Do teachers really treat the support staff so badly where you come from?
I have so many lovely conversations with the parents of my pupils and I do thank them for the efforts that they put in to support what I am teaching in class ... and thankfully they seem grateful for the efforts that I am making.
I frequently have long friendly chats with cleaners or, this morning, with a school cook (my sons' school rather than mine but it would apply wherever I am!)
How unpleasant life would be if we didn't have these brief friendly interchanges with the people that we 'rub shoulders with' every day ...
Of course there are other professions that are not remunerated as well as perhaps they ought to be, in Britain it is certainly the essential services such as the Police, Fire Brigade and Nursing that suffer alongside Teaching.
However I feel that there are few professions that get 'put down' as much as teaching ... references made to the long summer holidays and short working hours (by which they mean short CONTACT hours with the 'clients' failing to realise that most teachers put as much time in away from the children as they do with the children!) and the whole concept of 'playing with children' as being an easy option ... That, for me, is where the 'pride in the profession' part comes in, constantly having to assert that working with children IS actually WORKING.
Helen