Teachers who have watched 'Adolescence'- what are your thoughts?

My dds are in high school in the countryside (small town in Cheshire) and it’s nothing like reality for them.

interesting how many teachers have issues taking the roll. If I’m explicitly teaching I will quickly do the roll calling out the names. But if they are working on a task then I just look round the room and find each student myself.

I think the problem now with bullying is that it is 24/7 and visible. In my day if someone said something nasty to someone a few people may hear it, maybe others might hear about it second or third hand. Now it’s visible and obvious to everyone. Katie’s comments on insta everyone could see. So it wasn’t just the embarrassment of him asking her out and being rejected it was the public shaming after. Not that it’s an excuse but that’s the difference now they were trying to highlight.

I haven't seen the programme yet but this comment really stands out to me. My sons go to a state run boys' secondary and the difference in how they're treated compared to their mixed sex primary is staggering. At primary so often the boys (not just mine!) were treated as troublesome, too rough, too energetic, and needing to get used to 'banter'. Basically it seemed a bit like girls were the standard and boys were the aberration, behaviourally. At their single sex secondary they are treated so much more holistically, with clear expectations for behaviour but also an understanding - and liking- of boys as human beings. I never in a million years thought I'd like a single sex school, it wasn't our choice. But it's been so good for ours.

I don’t deny teaching is a stressful job.

But standing by the door as the students file in, closing the door once the last person has entered and then walking about 7 steps to the front of the classroom does not prevent the lesson from starting on time.

I work in a Primary School & we get countless parent emails complaining about literally everything - it's never their child's fault, they wouldn't lie, they didn't do anything wrong, we're being unfair, etc.

It's beyond ridiculous sometimes & you wouldn't believe the appalling behaviour, language, violence, rudeness & disrespect that we see on a daily basis from kids as young as 4-11yrs old!! (But obviously none of it is their fault! 🤦‍♀️)

On private schools. I worked as an external examiner, largely in private schools. I went to one very, very expensive private school where one of the lads turned up late completely unprepared. He didn't swear. He wasn't aggressive. He was charismatic, but 'difficult'. I expect you could call him 'cocky', 'full of himself'. He gave an off the cuff presentation on drug law. It was, I presume, designed to be 'edgy'. I was suitably unshocked. I got the sense he had been indulged for a long time. He seemed taken aback that I'd actually like him to do the things he was there to do.

The next I heard of him was when he was convicting of stabbing to death a school friend at another school. I guess I'm saying males who will go on to commit violence may not all present in the same way.

I think this is staggeringly wrong thinking. To learn about subjects like science or history or any academic subject, you start with learning basics and you build on knowledge slowly over time, and ultimately specialising. To get to grips with a subject you'd need a broad base understanding and you would then be able to build on detail in certain subject areas. You learn to make connections and think critically, and understand patterns and theories. None of this could come from AI.

No you could not get the sort of depth of understanding you'd need at university level based on some things you find at your "finger tips".

And a lot of information on the web is incorrect.

And we can and should build in creativity into the school day - it isn't one thing or another.

I am really shocked to read this coming from a teacher.

He was being a git, yes, but this was a while ago, when he was a property developer, and the comments are pretty much par for the course for property developers - and many other professionals. So, not great, no, but not comparable to shitshow situation he has inherited, and he isn't - de facto - misogynistic in his current work or policies. He is also against armed conflict, and personally I don't care what he said in 2005 if he can get us out of our current quagmire.

Examples of extreme liberal - like suggesting kids don't need to be taught maths or grammar, or like teaching 5 year olds age inappropriate facts about adult sex choices, or that including pornographic material in manga aimed at 11 year olds is okay. For starters.

I have seen this from the other side though. A child talked to parent about how a teacher is with the kids, parent speaks to school, parents told this could not possibly have happened - no possibility a teacher would be screaming at the child.

You can hear the screaming from outside the school as you walk past.

Can be bit of a nightmare both sides.

An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.

Liberal has its own meaning
Extreme liberal is a new term intended to relate to ideas which probably originated in or were inspired by liberal thought, but which are now being applied in such an extreme way it is to the detriment of most of society and society as a whole.

The ideas are generally promoted by extremely well funded activist groups.

Quite.

It the lovely headteacher and her daughter killed by the husband? Or the lad that violently attacked his fellow roommates and a teacher at a boarding school?

This is a male violence issue that intersects class don’t think you can buy your way out of it.

What about the boy who attacked 2 other boys and a teacher with a hammer at Blundells?

Do you think stabbings only occur in the state sector? The parents of Yusuf Mackie would disagree (except his poor mother has since died).
Knife crime affects all sectors.

Again its not the taking of the register, its all the other crap that the SLT/HT wants done at the same time.

If the school has had to push for kids to be getting on with work from the beginning of the lesson, I imagine it’s because too many teachers have been faffing about and taking too long to get started. It really should be expected that the lesson starts as soon as possible.

If the schools wants a teacher to greet pupils at the door, then the learning will start late.
If the school wants a 60 minute lesson to be a 60 minute lesson and the pupils working to the bell then the next lesson will start late.
If the school adheres to a 'every second matters' teaching policy, then it goes against every piece of teaching pedagogy of how children learn and how long for.

As has been said many times on here one of the things that makes teaching stressful is poor management and their unrealistic rules.

I guess society view boys as being more rough than girls. So a group of boys pushing/shoving isn't deemed unusual (depending on the circumstances- were they messing around or was it the start of a fight?). Whereas a group of girls doing the same thing might be seen as something that needs to be broken up?

Surely it depends on what the boys told their parents about the situation for the parents to feel it's unfair. As a teacher you only see a snapshot, whereas 1/2 of the boys may have instigated it.

What does a demerit mean for the boys? It's a bit much for the parents to email stating it was unfair for that alone if it's just a "point" system.

It also depends on the parents themselves and how they view the school rules, I wouldn't say it just parents of boys.

Edit to add: not excusing the behaviour of the boys mentioned in OPs post, simply wondering why the parents feel the need to intervene.

On the toxic masculinity at private schools point, I've got a very close friend whose son's are at one of the schools named on the Everyone's Invited site a few years ago.

Apparently the school started doing some work with the boys on consent etc. My friend was outraged that it could ever be thought that her sons could behave in any way that was not appropriate. I was really struck by this. Why wouldn't you think it was a helpful thing to do

As a parent I would have no problem with cameras in every classroom and corridor.

I wish they could put cameras in some lessons to show parents how badly their children behave. Although some parents would still blame the teacher because in some places sticking up for your child no matter what they do is a mark of being ‘a great mum/dad’.

I do wonder about the comments saying boys need to be more physically active and taught differently. The thing is theres been a clear slide in behaviour and it’s come with schools being more relaxed not less in some senses. I can’t imagine a school in the 1950’s was trying to nurture boys masculine spirit by allowing them to wander around. They’ve always been expected to sit at a desk look forward and pay attention with consequences for not doing so. The idea that even less control is a good thing for boys is a bad idea I think. They need to feel safe and acknowledged but they also need very clear rules. Black and white.

I think boys do need to be taught how to be men, thats resilience, no making excuses, owning your behaviour, duty, civility etc. same sort of stuff I’m trying to teach my daughter. Boys don’t need coddling, they need loving discipline and firm boundaries. Out of the boys I know, the ones who know how to behave and are courteous towards women etc and I consider to have grown into fine young men have dads who take no shit. Extremely firm boundaries, high expectations around behaviour, good modelling in terms of how their mum is treated by their dad but also loving, encouraging and flexible.

My teen ds has never had any sanction or even lost behaviour points. I don't think these violent kids are the majority or even average of the boy population-

I do think that males are naturally more physical Etc by their nature- from what I have read when it comes to suicide for example a male will do so with a more physical method than a female. I suspect teen males acting out would be more physical and therefore obvious than females. I would imagine the girls who are being arses is much more on the emotional / psychological side and less easy to see or catch on cctv. Are there more arsehole boys than girls - we will never know as by the nature of the behaviour it is less likely to be caught and therefore measured in girls.

However, we also need to tackle male violence and where teens are displaying this is needs to be addressed up front.