Dealing with teachers who are (imho) bullying children

I ecperinced racisim throughout secondary school from teachers it was normal. It just made me grow thicker skin and work harder to prove all them wrong. BAME are encourged to do sports and stay away from academics and having aspirations. So I did the opposite and studied hard and humilated them on results day. They always told me I am never going to achieve anything but worked in the factory and said I wouod never be liie sos and so white student. I was predicted grades C-F they always marked me low. But with external marking I achieved grades A*- C and went on to University.
Thats just life.

@derivativation That will be because the way you’re acting is so ridiculous. Are you seriously banging on about people responding to you on a hidden thread when you’ve actually tagged them in the first place?
If what you’re saying is true (don’t believe that for a second) then the teachers will be struck off then we’ll all be reading about it in the news before long then! I noticed your story has already changed from several teachers to two now. Please don’t tag me again, we are not going to agree on this matter and quite frankly I don’t believe a word of it anyway. It’s just yet another teacher bashing thread contributing to a mass exodus from the profession. I bet you’ll still be moaning when your DC gets to secondary school and there’s an even bigger shortage of teachers to teach them than there is now.

Well done for advocating for your child 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 it takes courage.

This. 👍

@derivativation You clearly have issues issues issues issues issues issues!

@SurelyNotAnother

‘I have certainly met more manipulative, bullying teachers in my time than I have children fitting that description’

I wonder what the teacher vs children ratio is that you say that you've met and the context in which you have met them.

Because lets be honest here, a child in pain is hardly going to be going out of their way to do anything wrong.

@SurelyNotAnother
‘I have certainly met more manipulative, bullying teachers in my time than I have children fitting that description’

Again this statement is ridiculous! In the 20 years You may have had bullying teachers when you were at school but you’ve completely failed to accept that this would nor be allowed to happen with the constant scrutiny that exists now. I taught I met less than 10 teachers who were in any way nasty to kids. Teachers go into teaching to make a difference to the students they teach, it’s an extremely stressful and difficult job so nobody would choose to put themselves through that without good intentions.
The number of children who were rude, badly behaved and who lied about teachers and other students is well into the hundreds in comparison. Around 90% of these had the sort of parents who claimed their little darling could do no wrong and was being bullied by the teacher. The behaviour was not addressed as a result so these parents would make the same accusations about another teacher and so on, never acknowledging that just maybe their kid was the issue.
Of course children tell lies to get themselves out of trouble and lack maturity in their actions. That comes from being children and not yet having developed the skills and understanding to do understand the consequences of their actions. Teachers on the other hand are not only professionals but also adults who will be far less likely to lie. To suggest otherwise is completely absurd. I just know from your comments that you’re one of these parents who thinks their kids can do no wrong. I am willing to bet that their teachers and anyone around you would say exactly the same.
As an NHS worker you don’t have the first clue about what it’s like to work in a profession where parents and society as a whole are constantly making derogatory remarks and questioning your abilities. It is very damaging for mental health. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that teachers are venting here on an anonymous forum.

It’s not really unimaginable though. Everyone does it about their job, no matter what that job is and those who claim to
never do it are liars.

Interesting that it’s unimaginable to you that a professional doesn’t bitch about their patients. Says it all really.

@SurelyNotAnother

There’s absolutely no need for you to correct anything I’ve written, thanks. Just because you don’t like it, it doesn’t make it untrue.

I love my students dearly. Teaching is my vocation because I love young people and helping them on their journey to adulthood. I am a supportive, caring teacher who works hard to build a strong rapport with my kids and works my socks off to provide them with the best education I can. I do a huge amount of extracurricular activities above and beyond what I am paid for to ensure that my students have plenty of opportunities to engage in my subject area and develop their creative talents. I always defend my students and advocate for them. I’m the first one wading in during meetings if I feel something has been unjust towards students by a teacher, and I frequently stand up for my students when their parents have totally unrealistic and unhelpful expectations of them. There are many teachers like me in the profession. It’s a hard and time consuming job that’s not particularly well paid considering the hours we have to put in, so there’s not a massive incentive to do it unless you genuinely like kids. I genuinely have never met a colleague who took pleasure in being horrible to children. I’ve met colleagues who have been going through challenging personal circumstances who have lost their rag and probably should have taken some time off, but people genuinely setting out on going into the job to bully and be mean to kids? No. I’m sorry but the job doesn’t provide enough perks to make someone bother to do that.

My love for my students does not mean I am not blind to the reality that some children can be nasty, manipulative and vindictive. Spend some time in a school and you’ll see the absolutely horrific nastiness kids can mete out to their peers. I’ve seen texts between students this week that were so nasty I felt sick reading them (I’m a pastoral leader). Do you really expect teachers not to acknowledge this reality? And please - the amount of people who claim they would never speak about their patients or clients the way teachers talk about some pupils - do me a favour. You’ve never once moaned to a colleague after a tough shift about a patient? Of course you have. Get off your high horse!!

It’s strange how so many teachers speak with such contempt about kids. Not just about parents but children. I work in the nhs and have had abuse, rudeness etc. But I would never speak about patients the way teachers do about children online. All this ‘darling Sebastian’ kind of stuff, saying kids are manipulative and liars. Unpleasant. I saw it during the pandemic too. The way so many teachers spoke about kids was horrid.

I have been lucky as a parent. Despite having a bully teacher myself growing up, my kids have had brilliant teachers. They are now at uni but we met so many great teachers along the way. Only one bad teacher and three kids at uni. Not bad going! Some are my friends today. We had a good working relationship and shared laughs too. They were responsive and helpful and largely kids respected them. They had a hard job and did it so well. They had my respect too. And I supported them on the (rare!) occasions my kids did wrong. We worked as a team. I always emailed the head with positive feedback when teachers went above and beyond.

I am so glad that they were not like some of the teachers on this thread and MN in general.

Corrected it:

’there are also many nasty, vindictive and manipulative teachers out there who will happily deflect their own failures onto a child and show no remorse when that child suffers due to their lies.

I have certainly met more manipulative, bullying teachers in my time than I have children fitting that description. The bleeding hearts on here claiming that teachers should always be believed etc are completely naive. Adults have just as much capacity to lie and deceive with deliberate intent as children do. There are always two sides to every story and we all know that teachers can and do say anything to get out of trouble.’

I do secretly love it when the head says, "ok, let's check the CCTV." and the apparent 'angel-child' backtracks on their accusations faster than a speeding bullet.

I quite often use the, 'its ok, we'll check the CCTV.' to get the truth out of a child. It saves a lot of time when getting to the bottom of disputes.

@Foostit and @macap

Two very different responses to a post.
@Foostit
As an ex teacher my response would be to see the whole clip, un-edited because as you inferred it is very likely to have been already recording and not include the whole situation.
But my point still stands isn't it amazing how the clip only includes evidence of abuse and not the context.

@macap

It may well have been a last resort, but if its and every lesson occurrence then its should be the full recording and not only the bit with the teacher's response. And just to make things clear many classrooms have video cameras in them that have disputed the footage taken by the pupil.

There are far too many pupils that believe that they can do as they like and that recording and editing a clip to give only half the story makes them some sort of hero. When they have spent much of the lesson winding the teacher up and only showed a 2 minute clip.

Tbf I think it was a last resort as it had been going on for some time but a bit like on this thread the child wasn’t really believed and was just seen to be a bit of a trouble maker.

in her new school she is doing brilliantly and getting countless certificates at the end of the week. Quite the change.

@FrippEnos
Bit naïve of you to to think clips can’t be edited! Are you seriously suggesting that me as an adult witnessing the comment should be ignored because the child only pressed record after she made the comment? Yet another example of the type of parents forcing teachers out of the profession!

I have always found it interesting that a pupil (that is apparently perfectly behaved) can get the phone out of their bag, get through the security screen, flip through to the recording app, press record, whilst not looking at the phone and only ever getting the exact evidence that they need. All whilst being shouted at by a teacher that doesn't spot the child doing this.

Doesn't this strike anyone else as being slightly disingenuous?

Definitely agree with that, just as there are in every profession but highly unlikely it will be several in the one school as the OP and a few others are insinuating! I also know of a teacher who was recorded, she did shout. However, the delightful child in question conveniently didn’t record herself being racist towards the teacher! I was in the classroom at the time and witnessed the racist remark. Of course when the parent complained she refused to believe her little darling could possibly have made that remark. The teacher was a trainee and almost quit because she was so upset by the whole incident. The teacher then had to record all lessons with that class for the remainder of her placement. That child was not popular after that! It could have been very damaging to the teacher in question.

😂
You have unintentionally summed up the shit teachers have to put up with!
Firstly where did I say that I was a teacher? Secondly, why is it acceptable for people working in any other profession to be rude and patronising but not teachers? Do you realise how ridiculous that sounds? This attitude is a huge part of the problem! Parents have no respect for teachers because a teacher once threw chalk at them in 1982 and therefore all teachers are awful and need to be told how to do their jobs! It’s fine to abuse them and they can’t possibly defend themselves because they must be professional at all times! 🙄😂
I bet you also comment on the Daily Fail moaning that they have too many holidays. No other profession has to endure this, correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think doctors have to endure parents telling them that they’re wrong in their diagnosis to the same extent. Plus if you were remotely abusive in a surgery you would be asked to leave. There’s something very wrong with the levels of abuse teachers are expected to put up with. This thread is evidence of that!

Tbf of course there will be some nasty teachers. There’s bad in every single profession going!

an acquaintances daughter actually secretly recorded how she was spoke to by one particular teacher. Teacher was given warning and parents were brought in for a meeting and apologised too. child left to attend another local secondary and she is thriving.

sometimes it is the environment and a minority of those within it.