Teaching as a profession

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

Melanie asked about teaching.  I come from a long line of teachers.  
I used to tutor A level students when I was in college, which was 
fun, but was dissuaded from entering the profession properly by my 
parents.  My mother spent years working for the Dyslexia institute, 
teaching and training others to teach.  She found this extremely 
rewarding, but the job became too pressurised, as she had to take on 
more and more responsibility outside of her teaching obligations and 
the overwork contributed to her having a nervous breakdown.  This was 
fairly a-typical, because she was working for a charity with a fairly 
tight budget, but she became very disillusioned about the fact that 
she could not put enough energy into teaching – she became an 
underpaid fundraiser, PR officer, human resources manager, she 
controlled the area's budget, so was also effectively an accountant

It was too much.

My father also had a nervous breakdown and took early retirement.  He 
taught Rural Studies and Biology in a comprehensive school.  His 
department had a working farm, greenhouses etc, and was a very 
popular subject there as it was a very rural community.  
Unfortunately, his subject suffered when the National Curriculum was 
changed, and less people were able to take his subject.  Discipline 
became a problem in the school, as the senior management refused to 
do anything about the problem children.  He became used to turning up 
at school every morning to find that the greenhouses had been broken 
into, all the pots would be smashed - plants he had been cultivating 
for years were irreparably damaged, graffiti was scrawled all over 
the sheds etc.  What was worse was the animals - the rabbits were 
strung up, he caught some boys stoning the pigs - it goes on.  
Because his subject wasn't seen as so important anymore, he got 
absolutely no support from the Headteacher or the police (the 
Headteacher was also a magistrate).  Their answer seemed to be to 
simply suspend the children who were caught, which didn't solve 
anything as they would sneak into school at nightime to vandalise and 
cause criminal damage.  My father knew who the culprits were and was 
unable to do anything about it.  He couldn't get through a week 
without something similar to the above happening, and gradually the 
whole of his department, which he had developed from nothing, was 
ruined.  It was mainly because of this (over a number of years) that 
he had his nervous breakdown.

Both my parents loved teaching, love children, found it a very 
rewarding job.  However, they were both stretched to the limit by the 
way things have changed within the profession over the past few 
years.  This is from a UK perspective, but here it has got to the 
stage that many teachers are suffering, because the environment has 
changed so much – children seem to be getting away with so much 
more.  Also, it is difficult for someone who just wants to teach.  My 
parents in particular, just wanted to teach and were very good at it –
 however, these days, if anyone wants to progress within the 
profession, they have to take on more and more of an 
administrative/political role.  Those who just want to teach suffer 
in comparison.  My father's school in particular was very corrupt.  
Those who sucked up to the headmaster did very well.  Those who just 
wanted to get on with their jobs, found their authority being eroded 
and that they weren't given any support.

This is a personal account of my parents' experience with the 
teaching profession in the UK, and I would not want to put anyone 
off.  However, their situations were not unusual – contemporaries of 
myself have also gone into teaching and found it a very frustrating 
and stifling environment and I know of a number of other people who 
were contemporaries of my parents who have also taken early 
retirement for various stress related factors.  I would therefore 
advise anyone to think about it very carefully.  Altruism is a good 
enough reason to go into teaching, if you are strong enough to cope 
with all the pressures that often go with the job.


Catherine