Is this rude from a child? Age 6, furious reaction from teacher

I'd have given him a right telling off for that! I am a primary school teacher.

Today I got asked 'how can you afford X type of car' by a ten year old.

absolutely 👍. And if the child was not trying to be rude, his study/provoking of the words in use and highlighting Ygritte means should be applauded!! Kids need to be allowed to think 🤔

For goodness sake.. wer'e talking about a 6 year old boy! Revisit your response - oh deary me 😏 Some of the reactions to OPs post lead me to query how many of you are parents as there seems to be a general lack of understanding of the developmental needs of young children, based on so many harsh responses.. 🤔

I completely believe that children should learn to be Independant and work on their own but that should be explained to them. Reminding them to believe in themselves and to give it a try is perfectly acceptable. But to tell a child not to speak to them unless they are in pain or injury will leave many children in a position of fear and that’s not the ideal setting for any learning.

It is not ignorance that makes me believe this way, if a teacher needs to use fear to control a class should they be teaching.

Well developmental psychology isnt going very well atm is it, with more and more children having MH issues. Thankfully my dc grew up more sensible times.

Imagine if you asked the class to be quiet, and 32 kids made a comment like that. How much learning would be taking place then? It’s no different for your son than all the others.

He can explore it later with the teacher. Not at that particular point when he has basically been told to be quiet.

It's hard to know without context what happened, but it sounds like the teacher was dealing with a lot of interrupting, hence that particular comment.

I would be saying to my son that I am, of course, sorry he got so upset, but he has to learn to be quiet when instructed to.

This comment shows how many people have no idea how classrooms function. There are times when teachers are doing small group work where it is expected that children don't interrupt. They will have been set appropriate work that they don't need help with or perhaps even just being asked to look at picture books. Independence is an important skills for children to learn. They are probably being expected to work by themselves for a maximum of 10 minutes.

Re all the pps' outrage at working in silence, my class can produce in 10 minutes of silence what would take them 30 minutes plus whilst chatting. Very few children are actually able to work and hold conversations at the same time. Working in silence for 10 minutes can actually leave more time for fun.

If children are being screamed at, that is wrong. But even in Reception, some children need to be told firmly what the expectations are otherwise they would be shouting, running and hurting their friends in the classroom. 6 year olds are not 'tiny' and some of the expectations of them on this thread are incredibly low. I'd expect more of my 4 year old.

I think the teacher acted awfully in this situation. 6 is a bit young to understand nuanced social expectations like this. By all means it could be explained to him that it was what some people perceive as rude but he shouldn't have been shouted at.

No, it wasn't rude. He's 6 years old - so young.. He was considering what was said: this was in no way chatback. He's bright. His treatment was so undeserved and Mum should definitely go to school ASAP and discuss the situation that day and the fact that her son seems much less happy. A discussion needs to be had to explore what has changed for him to make him anxious about school. Please go immediately and sort this out for him. Stand up for your boy!

Some children think very literally so was perhaps not meaning to be cheeky. My grandson would say this sort of think.

And your daughter would also have been wrong as in pain and injured are not the same thing. Think of it as a Venn diagram with the intersection being painful injuries but the parts outside the intersection showing non-painful injuries and pain unrelated to injury.

My first thought was also to question if your son has ASD, as people on the spectrum don't always recognise when a comment might come across as rude.
If there is no SEN suspected I'm guessing it's still possible that a 6 year old wouldn't have realised though, due to just being 6. (I only have the experience of raising an autistic child so I'm not sure how obviously cheeky that comment would be to an average 6 year old.)

Also, I don't know if your 6 year old is year 1 or 2 but the jump from Reception to year 1 can be difficult for some children. Year 1 to 2 shouldn't be as much of a shock.
(Meaning I'd worry less about them suddenly being anxious about school if they've just started year 1.)

Don’t think it’s going to happen!

Yet another, ‘Light the touch paper and watch it burn’.
So bloody tiresome.

Yes it was rude, smart arse back chat

He was rude.

Perhaps what she said was a bit harsh, but his answer was cheeky, bit condescending really

I would tell a child off on a play date who talked to me like that, let alone if I was at work and trying to teach a class. He’s v rude, and entitled. I’m very careful to pull my son up when he talks to women like that - they all will try it.

I highly doubt it was a 2 minute shout. Stand still and count to 120, can you imagine someone shouting for that period of time. I would say most of the class would have been in tears if that had happened. A 6 yr old has no concept of time and wouldn’t know what 2 minutes actually is. Plus children embellish!

I work in Year 2 and yes, they need to be silent sometimes, actually more than sometimes. I can assure you that as soon as one voice starts going, they all go and it soon reaches playground level unless nipped in the bud.

There is a leap from Year 1-2. Less play, more structured learning and sadly, much higher expectations so he may be feeling the pressure of that too.

I hope he feels more settled soon.

I think you have to take it with a pinch of salt. Even the nicest of children can exaggerate or take things out of context. Alternatively the teacher might have been having a bad day. It does sound like a strange comment to make in the first place though and I hope he has misunderstood. I would query it and get more info, but tread lightly in case there has been a misunderstanding.

I actually think the teachers “in pain or injured” comment was out of line. Firstly I could guarantee one of my daughters would have pointed the same think out, she was late diagnosed as autistic but we had quite a few instances where she would state the mistakes others were making.

Also Teachers are there to support and guide our kids not threaten them into silence. What if he needed help with his work? Should he just struggle alone?

s

Kid was being a kid. There’s no need to scare a 6 year old so much shouting at them that they’re still crying hours later.

I thought “kids should be seen and not heard” died out years ago but I guess not.

As an EYT, I would never say this to any child. If I wanted quiet I would find a child appropriate way to say it. You can’t scare children into submission.

@bruffin 'realistic' according to what? Certainly not developmental psychology

Definitely bring it up with the teacher... all those saying he is a smart ass ... lhe is 6 for God's sake .

Do you accept backchat from your son? If so, I can see why he would be surprised that the teacher didn’t like it. It was cheek, plus correcting an adult, so he was reprimanded for it.

The teacher did him a favour actually.