I love, love, love teaching drama, and sometimes am even enamoured with teaching it in high school rather than uni.

I hate, hate, hate the following:

-"Must be nice to get to spend the day playing instead of working." (WFT?! Yes, I often truly enjoy my job and have a great time with some of the assignments, but I'd REALLY like to have the geniuses who say things like this teach just one drama lesson...or be in charge of just one field trip to West End London where a lost child is probaby very hard to find)

-"I shoulda been a teacher--wicked holidays!" (Fine, by all means...what's stopping you? Have fun in teacher's college!)

- "At least you don't have marking to worry about like I do." (Really? Crap, I wish someone had told me earlier--could've saved me a LOT of time!)

-"What do you mean you've got to do your lesson plans? Just tell them to be trees or something." (Perhaps you and the genius who thinks I play all day can co-teach a lesson...can I watch?)

Ah, whatever...on days like today when I'm both swamped (term reports due Friday, grading to finish, performance showcases to help with, etc., etc., etc!) and tired (didn't get home till 23:30 last night because I was making sure children didn't get lost in London) I get a little cranky.

In general, though, teaching isn't a profession I chose in order to impress anyone; if certain individuals want to believe that teaching drama is a paid holiday so be it. At the end of most days, I probably DID have more fun than a lot of people do whilst at work, and it doesn't really cost me anything to privately mock those who think I play all day, smile sweetly at them, and inwardly smirk over the fact that if they didn't hate their own jobs they probably wouldn't take shots at mine.