Well at least they didn’t send you out to look for the kids!
While materially things are better at my school, the emotional aspect of it sounds familiar. Nevertheless, your bosses do the guilt tripping? I would think it’s typically the parents, sometimes better-than-thou coworkers.
I’m beginning to think that working at a school, the days you go home with a knot in your stomach and a lump in your throat will always outweigh those when you feel things went well and you’re appreciated.
I used to work in a kindergarten before that and never realized how much I appreciated the smaller and tighter, more exclusive environment. I know how to deal with kids that age. We spend the whole day together. They might be mean, too, but never as mean as a school kid can be, and I just know my way around their emotions, usually.
In school, they are under so many people’s responsibility during one day, no wonder they start rebelling.
I have to admit I agree with everything you wrote. This was my school time as well.
The one I work at now is much smaller (120 kids max) and has a relatively high educator-to-kid ratio (more than 1 to 10, but not all work full time), but there’s something inherently counterproductive in the system itself: the division into classes by age, the idea that older is better, but then mixing all these kids up again. Not all kids are bound to do stupid shit, but most kids are bound to look up to those slightly older ones, and most of those take advantage of that… and that’s all before puberty hits. Take that into the mix - 💣