The downsides of teaching

• You are never quite sure if your income is going to last the whole month
• It's next to impossible to "have a bad day" - you have to be upbeat all day, every day
• If you are actually sick, you still have to plan your lessons for the day and email them in
• You are not allowed to slap people whose automatic response on hearing what you do is to say "Oh, you have lots of time off then!"
• You are discouraged from expressing your personal views on politics or religion
• You never feel as if you have done enough for your students
• You have to wear business dress in an environment of dropped litter in the corridors and spat-out chewing gum on the carpet
• You have to be able to admit that some of your students are way smarter than you!
• You have to stay politically correct around colleagues who take the piss by being away more than they are there
• You have to keep copious amounts of CYA paperwork, using up time that you'd rather spend planning lessons or marking students' work