Apprentice buggers up making the tea

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

I was half expecting a tale of Bisto.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

My brother taught maths at a secondary school for all his working life - he's retired now. And never once went in during the school holidays, or did any work at home. Apart from perhaps a statutory day just before they re-opened after the holidays. And often said those who took their job home with them were stupid.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

My brother made use of any spare periods and his lunch hour to do any marking or prep, etc. Precisely to avoid doing work outside school hours. Plenty just messed around during these times - and then complained about having to do work at home. He did get involved in several out of school activities for the kids, though.

[ARWadsworth]

That would be to count the biscuits.

[Bob Eager]

My wife worked for a while at a local 'flagship' academy which replaced a 'sink' school. They made the pupils stay until 1700 as most of them would not have had facilities, support and/or the will to work at home. The teachers stayed too and did their marking and preparation!

[F]

Then he either didn't take the job seriously, stayed very late/went in very early or had a mass of 'free periods' (pretty well unknown of in primary - I had none). It's not possible to do all that should be done between 9 and 3 and outside of the 'holidays'.

There are those who get away with it, as evidenced by the anecdotes in posts on here, but they are the exception. Most teachers do right by the kids and put the work in. They're not stupid, they're the kind of teacher all kids deserve.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

He didn't work 9-3. Secondary school.

'Put the work in' - or rather hours - has little to do with being a good teacher. But plenty do revel in all the extra hours they think they should work.

[damduck-egg]

I suppose it must depend to an extent on what you teach,the case put foward by many teachers is that they are preparing course work in the Holiday periods. I always wondered how much you had to do after a few years of experience. Take a History teacher for example The Tudors and the Elizebethans ,the exploits of Drake Columbus etc arn't going to change so once you have a rolled a course out once you just pull it out again a couple of years later with minor tweaks.Anything new like the breakup of Czechoslovakia can be incorperated with as it happens. Take a few hours or so but not the best part of 8 to ten weeks per year surely?

G.Harman

[ARWadsworth]

I wonder if he was like the teacher at my junior school? The whole football team had to get into his estate car for away games unless a parent turned up to give a lift.

[Steve Firth]

The final fix wiring of the house happened last week. The electrician brought along his new apprentice. A real pleasure to watch the electrician at work, giving instruction on how to do the job, letting the apprentice do an example, checking the job, correcting mistakes then telling apprentice which rooms and positions needed the same work doing. Then the electrician returned, checked everything and took the lad through his few c*ck-ups and made him do them again.

Brilliant job, good to see someone taking the education of an apprentive seriously, and I'm certain to use him again for the wiring of the barn and pulling the cable through the duct down to the barn.

[The Medway Handyman]

Or not, if the electricians have been in :-)

[ARWadsworth]

Indeed. You should only bollock an apprentice when he makes the same mistake twice.

You just take the piss on the first mistake.

Mistakes are a good way of learning, which is why dennis is so well qualified

[F]

That's fine in theory, but in 35 years of teaching I never found it to be the case. Changes in curriculum and the desire to 'do it even better next time', along with other considerations and events took care of the opportunity to rehash the same. There were/are those who took/take short cuts though.

[Adrian Simpson]

In article , ARWadsworth writes

Reminds me of a Young Teenage Slave (his description, not ours) we had many years ago. He offered to make the coffee one day, and the stuff was undrinkable. Turns out this was not uncommon, he said his sister threw hers at him. Strange bit was when we watched him make it, he seemed to do everything right, but it was still foul. After that we stuck to making our own.

Adrian

[Steve Walker]

Actually there were two teachers when I was at school who had been using the same sets of notes for twenty and twenty-odd years and gave very little homework requiring them to mark it. They were extremely good teachers and I'm glad to have been taught by them. One of them taught 'O'-level physics and in the year I left, all twenty-six pupils got grade-A - that was in the years when no-more than a handful of 'A's would be expected in any one class.

The important thing was not how hard they worked, but how good they were and how they demanded (and received) respect, diligence and obedience.

SteveW

[Halmyre]

Hah! How would you like it if I came round to your house to, erm, align your lasers, and helped myself to a bottle of finest single malt that just happened to be lying around?

-- Halmyre

[Hugo Nebula]

The same applies in most industries, I would have thought. One of my (three) bosses is notorious for sending long, rambling emails from home late on Sunday nights (when he should be posting to newsgroups!). A member of my team who's just been moved under my wing is complaining about the amount of work he has to do and doesn't finish his visits until well after 6 or 7pm. The thing these two have in common is that they don't appear to be any more productive than the lazy buggers like me.