I work at a private school - that are very common here in my country where public education depends on how lucky you might be not to get a tipsy teacher - or worse one related to a teacher's union member.
All in all, it's a pretty cool place to work, lots of fun, short hours, and my favorite part is when our graduates come back to visit (they leave at the end of grade 6th) and they already grew cute pimply faces and manes; they call us friends, chit chat about their crowd, who is dating who (and who, and who, and guess who too!) and complain about their new teachers and how much they miss us, lovely lip service.
I love my job, keeps me busy and sharp (life is never dull in my neck of the woods). Nothing makes more awake in the morning that parent's note about how disappointing is that their lovely and unique offspring has to be in the same classroom than a teacher's kid. (¿?)
It's been a few years since I stopped teaching and switched to a management position. I truly respect and admire young teachers, it is not an easy job as many outsiders assume (I used to be one and it is easy to underestimate the level of attention and amount of energy needed to work with children) that requires that people who teach actually care for their students.
Specially now that -in my opinion- so many boys and girls grow up with no siblings around, no parents around, no grand-parents, aunts, uncles, cousins around them; just the school. And we as school members face a scary challenge with this! We will never be able to take over the parents role (and on top, they won't let us, of course, it's their children) but how can a decent teacher ignore a neglected child, a low esteem student who has no help at home, an aggressive kid that knows no discipline but is clearly asking for someone to care and set the rules of the game.
These are complicated times for the families, we as parents aim so high: economically, socially, in our careers, that the parenting role falls from the top of the list. I've argued so many times about this subject when people women tell me "but I went through college to do this" or "I have the right to have my own life"; that I can't deny but... who forced us into parenthood?
