. Students email their essays which can then be read back by speech recognition software, for instance. A lot depends on the group size you would have to teach.

[Lucy]

Thanks, Lazy Mummy. Management consulting?! Maybe I'm a lazier non-mummy than you ... I seem to find writing or doing mentor-teaching is the only thing that doesn't feel like work. Thanks for the advice (and it's nice to hear about other medievalists out there).

I do like this blog ...

[Lazy Mummy]

Oh, Ignoble.

Yes, hilarious awards, truly brilliant. Awarded to researchers whose research "makes you laugh, then think". In practice, the sort of stuff that makes you say "and my taxes are indirectly funding this? why?". My personal faves are the peace prize for the british military for pretending to fire cannons & shouting "BANG" during training exercises (to save on ammo) and the researchers who calculated exactly how long you can dunk biscuits in tea before they collapse.

You can read all about them here:

www.improbable.com. Enjoy!

[Lazy Mummy]

Lucy -

Re: the advantage of teaching at a university meaning you get to do the research you want...

Well, sometimes, but university-level research is generally governed by funding, often in the form or research grants. You have to write grant applications that are appealing to funding bodies in order to get funded for the research you want. Even in fields awash with $$$ (biotech, comp sci, pharmaceuticals), you're only going to get research funding if your field of interest is appealing to the folks with the cash (generally harder in the arts).

I read lit (specialising in medieval) at uni, loved it but decided early on (pre-finals) that academia was not the life for me & wouldn't pay the bills effectively either. Most of my peers ended up in business or public sector (none in their degree subject). I'm not trying to put you off one way or another, but there are lots of interesting jobs, fields, business sectors outside academia, many of which offer some of what might be appealing in academia, but with (usually) better pay & benefits. Unless you're truly in love with your subject & can't imagine doing anything else, you ought to at least investigate some other fields; you never know, you might suddenly realise that management consulting or non-profit development is the field for you!

[Lucy]

Well, Baggofbones, thanks for putting the time in to reply. Even if the reply is a bit daunting! I guess I should have thought before posting the bit you've quoted. The original point was that teaching in schools seems to put people off even before they sign up for the PGCE, or during training, and this is not a good thing. By comparison, although you didn't enjoy it, you did get as far as doing the actual teaching at university. As regards me, I meant to suggest that, if I were ever to teach, it would not be in a school setting, because I've been so thoroughly put off that. I may not teach at university either (for one thing, I've no idea whether I'll get through to PhD/beyond), but it's not something I've ruled out. Does that make sense?

I will say that part of my axe-to-grind against teaching in schools is that there is so little wiggle room to adapt teaching skills to pupils, whereas at university (in my experience, and I grant I'm only at all familiar with attitudes at three or four unis) there's far more freedom to adapt your style to your students, and exams once a year (if that) is a lot less that my local secondary organises and marks ...

I appreciate the warning about possible horrors - I do hope, though it's not very nice for you, that your experience wasn't quite the inevitable version. I do like burning the midnight oil, and 20 grand + was always recommended to us as riches, so maybe I'll be ok.

Thanks,

Lucy.

[Baggofbones]

"I'm bright, and I enjoy teaching, but trust me, I'll do it at university level if I do it at all, because I cannot face the pressures of a stifling national curriculum, incessant meaningless exams, poor salary, and a lot of paperwork."

Lucy - I shall preface my comments by saying that I am not an old cynic (quite the reverse!), and my experience is not necessarily representative of all experiences of university teaching. But your description of "a stifling national curriculum, incessant meaningless exams, poor salary, and a lot of paperwork" is university teaching in a nutshell (or was for me). I went into it six years ago with great dreams of Making A Difference, Enthusing Students About Literature (mediaeval/modern languages at a top-rated university - I don't want to give away my real identity by being more specific than that), Having Interesting Discussions etc, etc, etc - and was shocked and horrified by the reality of it (and am still shocked and horrified when I think of the gap between my ideas of it and what it was in reality). True: there's no National Curriculum. However, there is in effect a Departmental Curriculum, and that is based on what will bring money into the Department, and what is deemed politically acceptable (two of my proposed modules were knocked back because they encouraging students to think for themselves, rather than peddling received wisdoms). Research is judged by quantity, not quality - and believe me, you really don't feel like doing research after a 100-hr working week (most of that 100 hours having been spent on paperwork, fatuous meetings about paperwork, and writing up the results of fatuous meetings about paperwork). Research is mostly done at midnight, and it is not enough to pursue your own passions: what matters is how many boxes it ticks in the RAE. One could expect to get a couple of weeks of research done in the summer vacation, but the rest of the vacation (which gets shorter by the year!) is taken up with re-sits, Admissions, and further fatuous meetings about ... well, I never understood why we had to have Departmental meetings throughout the vacations. We were expected to be available and visible in the Department (email was not adequate) in case of customer (sorry, student) enquiries. As for the exams: they were rendered thoroughly meaningless by the fact that the students were given the questions in advance, and were provided with sample answers (funding depends on students achieving at least a 2.1 degree). I managed a grand total of two years there, one of them on maternity leave.

When I left, my annual salary was 27K. To my mind, this was fine in itself - it was more money than I've ever had before or since - but for the level of stress and unhappiness, and for the hideous work-load, it was pretty low.

As I say, others will have had a great experience of university teaching. Two of my (single, male) colleagues thought it was fantastic; they loved burning the midnight oil and competing with one another to be top dog. If you do go into it, Lucy, I can only hope you have a happier experience of it than I did!

Sorry for the long post - I am evidently in need of therapy to recover from the traumatic experience!

The only good thing to be said for it - for me - was that it was very easy to make the decision to leave after having the children!!

[Lucy]

Dierdre - thanks, I have now. Eek!