boycott the indo?

Fuinseog

I was wondering do many teachers read the Irish Independent? it seems to adopt an anti teacher stance.

E Grade, an article supposedly written by a teacher or someone who had experience of teachers (with the indo this is usually a report of how things were thirty years ago)is hopelessly exaggerated.

the paper is a big seller and they write does influence people.

should teachers boycott it?

byhookorbycrook

Most teachers I know don't buy it.

rainbowtrout

I think the E Grade articles are supposed to be humerous and not taken seriously. I don't read the Indo anyway, anti-teacher stance or otherwise, because their articles are very poorly written, very poorly researched and your average second level student could probably do a better job. It's not much further up the ladder than a typical tabloid.

doc_17

used to read it but don't anymore....it's full of b*****t

happywithlife

i bought it last week (along with all the others i might add ) to get the figures for class on the budget
anyway i read on their 'education section' an article by someone purporting to be a teacher - he was describing a day trip away with the students -- completly unrealistic and a very ...dunno what word to use ... but he described his pupils in a very negative manner and the overall impression i got from his article was that he was a young male teacher who thought teaching should be as easy as babysitting a couple of three years when they've gone to bed for the night....and that he honestly couldn't give a fiddlers for a) any of his students b) any of his colleagues and c) anything to do in relation to his chosen career/profession.
the most obvious anti-teacher, raise-the-ordinary-joe-soap's anger kind of B***^%% i've ever come across!

rainbowtrout

happywithlife wrote: »

i bought it last week (along with all the others i might add ) to get the figures for class on the budget
anyway i read on their 'education section' an article by someone purporting to be a teacher - he was describing a day trip away with the students -- completly unrealistic and a very ...dunno what word to use ... but he described his pupils in a very negative manner and the overall impression i got from his article was that he was a young male teacher who thought teaching should be as easy as babysitting a couple of three years when they've gone to bed for the night....and that he honestly couldn't give a fiddlers for a) any of his students b) any of his colleagues and c) anything to do in relation to his chosen career/profession.
the most obvious anti-teacher, raise-the-ordinary-joe-soap's anger kind of B***^%% i've ever come across!

You're taking this way too seriously. I've read a number of those E Grade articles in the past and I consider them to be a piece of fiction in much the same way that Ross O'Carroll-Kelly columns are.

Most of what the Indo publishes is fiction anyway, so why take this column seriously?

spurious

They used to leave bundles of free copies in our place. We had to get them to stop as nobody was bothering with them and they were filling the recycle bins.

golden virginia

Its unfortunate that most teaching jobs are advertised in the Indo.

happywithlife

well rainbowtrout, i took it to be vailid at face value
and if i do, how many of the joe soap public do as well?
lol spurious - the same happens in our school too - every week there's a big pile left on a trolley in our staffroom!

rainbowtrout

happywithlife wrote: »

well rainbowtrout, i took it to be vailid at face value
and if i do, how many of the joe soap public do as well?
lol spurious - the same happens in our school too - every week there's a big pile left on a trolley in our staffroom!

I took it to be on the same level as the series Teachers on Channel 4. Although that series was way funnier.

melancholy blues

I've boycotted it since Emma O'Kelly's anti-teacher stance of a few years ago. They take any opportunity to jump on/start the teacher-bashing brigade. I buy The Irish Times, generally balanced, with fair opinion pieces.

golden virginia

melancholy blues wrote: »

I've boycotted it since Emma O'Kelly's anti-teacher stance of a few years ago. They take any opportunity to jump on/start the teacher-bashing brigade. I buy The Irish Times, generally balanced, with fair opinion pieces.

I was born and raised to read the Times and spit at the Indo - but still the fact remains- most education jobs are advertised in the Indo and so it is bought!

doc_17

melancholy blues wrote: »

I've boycotted it since Emma O'Kelly's anti-teacher stance of a few years ago. They take any opportunity to jump on/start the teacher-bashing brigade. I buy The Irish Times, generally balanced, with fair opinion pieces.

Is that the same Emma O'Kelly who works for RTE as their education correspondent?

RealJohn

golden virginia wrote: »

Its unfortunate that most teaching jobs are advertised in the Indo.

I've never understood this. Surely anyone with a high enough level of education to be a teacher wouldn't use the Indo as toilet paper, not to mind reading material.

Fuinseog

RealJohn wrote: »

I've never understood this. Surely anyone with a high enough level of education to be a teacher wouldn't use the Indo as toilet paper, not to mind reading material.

in some schools the only paper to enter the staffroom is the metro herald. It depends on how academic the school is.

E Grade gave himself away this week with references to the Inter Cert, which ceased to exist in 1992?. It is obviously written by some hack who thinks back to his school days in the eighties and tries to give the impression that things are still the same. you would think they would be a little more in touch.

doc_17

The former education editor ( John Walshe) of the Indo is now a special advisor to Ruairi Quinn.

byhookorbycrook

Most primary jobs are on educationposts.ie so no need to use a paper advert.

Dionysus

I can proudly say, as a voracious reader, that I have never, ever, ever bought any of the muck owned by O'Reilly.

I cannot understamd any educated person who does, particularly anybody who keeps that ineffably abysmal cesspit, The Sunday Independent, in business. *Shiver*.

Godge

Do people have the ability to distinguish between articles that are

(1) Anti-teacher
(2) Critical of the state of the teaching profession
(3) Critical of the education system
(4) Critical of the role of teachers in the education system today
(5) Critical of the high levels of teacher pay and perks (holidays) in teaching in Ireland
(6) Critical of the extent of professional teacher development


It seems to me that many teachers react to articles about 2-6 as if they are 1.

E.T.

Yes, generally people can distinguish between these slants. The problem is that many articles about 2-6 are written with huge inaccuracies, incorrect figures, and downright lack of journalistic neutrality.

Godge

E.T. wrote: »

Yes, generally people can distinguish between these slants. The problem is that many articles about 2-6 are written with huge inaccuracies, incorrect figures, and downright lack of journalistic neutrality.

But if they are petutantly dismissed as just being anti-teacher, the lack of intellectual rigour in that kind of response only gives fuel to the inaccuracies.

E.T.

In all fairness, it's hardly just the articles about teaching/teachers that turn people off the Indo. How many puff pieces about Z list Irish "celebrities" can a paper fit into each edition without turning into 'Hello'? There are many reasons that people don't buy the Indo.

Flashgordon197

The Indo is a tabloid paper with all its inherent "news values" but in terms of education coverage the Times is not much better. The Indo just wants stories that often resemble the rants of an hysterical person but the Times squarely represents the middle class educational agenda and in particular the Private fee paying section. Evidence-its obsession with league tables. The Indo will peddle anystory that sells papers.