Re: Teachers working long hours

Depends on how you view work, time and motion don't work on a calling.

Re: Teachers working long hours

Drive to Heathrow
Fly Heathrow to Schiphol
Fly Schiphol to Galeão (Rio International)
Taxi direct to office in Botafogo work till around midnight
THEN back to flat 'till 08:00 next morning and taxi to office.
Work till around midnight and repeat every day for seven days and three weeks until return home for about five days (10 days Christmas)

Wife and kids come out for their holiday.

Do that for 18 months.

Now tell me about long hours.

Mind you, it bloody near killed me!

Re: Teachers working long hours

We had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before we went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'

Re: Teachers working long hours

Very funny, but I'm being serious. It was one of the most onerous contracts that I ever had. Very well paid, but it left its mark.

Re: Teachers working long hours

It would - that was a very punishing schedule!

Re: Teachers working long hours

Some folks graft for little financial gain, very few granted, that's the gain, not the graft, it's all relative.

Re: Teachers working long hours

One thing that is overlooked is that teachers have nowhere to run and hide when they're in front of a class of children. There's no taking a breather or deciding to have a bit of a quiet lesson for a change (giving the children a test instead of teaching them is fool's gold, since the hour or so of doing this is immediately lost by the simple fact that these tests need to be marked, which usually takes far longer than an hour).

Not all, but many other jobs do allow one to take one's foot off the pedal for a few minutes for a quick re-charge of the batteries or to ave a quick and undisturbed moment to reflect/think. Not possible in front of a class!!

As for the lengthy holidays, there is an argument that suggests that teachers could possibly earn far more money if they had decided to enter other professions, and therefore are paid pro-rata for 39 weeks pa. This view is one that I suspect will be shot down in flames by many on here, but I throw it into the pot anyway.

Teachers don't decide to work for 39 weeks of the year. This is set by historical norms. Teachers are contracted to complete 1265 hours of work pa, which has been spread into 39 weeks (195 day, of which 190 are allocated for direct contact with pupils). Obviously, 1265 is rarely enough to complete all of the work which is expected of them and most teachers work above this time allowance.

Personally, I think there's a strong case for the number of days to increase, with a shorter amount of working hours per day. How this would impact on the childminding aspect of the process (while parents are at work safe in the knowledge that their offspring are being kept safe and supervised for all but an hour or so of the non-overlap times) would be an issue. Unless, heaven forbid, extra provision is provided more or less solely for babysitting purposes.

Re: Teachers working long hours

1820 hours is the standard, if I remember right, any more should be discretionary.

Re: Teachers working long hours

1265 hours is the contracted time (unless it's been changed).

1820 hours over 195 days would mean 9.3 hours per day.

Re: Teachers working long hours

That is for usual trades, who get standard paid holidays.