Ariadne, I don't think a child of four would even know the word disrespectful, let alone be consciously rude
"I don't think asking for comments beforehand is going to affect the likelihood of them chiming in with comments during the story." Well, I seem to recall that you started off your argument on this thread by suggesting that if the teacher had done just that then all problems would have been avoided. I quote: "She should have invited comments about the book before she started, maybe asking who has heard the story before, who has it at home, what do they think the story is about based on the front cover, who do they think the main character is, based on the cover, etc. That way the children would have been drawn into it and all the chit chat would have been dispensed with."
I was referring to the chit chat before the story there, and not any comments during the story. It would surely be useful for a teacher to ascertain ahead of time whether the story had been read or heard by the children beforehand anyway -- what if they had all heard it before? How could she try to keep a few who had heard it before from spoiling it for the others? Do you ask the children who chime in whether they have heard it before? If you did, then I suspect you could head off the problems you described using the creative strategies you find useful for these exigencies.
'Shall we, as a class, sit and listen to every child's passing thought, or is the teacher allowed to end a discussion so that the book can actually be opened?'
Yes, why not? Unless you are possessed of some sort of tunnel vision about the reading of the book, what is the problem?
LeQ, getting a story read is hardly the sort of emergency occasion that requires immediate obedience to a direct order, now is it? Again, I have seen my so-called luffly approach working in the classrooms where my DCs spent their time aged four, five and six; five children x three years each = 15 years of observing teachers in various volunteering roles. It really is a shame that so many otherwise intelligent people in the UK are so ignorant of positive discipline and apparently incapable of imagining a discipline model based on different assumptions about children's development than those of the Victorians.
(And btw LeW, that post you quoted at 19:54:58 was from Ilovesooty and was meant to be ironic..)
OriginalJamie -- being picked up on behaviour does not necessarily mean that a child should end up crying. I have never seen discipline result in tears in the classrooms my DCs attended because it was always done in a win-win context that caused as little disruption to the rest of the group as possible. The result has been children who were eager to go to school and who tried their best to co-operate while they were there. Sad again that this might be inconceivable to people in the UK.
'Sorry, mathanxiety, but as a 'consumer of education', you are most definitely not entitled to make so many assumptions about a teacher you have never, ever met over the internet.
There is no reason to assume the teacher was rude - and no reason for you to challenge my assumption that she may not have been. And that's just the first of many that you base your now ludicrous arguments on.'
Sorry right back atcha, Feenie, but as a member of this site and as a consumer of education I most certainly am entitled to make assumptions, and as a tax-paying, sentient and educated adult I am entitled to judge anyone I please. I am especially entitled to judge the professionalism of a teacher as I am a parent. If posters are going to compare the role of a teacher to that of a parent then surely parents are allowed to judge the performance of teachers. My conclusion is that a teacher who sends a crying child on to her next activity is one who has failed that child and the others too, who have been distracted by the hullabaloo.
When teachers come here on MN and make comments about this child, her parent, children in general and parents in general, I am entitled to form an opinion of them in their role as teachers too, and to extrapolate whatever I please from their posts. If you post on MN claiming to speak as a teacher, then other members of MN are fully entitled to tell you what they think of your performance and attitudes as a teacher. If you as a teacher can dismiss posts by a parent concerned about her child as 'some gossip over the internet' then (1) what are you doing on this thread? and (2) I have a right to judge your attitude and find it wanting.
Soverylucky, you could nip down and offer a critique of the surgeon. People do that a lot. They have a right to, though usually the form of their critique is a suit filed against the health authority but sometimes against the doctor him or herself, and the payment of compensation for negligence and lack of professionalism is not unknown. Professionals are not above criticism.
Ilovesooty, how are exploring the world around them or engaging in give and take with children not elements of a learning process? Does all learning have to involve books? Are the social and emotional aspects of the lives of four year olds in a classroom not important?
'All the rest of the class obviously want to explore everything OP's DC says-I think not! In reality they want her to be moved and to be quiet!'
ExoticFruits, you were there? You could read their minds?