Should the teacher be saying this to 5/6 year olds?

[ThisIsMyUsername02123]

Hello.

Just a quick one, really. My 5 year old never used to say this to anyone considering it's never really said in the home - "use your common sense!"

I asked him, "who says that?," to which he responds "[Teacher's name]."

Do you think that a Year 1 primary school teacher should say things like that to 5/6 year olds, considering how rude and abrupt it is to say something like it? Personally, I find it quite ridiculous considering the fact that not even DS15's Year 10 secondary school teachers say things like that.

Cheers.

Appu that's used in positive parenting all the time as well.

Another example from home:

"Get ready to go."
"I don't know what to do."
"Go for last wee. What's next?"
etc

I think another problem is that everyone's definition of common sense is slightly different because it is a colloquialism. It's not a very clear instruction to a child . If the instruction is to remember what you were told earlier or yesterday then tell them that .

I am reminded of the time that my db was asked by by mother why he didn't tell her about an event at school . His reply was that it was for'parents' he was 5 and had no idea what parents were let alone that they were mummy and daddy !

Likewise pointless telling a child to use their common sense if they have no idea what this is .

Dragon I don’t recall anyone asking what your nine year old says.

Does that matter? I was curious as to what she may think. Seeing as we adults are in such complete disagreement, I thought I’d share it. I didn’t say she was the oracle. I didn’t know I had to have permission first. Sorry miss, I forgot to put my hand up.

...and finally Flowerpot illustrates perfectly what I wrote about on my first post yesterday at 6:27. Put far more eloquently than I ever could

AndhowcouldIeverrefuse is the poster who said there is no such thing as common sense. Then claimed it would only exist if we could tell her which area of the brain it was located in. Then demanded I provided her with quotes from a set of authors I had listed (from Aristotle, where common sense started!) and because she was too scared to discover it has actually existed as an identifiable construct for over 2000 years and have to admit she'd been wrong, she came out with the old "well if you can't waste your time finding quotes I demand for me, you've proved my point" standpoint of the loser.

AndhowcouldIeverrefuse illustrates perfectly that common sense exists, and not everybody has it.

Children will take the piss and act like they are not aware of something they are well aware of.
As someone said, when a teacher has told her class numerous times where to put something, she has a pretty good idea which children are being deliberately awkward....so telling them to use their common sense is preferable to saying 'stop taking the piss'
In those circumstances...I don't think I would mind which phrase she used 😎

when a teacher has told her class numerous times where to put something, she has a pretty good idea which children are being deliberately awkward....so telling them to use their common sense is preferable to saying 'stop taking the piss' Precisely. Saying 'use your common sense' stops something else tumbling out. In my class 'shut up' and 'stupid' were never used by me (obviously). I just said, 'I almost used the banned words there.' They knew what I meant.

Are you Miss Rabbit OP? Best comment of the thread.

Posters who don't think 5/6 year olds can have common sense; using my common sense, I expect children to have age appropriate common sense.

I've never taught Primary, but ime as a parent and Secondary teacher, it's not so much taking the piss as not having been given the responsibility to think for themselves. Some children just get used to someone else telling them what to do all the time, or doing things for them.

I think the pressure of modern lives means time is short and it's quicker to go on doing things that dc are capable of doing for themselves or parents feel guilty about not spending time with their dcs and make up for it by doing too much for them. 'Caring' and 'being a good mum' is expressed by putting their clothes out for them or letting them get their own drinks instead of encouraging them to be more independent and learn practical skills.

That's what common sense is, really. Practical intelligence.

not letting them get their own drinks.

All these fascinating intellectual insights. So common sense started with Aristotle how did people manage to get anything done before that??

I have read Aristotle and Plato in the original. I had to read, and write essays on Kant, Montesquieu, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein etc to get my high school qualification. I am lucky that I don't need to look up my quotes. There is nothing wrong with asking you to back your statements, if not with quotes from the authors YOU brought up, at least with your own reasoned thought and logical statements.

It's been entertaining watching your posts go from dismissive to impatient to irate to something bordering on personal attacks while you dig yourself into a hole.

I hope you can give up on your fixation on me. Our posts are at least partly on topic but I feel somewhat uncomfortable with a thread derail, however minor.

AndhowcouldIeverrefuse
I hope you can give up on your fixation on me.

You started our exchange by demanding quotes from me, after I replied to another poster.
You kept on and on.
You said you were going. Phew. We said farewell.
You returned and kept on and on at me again.
You went. Phew.
You returned again today, derailing the above discussion, mentioning me by name.

I do not know what is wrong with you. But for goodness' sake, just stop.

mummyoflittledragon Just asked my 8 nearly 9 year old what common sense means to her and she said "to be wise"