When teachers are fantasising about injuring themselves to get a sick day, you know the profession is at breaking point

I’ve come across stories of teachers wondering how many stairs they would need to fall down to be able to get a few days off ill

For too many teachers when they conduct a cost benefit analysis on their own lives, the moments of beauty can’t make up for the downsides (Getty/iStock)

“I wanted to crash my car to avoid teaching,” said the BBC headline, atop the story of a teacher who was so stressed out by her job that she actually considered driving her vehicle into a tree.

I wish I could say that I was shocked by it, but I wasn’t, not even remotely.

I’m the son of a teacher. I’m married to one, and, at one point I considered becoming one. I got to the stage of interviewing for a course at one of the University of London’s colleges.

I can honestly say that, looking back, I’m pleased I didn’t get in.

I’ve spent enough time around members of the profession, and witnessed the effect the job has had on too many of them, to understand how a bad interview can be counted as a lucky break.

When my wife was teaching, she used to get to half terms exhausted having regularly put in 60 hour weeks. Her “holiday” would involve her spending a couple of days wondering around our flat like a zombie before she’d be back at it catching up with the stuff she hadn’t had the chance to get done in term-time.

An entire room of our flat was devoted to box files and paperwork.

This is not unusual. The profession tends to attract people who are unusually dedicated, diligent and conscientious, determined to do the best for the children in their charge.

Those not of that mindset quickly realise there are much easier ways of making money. Like lion taming.

The trouble is that among the thousands who leave the profession every year are many of those in the diligent, dedicated and conscientious category.

A National Education Union survey on teacher workload conducted at the end of 2017 found that a staggering 81 per cent of teachers said they had considered quitting over the preceding year because of their workloads.

Some 84 per cent said theirs was manageable only “sometimes” or “never”.

Partly it’s because Whitehall insists on more box ticking bulls*** than you’d find at the National Association of Bureaucrats’ annual convention.

But it’s not just that.

“Every day you’ll get the chance to inspire young people and use your skills to give something back – making sure every pupil gets the same access to a quality education and the opportunity to succeed,” says the government’s website.

If it was being honest it would add: after you’ve learned to become a social worker, lunchbox monitor, politician, diplomat, data processing manager, and boxing referee. Parents occasionally like to entertain their peers by engaging in the odd bout of fisticuffs in the playground, with their kids on the under card.

I’ve come across stories of teachers wondering how many stairs they would need to fall down to be able to get a few days off sick, or some who just let their health go to pot.

So while the one who considered driving her car into a tree is extreme, it is not unusual.

When stories like this emerge you’ll usually get some Department for Education civil servant talking about record teacher recruitment, and the strategies they have to improve retention and what a great job teaching is. This despite the fact that of the teachers who joined the profession in 2011, only 69 per cent were still teaching five years later.

I spoke to the NEU before writing this column and I was told that while efforts have been made to address the issue of workload, they haven’t gone nearly far enough. Members continually raise it as an issue with their union reps.

At its best teaching is a great job. That’s why I considered it. It wasn’t just my wife and I who had tears in our eyes when our son, who is currently in the midst of the interminable process they make you go through to get an Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis, played the piano in front of the school. So did one of his teachers, who went way above and beyond the requirements of her job in working to build his confidence and get him to a place where he could succeed.

But even moments of beauty like that can’t make up for the downsides for too many teachers when they conduct a cost benefit analysis on their own lives.

And the nation’s children lose out as a result.

My wife is a highly qualified, and extremely talented teacher. She would be an asset to any school. I know this because I have talked to people who have worked with her.

When she decided to go back to work after having children, however, she returned to the classroom not as a teacher but as an assistant. This is not at all unusual.

As a result she gets paid thousands of pounds less than she could earn, and her skills aren’t as effectively deployed as they might be.

But she’d heard and took note of the words of one of our friends who said: “You know, I’ve spent so much time ticking boxes and working for other people’s children that I’ve missed out on my own. If I could go back I’d do it differently.”

I have to say, I think my wife made the right choice. But it saddens me.