Debate: Do we teach children or subjects?

I expect that many of us have been asked the question, ‘What do you do?’, by a new acquaintance, and replied with a slightly sinking heart – ‘I’m a teacher.’ ‘How interesting,’ runs the conversation; then inevitably, ‘What subject?’, follows. The only possible reply to this by a primary specialist is ‘children’. This is usually sufficient, but I remember a devastating follow up by a well-meaning aunt who on hearing that the children were in primary school said comfortingly: ‘Oh you’ll no doubt go on to teach older ones when you’ve had more experience.’