To be alarmed that teacher called a child a 'twat' in school?

[khaleesi71]

I'm not in the UK but a European country. DS (11) tells me that in his English class two students were discussing religion and what the difference was between Christianity and a Catholicism. Teacher says to children, "they are both the same you twat". Another student asks a follow up question and teacher turns to them and says "do you want me to call you a twat as well?". I was and dispatched an email to HT asking her to look into it. HT comes back to me to say teacher is very sorry she said that. The teacher is Australian and where she comes from it is a 'polite form of teasing' and they use the word a lot. She did not mean to cause offence. We have spent a fair bit of time in Aus and DS went to school there. We never heard it used in that way! I think it's a disgrace that a teacher uses derogatory terms for women in a class and think it normalises that sort of language but AIBU?

We had a uni age Aussie visitor last summer staying with other friends. They used the word twat to mean ‘daft’ until we enlightened them. They were horrified as they’d used it in loads of (inappropriate) contexts until then 😂

Alarmed??? Slight over reaction maybe?

It really annoys me when people who are not Scottish assure everyone that their friends says Scottish people do x and it's fine. Being called a cow is not worse than cunt in Glasgow. In fact most people I know would never use that word as it's so beyond rude. The only people I hear use it are junkie types that hang about the street not normal people.

Why? Alarmed does not mean anything strong. One can be mildly alarmed. She didn't say it was the end of the world.

We should all be a little alarmed at teachers that don't know the distinctions between catholicism and christianity and who then calls students twats, wouldn't yuo say?

Dre exactly x

This is when I discovered twat was rude.

Where I am from (UK Midlands) it was always exactly the same as "twit". I still think of it is that. (Although a teacher probably shouldn't be calling a pupil a twit either.

I am British and I thought the word twat was just a variation on twit until I was in my 30

Me too!

The teacher sounds ignorant and unprofessional.
Firstly Catholics maybe Christian, but not all Christians have the same beliefs as Catholics therefore the teacher was misleading at best.

Secondly humiliating kids by calling them names if you think they’ve made a mistake is poor practice in my opinion.

I wonder if it's regional? I've taught in, admittedly one Australian school, but have been here for twelve years and never heard the word used by a child or adult.

Anyway, not appropriate, nor is any name-calling by a teacher to a child.

An affectionate Australian name call for the useless would be "nong", but for teachers to students.

Not!!! Slipped up there. :o

Those of you saying any name calling of a teacher to a child; do you really think it’s wrong of teachers to have a relationship with children? I only “tease”/“banter” whatever you want to call it with people I genuinely care about and know. I know some kids hate to be wrong, or called out in it. I don’t call them a lemon, I don’t need to ask them, I know them. I care about my students, I want them to feel safe, happy and secure in my classroom. We do that via give and take relationship. We all know where the lines are, I don’t cross them and not do they. But we have fun, we have a laugh, and yes, I do tease them! Is that so wrong?

I know that twat is considered offensive by some but I've only just found out from this thread it's something to do with women.

I use it to mean hitting something or someone who is annoying/idiotic

Yourdaughter,Not Wrong to tease and have playful rapport with kids
I really like those teachers,the ones who get my kids,and my kids love it

yourdaughter it can really knock some kids when an adult teases them, it’s an unequal balance of power isn’t it? Teasing the whole class is one thing but singling out a particular child for a put down is something else.

And how about if the child was calling the teacher names? That would be considered cheeky or rude.

Having a laugh with pupils is fine, but calling individual pupils silly names is unnecessary and crosses a line for me.

Yourdaughter, what about the kids who don't get teased - but then know they're not part of your in crowd? Would you've happy with a pupil calling you a lemon if they thought your question was silly? There are ways to banter and be chummy without name-calling. It's not the one who asked the question who'll be put off asking another, it's the timid one who you don't tease because you know they won't like it.

I'm an Aussie and it's not really a word that is used very often over here. I only really heard it on some UK TV shows where is was more like 'twit' or 'daft'. It was only on MN that I found there was another context for it.

But they’re part of the ‘in crowd’ in other ways. I’m not saying that teasing is the only way to form relationships with students, of course not. Relationships are much too complex for that, but in some relationships it is a part of them. I don’t do it with some of my colleagues, but do with others, doesn’t make them less part of the office crew as it were.
Yes kids do call me a lemon. They know how to read the conversation we are having. Just the same as I wouldn’t put any rude to down during a whole class discussion, they don’t do it to me when I’m in front of the whole class. But if we’re talking they may make a comment to me about what I’m saying or call me a lemon.

All of my students take part in their lessons. It’s something that is regularly commented upon by SLT. My relationships with my classes and each students engagement. Even the shy, quiet ones want to be part of the small or large group discussion. I teach an A-level specialist subject as well as Core RE and PSHE to every year group on lower school. As I said in a pp, sometimes it’s hard to get them to move on as they all have so much to say.
I think it’s more about knowing your kids and not making assumptions based on snippets of conversation or anecdotes. Not making snap judgements about something your child says happened they overheard. Not immediately judging helps and finding out exactly what happened.

It sure where the random rude came from, that should be child (god what a slip!)

I am an Aussie and I am fairly sure that a teacher would get formally disciplined for calling a kid a "twat" (or pretty much anything, these days - quite rightly, too.) over here.

HT is minimising so that he/she doesn't have to take this further. I wouldn't be impressed with that response at all.

I think the ability to have a teasing relationship with teachers aides development and fosters resilience
It’s a safe adult- child relationship in which the pupil can safely explore boundaries

Catholicism is a branch of Christianity....

I'm Catholic and that's what I've always believed.

Just like Protestantism is another branch

Oh and I'm not sure about teacher using twat? Maybe she didn't think it was as offensive as your son did?

Well maybe you do it right Your and the teachers I had who thought they had good teasing relationships were all doing it wrong. But they don't know the questions I wanted to ask and didn't do they? The "this is probably a stupid question but I can't see it and it's bugging me" sorts of questions? Sorry but any teacher responding to any question with "do you want me to call you a #epithet# too" concerns me, however congenial the atmosphere.