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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Teachers lying

76 replies

Fmarf · 13/03/2015 06:41

Is it ok for teachers to tell a lie which upsets children for the sake of a creative writing exercise and not reveal the lie until the following day?

OP posts:
STFUwhydontyou · 13/03/2015 06:45

Oh, back in the day, we used to do a unit of work called "The Siege", with the scenario of a disease which obliged everyone to have to stay in school for two/three weeks.

In one school they got the tannoy to announce this for the verisimilitude. A student jumped out of a window to get away.

What is the lie? You need to be mores specific.

Sirzy · 13/03/2015 06:46

Why have you started two threads the same?

Your other thread shows they agreed the not telling them til next day was wrong and they will change that.

STFUwhydontyou · 13/03/2015 06:47

Could you link to the thread, Sirzy?

DontDrinkandFacebook · 13/03/2015 06:48

We need more specific info.

Do you mean the teacher fabricated a scenario and sold it as the truth, in order that the children should write about how it made them feel?

So. 'Hello class, this morning I am heartbroken because last night my dog died. Please write about how you would feel if your pet died, or what you would say to be to make me feel better.'

Children cry over dead dog. Next day teacher says 'My dog didn't really die. I don't even have a dog.'

That kind of thing?

CrohnicallyInflexible · 13/03/2015 06:48

It depends on the context, age of children, what the lie actually is, etc.

We have tried things like 'a spaceship landed at school last night'. If any young children are genuinely frightened by it, then we tend to explain to them 'it's only pretend'. However, older children might not admit to being upset/scared by it, so we wouldn't know to have a quiet word with them.

I will say though, none of our lies have been intended to be scary/upsetting, they've all been fairly outlandish (aliens, dinosaurs, that sort of thing) so children have to suspend their disbelief, and the characters are friendly rather than threatening.

MythicalKings · 13/03/2015 06:55

Duplicate thread.

I say again - get over it.

Floundering · 13/03/2015 07:01

Ok if we all say you were right what then??

This was all a long time ago, have you really nothing better to froth about in your life? If so you are a very lucky woman!

Let it go, move on, leave the school alone and enjoy your children while they are young instead of wasting a precious year of their lives over a minor breakdown in communication by the school.

ineedausername · 13/03/2015 07:07

Yip, YABU especially after reading the other thread.

thenextday · 13/03/2015 07:10

Good grief. Have you nothing else in your life to worry about?
You do realise the whole staff room will be laughing at you?

wheredidthebiscuitscomefrom · 13/03/2015 07:14

My dds school did this. They told the pupils that the headteacher was selling off half the playground to asda and they all needed to write a letter trying to persuade him to not sell it. It worked as there was some impressive letter writing.

ApocalypseThen · 13/03/2015 07:15

Not just the staff room. I'm also laughing, and I suspect I'm not the only one.

msgrinch · 13/03/2015 07:15

Read your other thread, yabu and bat shit crazy. Get out more/a hobby/life. This is a non issue, leave the school alone. your kids must be so embarrassed.

STFUwhydontyou · 13/03/2015 07:16

OP, you were being unreasonable on your first thread and starting a new one makes you more so.

About the lying, did you do tooth fairy? do you do Father Christmas?

IreneA78 · 13/03/2015 07:23

I think yanbu. it is very wrong to set out to fool children. it undermines the trust between children and teachers and sets out to humiliate them. How do yo feel when you have been April Fooled? a bit, well foolish?

MirandaWest · 13/03/2015 07:24

It's fine for the school to have behaved as they did. Have read your other thread on the same subject and really feel you have taken the whole thing too far.

Koalafications · 13/03/2015 07:27

YABU

Mehitabel6 · 13/03/2015 07:37

Having read the other thread, and commented, I really think you need to forget it! They would have got much better letters if the children thought it real. It wasn't a hurtful lie, just a flight of imagination for a short time.
I would find other things to fill your time.

Mehitabel6 · 13/03/2015 07:38

Would you have been any happier if they had revealed it was only imagination at the end of the lesson. Is it the fact that you were fooled that is upsetting you?

londonrach · 13/03/2015 07:41

Yabu. Read the other thread and now yabvvvvu. What do you tell your children about santa, tooth fairy?

Icimoi · 13/03/2015 07:43

Reverse?

SavoyCabbage · 13/03/2015 07:49

I think it's fine. The lie wasn't that upsetting as far as it goes, worse things happen at sea and all that.

ilovesooty · 13/03/2015 07:58

Just read the other thread and I think you should let this go. Your reaction is disproportionate and you must think governors and official bodies have nothing better to do.

miniavenger · 13/03/2015 08:05

YABU. I read the other thread and the fact that parents weren't told to write letters and a letter sent to them would have made me think it wasn't real straight on- which a lot clocked on to.

Yes, they should have concluded it by the end of the day or presented it as a creative exercise in advance but they've admitted that. To keep pressing on this is obsessive or smacks of having nothing better to concentrate on.

You sound more annoyed that you were tricked and perhaps embarrassed, rather then the kids.

And if you don't think teachers should lie at all, great! My teacher friends no longer have to say santa and the tooth fairy are real to the kids when they ask and the atheists can do the same with religion.

YouBetterWerk · 13/03/2015 08:10
Biscuit

That is all.

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