Kudos, a small planet far, far away...

I've had a few emails recently asking why teaching doesn't have the kudos that other professions such as Accounting, Medicine or Law do.

At first I was puzzled, thinking that Kudos was the name of that new planet astronomers discovered a couple of years ago, but after a quick check in the dictionary I am now ready to try and answer.

Firstly it's because everyone knows how easy teaching is to get into. A couple of scraped A Level passes can get you onto a teaching degree and within 4 years you can be teaching a subject you know nothing about. Or if you did a degree and scraped a third, then no problem; just enroll on a one year PGCE course. (David Cameron permitting)

Many people go into teaching because they can't get into anything else, which obviously annoys those who had lots of options, but chose it above all the other possible careers.

The other reasons are; it's a job for life with virtually no chance of being sacked no matter how bad you are at it. Also, you aren't paid by how good you are at teaching, only by the number of years you have done it. (The only performance incentives are two salary threshold levels which are virtually automatic passes). It is therefore viewed as a career for those who are not particularly competitive. The poor conditions that many teachers work under, ie having to accept near constant levels of appalling behaviour and abuse from pupils also tend to work against us, encouraging the outsiders view of "Who on Earth would put up with that, unless they were desperate?"

Status is often judged by salary and teachers pay is lower than many other graduate professions (although the state contribution to our pensions make them worth far more than a private sector one and we shouldn't forget the 13 weeks holidays as opposed to 4). There is also the perception that teachers work far less hours and are always either off sick or taking time off for reasons which a business would clamp down on. Finally, you can dress like a scruff if you want to.

That's about it really. Frankly I couldn't care less about kudos- I just always made the most of the holidays and sent plenty of postcards to my accountant friends.