April 2019

April 22, 2019
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0 minute read

A teacher wrote an article for the Irish — today. It was a very brave thing to do, as teacher bashing is almost a sport now in the online media world. Her article was very well written and all to the point and factual. I shouldn’t have but I read the comments underneath and they were appalling. The public reading the online article completely disregarded the points this teacher made and instead began to jeer and go on about her ‘enjoying’ her holidays.

I think that is why we have so little public sympathy- our holidays. These holidays are reflected in our pay packets lest people forget. Regardless of holidays, all teachers should be paid the same , equal pay for equal work. How can anyone argue with that? In the last few years, pay has been restored to almost all public sectors, except teachers.

As anyone who reads my blog can tell, I love teaching. I can’t imagine myself ever doing anything else. I pour my heart and soul into my lessons, into resources, corrections etc.  You only need to search the word ‘múinteoir’ on Instagram to find dozens of eager, dedicated teachers sharing resources and ideas and pictures of resources they have purchased with their own hard-earned money. Teachers all around the country do this on a regular basis. We spend our own money so the children we teach can have active, fun and hands on lessons. How very disheartening it is then to read such disparaging comments online.

I am fortunate in that I don’t get too stressed easily, but I know from speaking to other teachers who find our profession to be very stressful and worrisome. There’s endless corrections, assessments, paper work, filing, meetings, and we do all this gladly because we love it. But for many professions when they leave work at five, their day’s work is done, whereas our work can go on into hours in the evening.

 

Something needs to be done for Irish teachers, or some day all the best teachers will have emigrated and our country will be begging them back.

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