I should have become a parent and become paid by the state to be a parent. The parents have it easy. Feed and clothe the kids, send them to school and sit around the house all day with a bottle of MD, moving the washing along and cooking dinner.
It’s teachers who have the raw end of the deal. It’s our job to bring up your children and teach them EVERYTHING from manners to shoe laces, ABCs to 123s. From one scream and tantrum to the next. We are duty bound to treat children with the utmost respect during these encounters. Without any swearing or alcohol. We are given more children to look after than a child minder. We have to get children to do things they don’t want to do and behave in ways that they don’t want to behave. We don’t get any support. Our pay and benefits structure is like any other capitalist career path: they want to pay the least for the biggest profit or outcome. Biggest outcome being the league tables of standardised ‘on the day’ testing in math and lit.
The parents still get the last say in anything to do with their child. These days one community can have a multitude of different parenting styles and techniques. What with online blogging replacing mum books. For a full class that means adhering to around 30 (depending on the location in the UK and age) different parenting styles. That’s presuming the parents agree on their parenting and also presuming that they present a united front to parenting. As it stands, many do not. There is no requirement to.
When things don’t go well, the system isn’t criticised (even though any good systems engineer will tell you that systems constantly need to be upgraded to keep up efficiency) neither will the breeders (whose genes produced the little darlings). Nope. When anything goes wrong, we blame the teachers. Because we can.
Because teachers are contractually obliged to do better. Parents are not.
No. I now see I was wrong to choose a career instead of parenthood, that leafy April morning back in 2008…
I should have gone on to have a few kids. It’s a full time job dontcha know. I can get the same wage I’m on at the moment if I had 4 kid’s. 4 kids? That’s a walk in the park. Free housing. Maybe a decent car if one of my kids has a hint of a disability. The kids will get free food at the school. Reduced council tax. Time to shop cheaply and grow my own food to keep costs down. Keep my house clean and my car functioning.
I suppose the giving birth and doing the baby bit must count for something.
Judging by the way kids enter nursery kicking, screaming, pinching, biting, swearing and attention seeking, a lot of parents don’t seem to be holding up their end of the bargain. So really it’s an easy job. If I make mistakes, nobody threatens my parenting. they might complain a bit. But unless it’s horrific, I get to keep my kids and keep being paid to be their parent.
Parenting isn’t easy. But for some reason, even the lowest specimens in society are qualified to do it… Even if they can’t make toast…
FaerieFalls 