I CAN’T TAKE IT ANY MORE
Snowflake teacher, 22, quits after one term moaning he failed to get home until shock, horror – 6.30pm
A TEACHER has been branded a ‘snowflake’ after quitting his job after one term – claiming the long hours made him break down in tears.
Eddie Ledsham complained he did not get home from the primary school until 6.30pm and was forced to catch up with work during lunchtime.
The 22-year-old said there was too much planning involved and resented how teachers were expected to tutor children for tests. He broke down crying in his third week and only continued until the end of the term after his mother gave him a pep talk.
Mr Ledsham, newly qualified following a three- year teaching degree, made the claims in an online video aimed at raising awareness of teachers’ workloads. He said his teaching course ‘did not prepare me at all’ for the reality of the job’s demands.
But yesterday critics online pointed out most jobs require long hours and said his story was symptomatic of a generation not used to hard work.
One said: ‘I generally have sympathy for genuinely overworked and unhappy teachers, but he seems a bit of a snowflake to me. Maybe I’m being harsh, but nothing in the story made me think he had much to complain about.’
Another said: ‘Oh dear this is a 22-year-old for you today, proba- bly didn’t get enough time on social media.’ A third commenter wrote: ‘Welcome to the world of work. Whatever the field, professionals all work long hours, without getting the long breaks that teachers have.’
Mr Ledsham, from Wallasey,
‘Welcome to the world of work’
Merseyside, said he was warned by university tutors that his first year in employment would be hard. After graduating, he landed a job teaching a class of eightyear-olds in Wirral.
There was only one class in the year group, which meant Mr Ledsham was planning every lesson himself, rather than splitting the work between other teachers in the year. At the time, Mr Ledsham was living with his father and said he would get in from work at about 6.30pm – usually after being the last person to leave the school.
He claimed he would get up at 5.30am to do marking or planning and then do more planning in his classroom before the day started.
Mr Ledsham said he worked through lunch and that his fellow teachers only spoke to him to inform him of his mistakes.
During the third week, he went to his mother’s house crying and said: ‘I don’t know if I can do this’ – but she encouraged him to stay.
Mr Ledsham said: ‘I felt like I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I felt what was expected of us was astronomical.’