Three Generations of Teacher

A debate evening for various political youth parties will be organised on Tuesday, 25 February. The evening will focus on the topic of education. It can hardly have escaped your notice that teachers and lecturers have been on strike a lot recently. They are not doing so for nothing; there are quite a few problems in education. The AOb (Algemene Onderwijsbond) says teachers are striking for a lower workload, higher salaries and a solution to the teacher shortage. As a Pabo student, these issues are not new to me. I deal with them on a daily basis. Still, I wonder if these are new issues and how education now compares with education of the past. I asked my mother (primary school teacher) and grandmother (former primary school teacher) how they view these three problems.

Workload

My grandmother started as a teacher around 1965. When she was just starting, she did not have to be present at school earlier than the students. She could just enter the classroom at 8:30. Later it became different, because then teachers had to be there 15 minutes earlier. She did not experience much work pressure. At a quarter past three, the pupils were free. The kindergarten teachers went home at about the same time as the pupils and my grandmother around four in the afternoon. She would still take home review work then. That took her about an hour.

My mother, meanwhile, has been working as a teacher for 20 years. At her school, most teachers are around 7:30 to prepare things or do other work. Days are full and busy. Since this year, her school, like many others, has introduced the continuous timetable. Students then stay at school for lunch and do not go home. Breaks are shorter for pupils as a result. Teachers have almost no more breaks during the day, as lunch is often eaten with the pupils and teachers have to supervise outdoor play. From the start of the school day until two in the afternoon, when the children go home again, teachers are busy with pupils. As a result, the day feels even busier. My mother points out that the number of subjects taught and the amount of attention that has to be paid to them has increased compared to the old days, when my grandmother used to teach. Whereas language and arithmetic used to be the main focus, other subjects such as nature education, world orientation and art are now increasingly important. There is a lot of teaching and not enough time.

After two hours, my mother fills the working day with administrative work, grading and consultations with, for example, a speech therapist or internal supervisor. She also prepares her lessons, taking into account all the individual needs of the pupils. Differentiation plays an increasingly important role in education. Great for the (care) pupils, but it creates a lot of extra work. These days, my mother finishes school around 4.30pm. She tries not to take work home now, but once in a while she has no choice.

Salary

When my grandmother started working, she was still living at home. Her starting salary was around 425 Guilders, which at the time had a purchasing value equivalent to about 1,000 Euros in today's economy. She was not at all dissatisfied with that. She remembers that the salary also started rising fast. To her mind, she was getting paid a little more every month. As she did not have many expenses, she was able to save a lot at that time. From the money she saved, she was later able to pay for my grandfather's wedding.

My mother is not unhappy with her salary either. She adds that she probably has fewer expenses here in Groningen than a teacher who would have to pay for a house in the Randstad, for example. In that case, the salary might not be enough. For her, however, the salary is quite sufficient. She does understand that teachers are sometimes dissatisfied with the lack of advancement opportunities. As a teacher, you can hardly get promoted and there is no possibility of earning more later.

Teacher shortage

Even before she graduated, my grandmother was offered a job. There were plenty of opportunities to work as a teacher. But at her school, there were enough teachers to teach all the groups. The class consisted of about 30 students. With the exception of one year, when she had a class of 40 pupils. She thought that was a tough year too. They didn't have to worry so much about replacements back then. If someone was ill, the headmaster would teach that class for a day.

My mother thinks the teacher shortage is a huge problem. In the past week at her school, once a group of pupils has been distributed to other classes and once a group has been sent home. It has long been very difficult to be able to arrange replacements when a teacher is unexpectedly ill, for instance, but these days even long-term replacements are almost impossible to find. For instance, if a teacher goes on maternity leave. Then a school quickly finds itself with a problem. My mother normally works four days a week, but for part of this school year she had to work five days a week, because a teacher was on long-term leave at the time and no replacement could really be arranged.

And now?

My grandmother was a teacher. My mother is a teacher. I am going to be a teacher. Listening to the stories, I realise how fast education is changing. In 20 years' time, when I have been in front of the classroom as long as my mother, I will have my own stories. I hope they will be positive and that we can creatively bring about change. Perhaps a little less focus on test results and a little more on the individual talents of pupils. Going outside and finding out with students what is relevant to know. Or a review robot. That would also be useful.

Meanwhile, do you have an opinion on education? Talk about it during the debate!

By Like Veeman