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.

Are you being serious???
How can you possibly know what ‘tone’ it was said in (if it was) ? Were you there?
Try teaching for a few weeks and see how you get on. Ridiculous post

Hmmm well personally i speak to children with the same level of respect i use when speaking to adults so i think its rude but i expect a lot of people disagree

Actually, I think that's a rude way to talk to anyone. I wouldn't say that to another adult, and I'd try very hard not to speak to my own kids that way.

My DCs' school has really turned itself around recently in trying to have very positive, polite communication from the adults to children, and I know the teachers (certainly at the lower end) wouldn't use a phrase like that. I'd not be impressed if I heard someone say that to my kid (indeed, one of my DC had an awful year with a very nasty-toned teacher a few years ago, and this was one of the things she brought home and started to saying to me - I was taken aback!).

There are much more creative ways of wording it so that the kid actually learns to think things through before asking the silly question, for example. It's not very polite - the test is whether the teacher would like the child to say that back to them!

It's encouraging young children to think and risk assess for themselves.

It would be daft NOT to say it

Mrskeats Joke's on you. I'm a Year 3 teacher. In the same school. A colleague of his teacher, in case you weren't able to figure that one out.

You should complain to the school, OP.

Seriously though, sometimes I say it up my 6 month old.

What next? There is no problem with the expression.

I’ve had stuff thrown at me in the classroom and been sworn at multiple times.
Some of you clearly have no idea what goes in a school.

To, not up. That would be weird.

Think you are being a bit precious. If your 5 year old is being rude to you then tell him off. It's not the teacher's fault. If he's imitating the teacher in a high voice it sounds like he is being rather cocky and disrespectful. Of course adults can say things to children that they would be rude the other way around. The teacher needs to keep control of a group of 30 children. They must give respect and do as they are told otherwise there would be anarchy!

This is entirely my own concern, and I'm only annoyed because he's now using this phrase against me - which, by the way - in case it escaped your thought (or lack thereof - I do not take to lightly.

Well, in case you can't work it for yourself OP, which you clearly can't, tell him you don't want him to say it if you dislike it so much. It's not hard to work that out. If you use your common sense that is.

You’re a teacher, OP? In that case, do apply your own common sense. Plan?

So you are trying to stitch up a colleague
Unbelievable

My son is also in Year 1. Would I be bothered? Not at all. I hear him say things like ‘use your nogging’ which is what his teacher says to him - similar to ‘use your common sense’. It’s fine and I don’t think it’s rude.

FFS, it's not the expression. It's the tone of voice - it's just got 'nasty old cow' written all over it. My DS does impressions of me and his DF accurately - and I don't see how it would be any different with his teacher, because she is as squeaky as he makes her out to be....

For example, taking the suggestions above of what's perfectly normal (actually quite rude to small kids getting to grips with the world):

Child: 'shall I put my coat on?'
Teacher That's a good idea - it's pretty cold out there now it's Autumn.

Child 'ive finished with the paint shall I put it away:
Teacher Yes - if noone else is still using it. Thank you for helping to tidy up.

Child 'this felt tip has ran out, shall I throw it away'
Teacher Yes please - thanks for sorting it out so someone else doesn't get the broken one.

You see - this way you can actually make them feel good, help them see the reasoning, and send them home with a good feeling at the end of the day. It doesn't have to be the usual Mumsnet nonsense of "Oh, they're all such special snowflakes, teachers have to pussyfoot around". It's just slightly crap teaching!

Oh gods, I hate the 'Miss, I've run out of space, shall I turn the page over?'. I can't stand it in five year olds, or fifteen year olds. I mean seriously! Use your sodding common sense.
Or nine six year olds all arguing over who's pencil they each have (identical pencils, all from the common pot on the table, in which there are definitely at least five spares because I refilled it this morning! Just get another pencil!)

YANBU. If a teacher can't be patient with small children and uses an unkind tone, perhaps they are in the wrong profession. I do some work with older children, and yes, they can be maddening, but I wouldn't say that to them. I do often ask them to think!

I'm not sure my DS even would have known what common sense meant aged 5 or 6. I don't think it's a trait that 5-6 year olds are renowned for.

Mind you, if it's encouraging them to think before they ask, it's fine, but only if it has been explained and it's said in a kind or at least neutral way.

Children shouldn't be made to feel ashamed for asking a question if they are unsure of what to do next.

So basically you don’t like a work colleague and you are trying to find a way to make her life difficult.
Why are you swearing? Is that taking a nice tone?

Wait... You're a colleague of this teacher and you have to ask if this is OK? This very incredibly minor incident? If they were that bad, OP, surely there'd be bigger things to worry about?

Plus, you're a teacher and you're saying things like, "ugh Year 7"?

You seek incredibly unprofessional. I'm glad you aren't my colleague.

Joke's on you. I'm a Year 3 teacher. In the same school. A colleague of his teacher, in case you weren't able to figure that one out

How the hell was anyone meant to know that? Your posts are massively drip-feeding. First, you have a problem with the phrase and when told you are being pathetic, you say it's the tone. Now you are a teacher and you know the teacher in question? I personally doubt it but if you are a teacher, how would you feel if some parents let rip at you because their kid had been imitating what you say when you tell them off/tell them to be quiet/whatever?

God, I find it absolutely refreshing and wonderful that this teacher is saying that.

The teacher is telling your child to use that part of their brain that today's education system and ghastly poor parenting is drumming out of them.

Bravo! Give that teacher a medal.

Sounds like "Nasty old cow" to me, too.

And before posters jump on me about poor old teachers, I have a whole family of them, and they hate teachers who speak to pupils like this.

And suggesting the teacher is a ‘nasty old cow’

You don't sound at all like a teacher, OP.