Re:My students have paid £9,000 and now they think they own me
by relkor on Friday December 18, 2015 @09:13AM
(#10758493)
Valid point for university, but I have seen this same attitude all the way down the chain to primary school and secondary school. Maybe teachers in primary school are apeing the attitudes of college professors in an attempt to capture the greater social prestige associtated with being a researcher, however this motivation buys no forgiveness in the hearts of all the students that then pay directly for this ego trip.
Re:My students have paid £9,000 and now they think they own me
by davidjgraph on Friday December 18, 2015 @09:49AM
(#10758705)
Paying directly for primarily or secondary schools is very rare in UK, the vast majority of teachers are paid indirectly via taxation. With my own children I've found the quality of primary school teaching to be excellent given they start on around 20k GBP here and work very long hours.
Teaching at universities is virtually never their sole function, and rarely the majority of their function. At UK universities most such staff take the job for research and have to teach as a condition of that job.
It's true that university staff vary in their commitment to teaching and I can remember many who felt that teaching was beneath them and a distraction from what they actually want to do. Unfortunately, this is the nature of academics, unless you have distinct research and teaching roles, this won't change (and that's another endless discussion).