I myself worked at the school for two years. The day after I lost the status of a young specialist, I was informed about the termination of the contract. The past two years have been a nightmare when it comes to relationships with senior colleagues and the school administration, but I really liked working with children, and I easily found a common language with parents. But, apparently, it’s not my destiny to work at a school. Now I have a good job, but a certain bitter residue from working at school remains. Maybe I did something wrong? Maybe only in my former school there was a bad microclimate? I decided to chat with colleagues from my school and others.
I JUST STARTED WORKING AND I HAVE ALREADY BEEN DEPRONED!
A young history teacher and class teacher of one of the Minsk schools, Alexander, told me his story: “I used to study at the same school, where I now work on a distribution basis. I was very happy when I found out that I would work in my native school. It was even interesting to look at the learning process from the side of the teacher. Of course, remembering my school years, I was most afraid of being accepted by students and parents. I thought that the teachers and the administration of my native school would always support me, but I was wrong in everything ... I did not even suspect how difficult it is morally to work as a teacher because of the attitude of the school administration and the internal atmosphere of the teaching staff! Many representatives of the school administration simply completely forgot that they themselves were once young specialists and simple teachers. I have just started working, and I have already been de-bonded! And for what?! For the fact that during the elective course I was with the students not in the office indicated in the schedule, although they knew that I had given up my office to an elderly teacher who asked me about it. Nobody even listened to my explanations, saying that I was punished. More experienced teachers explained to me what the order is at school, and they are already used to it, so it is useless to ask and even more so to argue, you need to do what you are told - and that's it. This is how I do it: I collect money from my parents for toilet paper, soap, napkins for the school and give them in an envelope to representatives of the administration. I am agitating 7th graders to enroll in a children's camp, knowing that my 7th graders will not go to the camp with the elementary school, but by hook or by crook I make their parents pay for it and again I give the money in an envelope to the administration representatives ... "How much can I?" parents ask. "How can?" - I ask myself, but I'm afraid to ask aloud, like all my other colleagues. That's how we work."
“How much I work, I endure so much and hold a grudge in myself. Only children keep me at school, - Galina Vladimirovna, a primary school teacher with 15 years of experience at one of the Minsk gymnasiums, shares with me. - I can’t just leave them and go away, although recently such a desire has appeared more and more often. It is a pity that not very clean people work in our educational institution. Recently, as an experienced teacher, I was asked to write a pedagogical paper for the competition for the award of the Minsk City Executive Committee. I understood how serious this was, so I devoted all my free time to finding materials for writing a work from personal developments and libraries. Finally, the work was ready and handed over to the school administration, where it was not approved, but ... they kept it. I did not attach any importance to this, and after a while I saw my work published and received a prize, but under the name of one of the directors of studies. How can you then work with enthusiasm and trust your colleagues?”
ENGLISH TEACHERS FORCE TO GIVE OUT SKATES AND SKI
What else excites and worries our teachers? We found the answer to this question from MSLU graduate Alina, who has been working as an English teacher at the school for the second year. “I just can't get used to the pace of work at school and, one might say, chaos,” says Alina. - A lot of extra loads, absolutely no one needs. For example, the constant duty of all teachers in the corridors, in the school cafeteria, in the cloakroom. Why do I need to stand next to the administrator on duty and the students on duty in the corridor every recess? Because of this, I do not have time to prepare the board and handouts for the lesson, which I have to do with the bell and quickly.
(Ending in the next issue.)
Viktor LISTOPADOV
The entrance campaign to universities has once again shown that the profession of a teacher has lost popularity and prestige. To put it mildly, not the best applicants entered pedagogical specialties. But they took almost everyone who wanted it, because there are not enough teachers in the country.
According to Belstat, in the first half of 2012 the number of people employed in the education sector in Belarus decreased by 15 thousand people: 24,590 were hired, 39,145 were fired. countries".
In a pedagogical university without competition
Almost everyone is admitted to teaching professions. A student on a budgetary form of education is a guarantee of what will be, whom to distribute. And the student-payer - what a sin to hide, the breadwinner for the university. It is the funds received to pay for tuition that are largely decisive in the formation of the budgets of universities.
There was no competition at the Belarusian Pedagogical University named after M. Tank this year. That is, they took everyone who received certificates in certain CTs to the following specialties: “Mathematics. Informatics”, “Physics. Maths, physics. Informatics”, “Physics. Technical creativity”, “Russian language and literature. Foreign language (Italian)”, “Russian language and literature. Foreign Language (Chinese)." It should be noted that there was no competition in most of the named specialties at the university both last year and the year before. Even those who scored less than 100 points out of 400 possible entered the Faculty of Physics in 2011. It is clear that most of them dropped out of the university after the first session.
In the same place where there was a competition, the passing scores this year were very low. For example, on "Preschool education" - 153, "Biology. Chemistry" - 210 (village) and 214 (city), "Geography. Biology" - 185 (village) and 193 (city).
As you can see, students at the BSPU named after M. Tank are not very eager, even despite the promise of the rector to provide all freshmen from other cities with a place in the hostel.
At the Mozyr Pedagogical University at the "Physical and Mathematical Faculty" for the specialty "Physics. Informatics ”applicants with points starting from 64 entered the budget. An applicant enrolled in the target competition had 162 points.
On the specialty "Mathematics. Informatics” in the target area an applicant entered with 151 points. The passing score was 95 points.
The highest passing scores at the university were in the specialty “Informatics. Foreign language (English)" - more than 200.
Salary is not attractive
Lecturer at the Gomel State University named after. F. Skorina Alexander Voronenko notes that they are reluctant to become teachers in other universities of the country. Even at the once very prestigious Minsk Linguistic University. Many of the applicants, having not entered the budgetary department of the Faculty of Translation or the Faculty of Intercultural Communication, went to the paid department with sufficiently high scores. Although they could easily enter the budget if they chose a pedagogical specialty. This shows well that young people do not want to connect their lives with teaching at school.
Dislike for teaching work is confirmed by statistics. According to Belstat, in half of 2012 the number of people employed in the education sector in Belarus decreased by 15 thousand people: 24,590 were hired, 39,145 were fired.
Why is this happening? One of the reasons is the low level of teachers' salaries. In June, the average accrued salary in the field of education amounted to 2 million 919 thousand rubles. Teachers say that if you work for one and a half rates 24 hours a week, have a long teaching experience and class management, and receive a good bonus, you can earn about 4 million rubles.
Regarding the salary, Minister of Education Sergei Maskevich said during an online conference in Narodnaya Gazeta:
We have an instruction from the President to analyze teachers' salaries and improve the remuneration system, raise salaries. From the next academic year, an experiment will start to introduce a new economic mechanism, within which, I am sure, teachers' salaries will be ahead of the average in the republic. The level of a teacher's salary will be related to the results of his work, we are moving towards a greater differentiation of teachers' remuneration depending on their qualifications and achievements, the results of their work. I would say that the salary of a teacher will increase at a faster pace than the average for the republic. And much will depend on the work of a particular district, a particular educational institution. That is, on whether children will go to this school with interest, and how parents will evaluate the result of the work of teachers.
Teachers are not respected
However, practitioners say that not only a small salary makes you leave school. Anzhelika Salonovich, a Russian language tutor with 15 years of teaching experience (he has been preparing applicants for the CT for eight years), recalls that in the mid-90s, there was a fairly high passing score in pedagogical universities.
I graduated from the Pedagogical University in 1998. Many medalists studied with me. And upon arrival at the school there was a desire to work with children. However, over time, everything has changed. And it's not just that the pay is low. The problem is that the teaching profession has lost prestige in recent years. Teachers are not respected by children, administration, parents.
Anzhelika Salonovich notes that 15 years ago she worked with children more freely. We went to the theater, cinema, to the skating rink. At the same time, no one forced them to write plans for educational work, as now. Or make a list of children with whom you go to the theater, having it approved by the administration.
In me, a young teacher, they did not kill the desire to be a teacher. Now there is no respect for the teacher, I think, because a number of functions unusual for a teacher are assigned to him. We must take children to the canteen, ensuring 100% attendance, to sports events. Do children come to school to eat or study? In our country, the class teacher is engaged in visiting the families of students, solving the problems of difficult teenagers and everything else. The class teacher at the school is a nanny. Perhaps part of the work of the class teacher should be taken over by the social service.
Victims of the regime
What can be done to somehow improve the life of a teacher? Angelica Salonovich believes that, first of all, to free from empty paperwork. She notes that now everything is too formalized at school - starting with how the teacher should draw up a calendar-thematic planning, ending with spelling mode. There are a lot of little things that teachers get tired of dealing with every day that are annoying. For example, if one work is studied during several lessons, then the teacher's journal should be written, for example: “A.S. Pushkin. "Dubrovsky". The image of Vladimir Dubrovsky. And so by the number of lessons, in this case six times - necessarily the author, work and a new topic. Or another example - the requirement for the teacher to write on the window in the classroom "window for ventilation." The teacher is perplexed: who needs such a formalism that does not affect the quality of education, which is falling at school:
There is no learning process as such, she says. - There is no transition from one level of education to another. We have a kindergarten, an elementary school, each on their own. In elementary school, grades are massively overestimated. Where it is necessary to put 6, they put 8. The child comes to the 5th grade, and experiences terrible stress. Not only does everything change in the organization of training, he also cannot confirm the marks that he was given. Then the same thing happens to many on the CT, which does not bother the school. As a result, many are not able to confirm their very good certificates. When children come to me as a repeater, it happens that you ask how much in Russian, they answer 8, and his knowledge is 3. I understand teachers: the policy at school is not to give bad grades, “2” for a quarter is generally prohibited. Those teachers who decide to do this are pestered by the administration by attending classes, asking them to explain such low marks in writing.
Angelica Salonovich believes that there is too much dishonest in the education system. As a result, the education system suffers greatly. What can you do, education reflects the problems of our society as a whole. And if it goes on like this, yesterday's bad pupils and students will teach children.
Angelica Salonovich does not leave school, although she is successfully engaged in tutoring.
Every time I start a new school year with the hope that suddenly something will change. I want to meet children at school who want to learn. But there are fewer of them, and teachers have more and more problems and responsibilities, - the teacher noted.
2. Difficult relationships with colleagues and superiors. Teaching teams are often very similar to the serpentarium. Although, of course, you can meet decent people there: we are still friends with many former colleagues.
We had a wonderful department of foreign languages. We were always organizing something, for the children and for ourselves. They celebrated holidays, went to the theater together, tried to teach each other foreign languages (since then, a couple of dozen French words have remained in my memory).
The general mood at school was as follows: man is a wolf to man, children are not people, young teachers are half people
But in a large school team, everything was not so positive. We were frankly jealous. So they said: “Why are these “foreigners” so joyful?” The general mood at school was as follows: man is a wolf to man, children are not people, young teachers are half people.
“I did not see the interest of the leadership in the real knowledge of the students,” agrees Elvira (Moscow), a former physics teacher, then. “I was told in plain text who “in any case” should have good grades.”
3. Lack of prospects. You won’t be able to quickly make a career at school: only after a few years of work you can apply for the second, then the first and highest category in order to receive a salary increase of 15-20%.
At some point, it began to seem to me that, having checked the mistakes in 30 tests, I myself was forgetting how to write correctly. This made me very upset, and the thought that in 5, 10, 20 years I would still work as a teacher instantly spoiled my mood.
“There were no career or financial prospects. And I got tired of repeating the same thing to children every year,” recalls Nehama (Jerusalem), a former teacher of history, civics and philosophy, now an HR specialist.
4. Irregular working hours. Those who have never worked at a school are sure that teachers are busy only half a day. But after the lessons there are meetings, you need to check notebooks, fill out journals, write thematic plans. And you also need to prepare for the lessons. I “hung” over the lesson plans for hours: I wanted not only to spend time with the children, but really to teach them something.
“I worked at a boarding school and could not disconnect from work at home: I thought about how to help the students. And it took energy,” says Nechama.
“I worked at the school for only a few months in my youth, on a wave of enthusiasm. I immediately got a class in which children with low academic performance were gathered, - Elvira recalls. - Things were especially bad with physics: all the children wrote the external test work in deuces. But is youth afraid of obstacles? I prepared for the lessons like a performance in the language of formulas.
5. Responsibility for children and educational moments. Everything that happens to children on the way to school, at school and on the way home is the responsibility of the teacher. And when something serious happens, the teacher has a hard time.
When I was working at a school, a student during recess jumped out of a second floor window to prove something to his classmates and broke his spine. There was no teacher in the class: that day she was the administrator on duty and could not be in two places at the same time. After lengthy litigation, she was fired under the article and ordered to pay monetary compensation to the boy's family.
“The main goal of a teacher in an ordinary school is not to teach, but to keep,” says Lyudmila. - It's a pity, but most of the time had to be spent on educational conversations, and not on the subject itself. The teachers yelled at the children: it was the only way the high school students somehow obeyed. The head teacher could shout the loudest, she was the most feared of all. At the same time, the head teacher was a wonderful woman and a good specialist. As I later found out, she died at the age of 48 from a heart attack.
6. Relations with parents of students. It is not difficult to find a common language with children, which cannot be said about parents. As a rule, they have a lot of complaints about the school and every teacher.
Once a noisy, brightly made-up lady burst into my lesson, who from the threshold began to teach me how to teach English. She - the mother of one of the students - did not have a pedagogical education, she did not know English, but she knew exactly how to do it.
The lady talked and talked... I had to use a forbidden technique: to hit the table with a thick English-Russian dictionary. The lady fell silent in surprise. I offered her to replace me in class. “And I will sit on the last desk and learn,” I said. The critic deflated and backed toward the door. I didn't see her again.
I don't blame the teachers. Nobody, ever. They are all little heroes.
“It was difficult with the parents of the children: I was young, I didn’t have my own children yet, and I didn’t quite understand what they wanted from me,” Natalia (Klaipeda), a former English teacher at school, now teaches language at privately. - Parents demanded that I take care of the children, but I did not succeed. A separate story - parents who always know how it really should be ... "
“It was very difficult at school. And I ran away. I couldn’t, I didn’t strain for the sake of the children, most of whom don’t need anything, - Lyudmila sighs. “But I don’t blame any of the teachers myself—never. They are all a bit of a hero."
None of my classmates work at the school. And it's very sad, because we had a very talented release. These people would make great teachers, but they excel in other areas. I would like to hope that the situation will change and the school will become a comfortable place for both children and teachers. And we, parents, will have many reasons not to scold, but to praise the school.
Almost three years have passed since I quit teaching and quit the school where I worked for six years. And only now I can calmly talk about the school, about my work and about why I left, I’m also ready to tell.
To begin with, I'll show you the video that Mishka sent me yesterday marked "what a fuck":
Fucked up, fucked up, of course, but I explained to him for a very long time why the teachers behave this way.
While we were discussing this, I came across a post by Zina-Korzina, in which she ridicules a very sensible article about how the school, in the form in which it exists now, is a harmful and unnecessary phenomenon. I won't comment on it. Unfortunately, Zina will never understand where she is wrong - she herself openly stated that, they say, she is stupid, and she can’t do without school. Well, no means no. I'd rather tell you what the school is, why I left and why I'll never go back.
I must say, my departure was a real tragedy, of course. I was almost the only adequate person in the team. I'm not saying that the best - there were better. I adored my colleagues, they are the sweetest and most sincere people I have ever met. But, unfortunately, they are all so deep in the system that they could not see the whole nightmare that is going on in education. And it's a real nightmare.
I tried to fight it as best I could, invented something, and most importantly, every day I had to explain to my students why everything was so. Why can't they discuss what's going on, eg. When a person does something with his hands, and there is another person nearby who also does something with his hands, these two will comment on the process, and there is no getting away from this. And I had to pull them every time, because this is impossible. I also couldn't explain why they should do it right now and today. Why do they even have to do this. I had students who hated to draw. I understood them perfectly, because I myself hated mathematics at school, I don’t fucking need it now, but I had to teach it and listen to it from a mathematician that I “should be taken as a unit of stupidity.” I tried as much as possible to help my students, came up with something interesting for them, but being in this system is hellishly difficult.
This system cripples people, makes them "evil yopnuty neurotics." Just to this conclusion, the Cat and I came, discussing the above video. There are those who are comfortable in the system, but they are very few. There are geniuses sharpened to work with children, such mass entertainer gurus, but there are even fewer of them. If you remove all the others, there will be no one to teach. But you must.
Despite the fact that you work unepically hard. You wake up at six in the morning, go to class at eight, work until lunch, after lunch - an extended day group, then you need to check notebooks (if you have math or languages \u200b\u200byou need to check a lot of them, at least I was lucky in this), then you you go home... Damn, representatives of other professions can at least go home from work! The teacher cannot do this, the work follows him. At home, he has to look for material for lessons, write scientific papers, without which he is zero without a wand, and much, much more ... Then sleep, and the next morning all over again. And so constantly. Yes, on holidays too. Yes, the vacation is long, but it is not enough - and then, you still need to keep your finger on the pulse, because anything can happen.
And they pay much less than the job is worth.
And you have to work, despite the fact that your subject is sure to be hated by someone, and you have to force this person at least to be silent and not interfere with others. It's just not that simple. Think for yourself - how will someone feel who was forced to engage in disgusting and useless garbage for forty-five minutes? Remember your least favorite subject at school, it probably was. And this individual still needs to be taught something, and most importantly, to explain why he needs it. It's very hard when you don't understand. In this regard, it is good for the "people of the system" who do not think, but simply do. It is worth considering - and that's it, the first step out of the profession has been taken.
I felt like a complete idiot standing in front of the students sitting at their desks. It would be more comfortable for me if I had a carpet in my office, and we would sit in a circle on it with tablets (not with those that everyone thought about), draw, talk about different things. I really wanted to lead the class to the open air. But this was impossible.
There is still such a moment in the modern school - the teacher is always to blame for everything. He can work as he likes, and how he wants to get out of his skin - all the same, he will be to blame. A child studies poorly - the teacher is to blame, even if the child is a woodpecker, and his parents are outcasts, and nothing can be done about it. Hormones are raging in the classroom, and the students do not understand anything, but yell, dirty tricks and crap? The teacher is to blame. Here's something to work on! Thus, in the case of one particularly violent class, a good half of the teaching staff was to blame - and everyone understood that something was wrong here, but the thought did not go beyond this. And the very softness - those very outcasts could come to you at any moment and, stinking on you with a fumes, make claims to you about the academic performance of their young woodpecker. And they are right, and you are to blame. For vaistenu!!11!
But this is not the worst. It can be experienced. Worst of all, you can't be human. You need to move on to your hobbies, your lifestyle, clothing style, you need to stop being a man, and become an android without feelings and emotions. Students should have a strong feeling that you do not go home in the evening, but get up in the closet in your office to recharge. Your personality is just slowly being erased... Someone decides for you what is appropriate and what is not. Bicycles, for example, are still ok, but belly dancing is not appropriate, for example. Or, God forbid, pole dance. You don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't eat, you don't fuck, you don't have nipples or a belly button - you're an android. And this is a complete, I'll tell you, atas for a person who loves himself very much and clings to his "I" very much. I managed to win back something - clothes and afro-braids (like, I’m all the time in paint, and braids - well, uh, we have such a topic!) By the way, the administration treated me like a person not of this world, so it was not it's so difficult. According to them, the artist should somehow look like this. But everything else - I could not stand it. When you constantly look back, when you even do something innocent, you think "Is it appropriate?" - the end, comrades. Full. And is it surprising that I hit after the dismissal? I wanted to yell all over Ivanovskaya: I'm human, I'm alive, I have boobs!
In short, after five years of working in education, I realized that I was starting to get bitchy. I was like a tight string all the time, I cried and began to drink a lot - much more than before. How did you not sleep? I started yelling at my family more often. I began to hate my students, and they, clearly considering this, began to hate me. Then it got really bad. In my sixth year, I could throw a tantrum, burst into tears, and run right out of class. One fine day, sobbing, right from the lesson, I ran to the director's office and wrote a statement of my own free will. They persuaded me to stay, they said that it was temporary, that it would pass, that it happens to everyone, slipped articles about "emotional burnout" - but I still left. Ten more people followed me...
Phew... That's the way things are. Now I have almost moved away from all this, calmed down. Nightmares about school stopped dreaming last year.
You will say that I am a bad teacher. Yes, bad. For the formation in which we and your children have to live and work, it is very bad. You will say that there are teachers from God and other brilliant people. Yes, there are, but, firstly, there are few of them, and secondly, you will agree that something fundamentally went wrong in a system in which only geniuses can work comfortably? In which it is not enough to be just a good worker - something is not so clear.
And, yes, for attacks in the style of "it's good that you quit, you need to burn teachers like you" - I will ban. I'm not in the mood to listen to all sorts of ghouls.
