Education: Snobbery of Teachers over Support Staff

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That tweet, that post on EduGeek, it’s important… actually very important to note that this is not every teacher.  It actually took me a while to think of a heading late on an evening.

It is however sad to say that many including myself have been on the receiving end of that type of a teacher.  Which goes to show one thing – it’s much more wide spread than people are willing to admit.

What was the post: 

Twitter link here: TWITTER LINK

In short “You’re support staff, I talk to you how I like”.  This is beyond disgusting attitude and this person is an educator of our children, our youth and our future.  We often question the attitude of young people and I have to ask not only are Parents who raise them and the home life responsible for what they become but so are teachers.  I speak from personal experience that some teachers have poor attitudes towards support staff.  That we are here to do their bidding (no we’re not) to do what they want regardless (no we’re not) and to work 24/7 (no we’re not).

The hardest thing is there are too many factors that prevent anything being done about this:

·         People not prepared to report it or make it an official complaint

·         Fear of losing a job

·         Fear of causing problems

·         Leadership who don’t care or worse also treat support staff poorly

This entire thing reminds me of the issues surrounding discrimination on pay based on gender/race.  It’s yet another society issue that doesn’t get resolved.

I’ve often been contacted over a weekend, out of hours and even had one member staff tell another that “should be here till late fixing that server” when in fact I was doing it remotely at home.  Not to mention that we was awaiting a specific part to be delivered that I physically couldn’t jump in a car and collect.  The sad truth is no one pulled that teacher aside to correct her.  In fact only in recent years have staff been pulled aside to be corrected minus one incident from a particular Assistant Head Teacher – who I had to report to a Deputy Head.

Fact is they are allowed to get away with it.  Just like how some Head Teachers will not blame Teachers for lack of grades or poor Ofsted inspections.  I’m a head of IT and I tell you now I am responsible if IT fails on a daily basis.  If it’s out of my power I am not afraid to say it nor am I afraid to say – “Sorry our mistake”.  Teachers seem to struggle a grasp of their own responsibility.

You look at Twitter, I had tweeted this heavily in 24 hours but I have to say.. not one single response.. not one.  It’s strange I can tweet about a piece of IT no matter how small I get a few responses, likes and retweets.  This time around I’ve published this incident several times and not one response.  Another issue – denial.  No one is willing to say anything and are sheer hush hush.

Luckily enough after a few days I got responses of support and I praise you.  I praise you for retweeting it and standing up for what's right.  YOU deserve a pat on the back for not only being a decent person but being a decent worker in education.

The sad truth is a lot of ex-students/young people join IT and are not brave enough to stand up for their rights.  They don’t join a union, don’t log and record everything.  It’s really sad that they have to be given this kind of advice by outside people.  Again the ‘teachers’ are quiet even on the EduGeek forum.  Some over the years have had to state they try hard to resolve these issues – but do you try hard enough? Frankly I don’t think so.  Some would claim there’s always something the IT person can do…..  There's also a lack of support at times and training for those young people.  Working in education can be a mouthful where you are expected to be a professional all day every day when you're a fresher.  You've only just finished education and here you are on the other side - a staff member.  If you are young working in English or Maths you instantly are surrounded by people who want to best in your department.  You have 10 people supporting you and those above understand exactly what you do.  Let's face it - no one outside of IT Support fully understand what we do.  So again IT end up with little pats on the back.

These teacher unions who claim to be fighting for the future of our country are very quick to protest against the government on how underappreciated they are.  How low their income is and the lack of respect from everyone outside of education.  Funny how that entire statement can be thrown back in those teacher faces with nothing done about it.  No repercussions.  Ask your self this question:  How many teachers have been disciplined as result of unprofessional conduct towards support staff?  Compared to the other way around.

I’ve stated this before that teachers need people like us on their side, we are parents, tax payers and voters.  We are every day people who need to give you teachers our backing.  You do have difficult jobs but again you’re digging your own holes without any care.

If you’re a teacher reading this; I do apologise on how harsh some of this comes over.  I’ve often fallen out with IT staff who are disrespectful towards teachers or think they are equal to Deputy Head’s– which I find utterly ridiculous.  Remember we are support staff; rightly so we’re not as important compared to teachers but we are professionals, we are here to serve a purpose and do a job.  If IT fails you will be the first and last ones to complain even when things are working you will question what we do daily until things go pear shaped.  You are under pressure like us to perform crucial daily routines.  Yours will be getting kids through an education and ours will be allowing you to perform that job without problems.  It absolutely sickens me that when I left School I had an impression of teachers that I didn’t think would ever change.  I highly respected them for being so patient for us children that no matter what; they would teach us, they would push us forward for our benefit.   

Sadly that impression fast vanished when I started working in education with teachers.  I even worked with a few some years later and their attitude was quite different – they had to work with me.  When my job changed to support staff that respect fast disappeared and the poor attitude came out.  I remember joining a job and sat down while a handful of staff tore in to IT Support.  Even though they spent all day every day fire fighting and doing tasks that they shouldn't have been doing (at the request of teachers and SLT) they were being criticised heavily.  The IT system it self was failing, old and slow.  There was no budget being provided (at a time when Schools had plenty to spend) so we had no time, no money and under staff yet it was their fault.

If you expect students to respect you, everyone should expect you to do the same to other adults.  Some of us choose to stay in education instead of going off to high salary jobs in business.  I’ve been offered a high salary but I enjoy my position and my happiness at times is more important than a salary.  The real sad part of this story is that I can completely relate to it.  I’ve often been sworn at (yes F words) because things didn’t work.  Was I responsible at the time for the budget? No, Was I responsible for the decisions to let qualified IT staff go? No.  Instead I was a technician with a job description of day to day simple tasks.  Similar to a teaching assistant who is not responsible for lesson planning or marking.

To be fair I don’t see anything changing.  Just like how the Government treats teachers and education.  That you can always do better, do more and do it with less money.

Treat others on how you expect to be treated.  The first time I heard that was from my grandfather not long before he passed away and the second person to tell it to me was a teacher.

Education: Salespersons, Seminar providers and Trainers

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It’s been a little while since I’ve done an article.  Not much is happening in education other than massive budget cuts which may or may not impact your School.

So let’s get started on salesperson, seminar sellers, course advertisers and trainers.

Remember every single one of them has one thing in common: Earning a living.

This means above all else their priority is not you or your school, this makes them a tad bit dangerous and also unlike staff working at your school their priority certainly is not your students.

I’ve several times lost the will to live regarding these people trying to sell something:

• ·         Cloud systems (even though they are free)
• ·         Networking (even though most schools wouldn’t need anything else)
• ·         Support (most support companies are not good for value)
• ·         Training sessions (they will tell you their way is the best way)
• ·         Seminars (likewise for trainers)

I get an average of 15 people a week phoning me up to tell me they have something to offer me.  They’ve often used underhand tactics to get through reception:

• ·         We’ve done business before (about 10 years ago)
• ·         Free printer (no joke……….             if we spend £5000)
• ·         We can save lots of money (one person told me over a million)

The sad truth is again – they are there to make a buck.  To tell you their way, their systems and their product is the best on the market.  They can fix your problems.  They also tend to lack real experience of dealing with technology on the day to day business.  I’ve worked with many of them and I've educated a few regarding IT – because they really don’t know it all.  Many of them will even have home devices and expect them to be the same as a network domain.  The major difference between work and home, if it doesn’t work at home it tends to 'not matter'.  At work it must be available 24/7.

I’ve covered some music teachers, ex IT support people (first line) and the techno lovers in previous articles.  They tend to be the same:

• ·         They hate not getting their way
• ·         Think they know best
• ·         Never take responsibility
• ·         There’s always something the IT Technician can do to solve the problem

And they certainly hate IT Support, because they know we're a threat to them.  A threat to their income and earnings.  They know we think about the whole big picture, the change for staff/students, the costs and that technology is not always fixable nor looked after.

Now this may not be a nice thing to say but regarding technology only IT specialists are the ones you should always listen to.  There’s a reason why Schools tend to have failing IT systems and that is usually the fault of IT and SLT.

With IT, they are either clued up or not, set in their ways or not.   SLT need to support them with budget and time.  If you don’t have SLT supporting IT you will have a failing IT system.  If you have IT who are clueless (usually fresh ex-students) don’t complain if you have a failing IT system.

So, what to do about those pesky people after your money:

• ·         Take what they say with a pinch of salt
• ·         If they claim to offer the magic fix – don’t believe them
• ·         If they say it will save you a lot of money – ignore them
• ·         Trial, Test and Trial – this is words they claim you don’t need to do

As a result of budgets being squeezed a lot of Schools are now reverting back to the old ways of doing things.  Low cost IT with Windows computers, projectors and using “free” systems when available.  Not fancy pretty little tablets, laptops or high cost Apple.

There’s absolutely no real reason in today’s educational environment you should have an Apple device.  If someone has told you they are “better” they lied.  99% of what you do with an iPad you can do on an Android tablet but costing a lot less.  When you look at Macs and MacBook’s, again there is professional software that works on Windows computers that do the same job.  Some people will again claim “Apple is better” – more lies.

Also remember though that free doesn’t always mean better.  Office 365 Live which provides the worlds best productivity programs in Word etc.  The free version requires an internet connection in Education.  The paid for one – allows local installations with no broadband.  The free Open Office, Google Docs and Libre are incredibly poor in many ways.  The best one is Open Office.

So next time you hear “This is the way” from Trainers, Salespersons and Seminar providers remember they are there to make a buck.  

They don’t care if you are struggling with budgets and they certainly won’t worry about your students.