Research undertaken by GroupTogether, an online platform for collecting money for group gifts, found that 53 per cent of parents feel “much more grateful” for teachers, whereas a mere 15 per cent of teachers feel “considerably more appreciated”.
Ali Linz, Co-Founder of GroupTogether, says, “Parents are feeling a lot more grateful post COVID homeschooling chaos but teachers are not feeling it. “
One teacher said that during the online period, parents were suddenly more appreciative than usual but now that school has been back a while appreciation levels are back to normal.
Another teacher told GroupTogether that parental anxiety and expectation has increased since the pandemic hit.
While some teachers feel that “it’s as if it has all been forgotten”, there are teachers who received emails from students and parents showing their appreciation. “A few words of genuine appreciation make all the hard work feel worthwhile”.
One parent surveyed by GroupTogether said that her child’s teachers “went above and beyond, dressing up as a mermaid and taking a video at the beach in the middle of Winter.” Another teacher had a daily joke to keep the kids engaged and another teacher phoned parents to see how kids were doing mentally and physically rather than academically.
A mum who participated in the GroupTogether survey said that teachers “have the patience to deal with so many children, all with different personalities, at one time.”
Other parents said that they are in awe that “they manage a whole class of students to do the same activity” and another parent quipped “they have to plan an online meeting with 4 year old kids”.
