to not want to shake hands with all my students every lesson

[DrSeuss]

New directive from on high at the school where I teach. As of next September, all staff must greet staff at the door (most, including me, do this already) and offer a handshake, fist bump or high five to each child.

I don't really want to and can see so many pitfalls.

1. Some of my students have ASD. Social interaction for them is difficult at the best of times.
2. A couple are survivors of abuse. Touch is a major issue for them.
3. At least a quarter are Muslims. Touch between adults and children past the age of puberty is a major issue. I have no wish to give offence and am more than happy to respect their faith.
4. Bodily autonomy. Why/how do I compel them to shake my hand?
5. quite a few will just see it as another reason to be difficult or play the clown. I expect numerous "near misses" which they will find hilarious even if I refuse to react.
6. DD, aged 15, thinks it's ridiculous. She's fairly average. If she hates it, they probably all will.
7. I know where their hands go and suspect how little they are washed! What am I supposed to do, shake thirty hands then use hand sanitiser in front of them? How will that "foster good relationships"?

As I say, this is for all staff, it is a directive from SLT and I don't see how I can just ignore it. They have form for actively watching to see if such directives are followed. Any ideas appreciated, thanks!

Urgh, that sounds awful.

My colleague tried hand shaking at the start and end of every day, and suggested it should be a thing. A particular child said no and gave a really nasty glare every time for ages, then one day child put his hand out, pulled it away at the last second yelled "Psyche! don't touch me" then other children started messing around. strangely the handshaking was dropped a few days later.

Why can't you just say good morning/greet them by name?

Have they done a risk assessment

I'm sure a good one would rule it out - certainly as an enforced option

What a waste of time.
Yes it looks lovely in those clips but it only works if it is natural to the teacher.
Also who is managing the class that have gone in? What are they doing?

My dd's class at a kindergarten through junior high (about yr9) do this once a day, at the end of the day. One their way out their (form teacher equivalent) offers a high five, hug, Rock Paper Scissors, or handshake to each pupil. They love it and I assume the teacher is able to wash her hands straight after! It takes a few seconds per child and I have never seen my dd so connected to a teacher.

I understand the idea of teachers showing an interest in each individual child and demonstrating mutual respect. But Jesus Christ, this is ridiculous. There are about a hundred problems with this proposal. Why don't schools trust teachers to tailor their teaching methods to the class/the situation/their own personalities/ individual pupils?

It takes a few seconds per child and I have never seen my dd so connected to a teacher.

Don’t confuse correlation with causation. Maybe your DD connects with this teacher because they are the sort of enthusiastic extrovert who has an engaging personality and loves this shit. Would she be so connected if it were an introverted, socially awkward teacher high fiving her through gritted teeth because they’d been ordered to?

Urgh. I'd be telling the HT no-one gets to touch me without my express permission. Union.

Sounds like a thoroughly stupid idea thought up by someone who has never taught in a secondary school.

It sounds really silly and like a waste of time. That said, I also feel that learning to shake hands is a social skill that is important for work and other interactions. I wonder if it might be possible to shake hands occasionally with pupils on special occasions like at the end of term or whatever.

Just add an option to wave

How much of a muppet would you look, standing at the door waving madly as the kids enter. HELLO!!!!!!! 👋

Can you tell the students about it before this lunacy starts? By which I mean give them time to go tell parents, some of whom will hopefully complain!! This is the time to use 'that parent'!

All teachers need to individually bombard smt with possible SEN, religious, safeguarding individual questions. Has every parent given written permission for each and every teacher to physically touch their child? (Teachers are adviced to never touch students, my first school won't allow any physical contact, not even a touch on shoulder if leaning to explain something.) Student x is ASD and doesn't like to be touched but will feel isolated if I don't, what do you advise? Student b has a cold today, can I send everyone out afterwards to properly wash their hands after secondary contact through me? What's the school budget for hand sanitizer? Student y is allergic to sanitizer, do i let them out to wash hands afterwards? What do I do if student d complains my high-five hurt them? How much paid leave am I entitled to if 6' 5" student c sprains my wrist highfiving me with force cos he's pissed off today?? Hand sanitizing 6 times a day has resulted in rashes, what do you advise? Etc etc.

All teachers who have an issue need to collectively go to both smt and union. And I'd be tempted to anonymously tip off local and national papers. Tabloids would have a field day.

Secondly, when lunacy starts keep a record of time spent and time washing hands after. Stretch it out! 30 students every hour is going to seriously impact on learning time.

Get creative! This could actually term into a fun little team bonding rebellion. Good luck.

@stbernard. Once a day in primary school where you have the same teacher all day is completely different from being a teenager with 6 or 7 lessons a day with different teachers some of whom you hate or only see once a week. Totally different dynamics and age group. I cringe at the idea of socially awkward teens being forced to fistbump adults who have been forced to do it.

They love it and I assume the teacher is able to wash her hands straight after!
Yes, but if Pupil #1 has germs on their hand, it has now been passed to all 30 students via the teacher's handshake...unless the teachers washes her hands between each handshake.

This reminds me of ds' dopey nursery teacher who couldn't see the correlation between the outbreak of nits in the classroom and the hat trading game that she introduced the week before as part of a week's lesson on different types of jobs.

I think ThingsDoGetBetter's suggestion of making the pupils aware in advance so they can tell their parents and the parents can complain.

How does this comply with your safeguarding policy?

You tell children they have a right to bodily autonomy, except when it is with a teacher? Nothing could go wrong with that could it?

Parents need to know about this, has the school communicated that?

I do supply. I walk with a stick. I cannot physically stand using my walking stick in my right hand and shake hands. If I were to work in your school how would this impact on me?

I physically can't high five, it hurts.

I have an exercise I do when teaching infection control. I put (washable) face paint on the hands of two students who then take drinks round to the class, you can see where the 'germs' end up. Maybe you could do something similar?

We have this at our school and it has many benefits.
When they are greeted in person, the teacher greets them all individually by name so that it helps the pupil feel recognised as an individual, not just one who can hide at the back of the class lost in the masses. It gives the teacher to have a quiet “how are you getting on with [topic] since last lesson?” to gauge whether the individual you helped last time still needs help/TA focus, or “catch me at the end if you need homework help”.

It helps to quickly address any corridor behaviour issues before they’re brought into the classroom.
Its particularly useful for SEN/SALT pupils who may not necessarily want to shake hands (high fives instead) but are encouraged to make eye contact with the teacher which is an important part of social communication.
And on the most basic level, it can help teachers spot which pupils are having a bad day who might need someone to talk about it to later.
And as for the cleanliness issue - have hand san available for all pupils to use as they go into the room, so its not just you doing your hands... ...and bear in mind that you’re still touching the same door handles and surfaces as all these kids so if you’re germ averse then working in a school or any place with other people is not a good fit! (Some adults are worse than kids for hygiene).

Offering doesn't mean insisting. Stand by the door and they can great n their choice if desired

I would have hated this as a kid. My dream would be to spend the settling time of every lesson sitting reading in silence. Teacher appears, says good morning, and you begin. Pretty sure a hefty chunk of all students would love this too

Yes perfect

Have t had time to RTFT this morning but was going to suggest you give your students a smile and wave option, and keep a mini alcohol gel in your pocket for after the last handshake!

To be honest they're all touching doors and work that gets handled by you too so it's not all that much different.

Meet and greet is a tool that has loads of benefits and I very much doubt you would find any teacher that disagrees but that is an hello etc - physical interaction with every student is just beyond ridiculous.

Just from your initial post could tell it was Pivotal (luckily we only had this for 6 months, as soon as the AHT that was championing it left it was binned!)

I think trying to force hand-shaking is misguided but some of the comments here seem a bit excessive. Offering a child a handshake is not the same as forcing them to give one. We don’t do this at my school but when we go to mass we offer one another the sign of peace (a handshake). I’d never force a child to shake my hand but no child has ever refused it. In fact they are often very keen to shake hands. It’s nice... And I’m talking about teenagers not little ones.
It’s a shame Paul Dix has become such a fanatic. There are some fairly solid principles underlying some of his ideas but he doesn’t seem to accept that his strategies may not be suited to a great many schools even if they might work brilliantly in some. They wouldn’t work for us because the parents wouldn’t be on board with it and nor would key members of staff.

What does Dix say about what is or should be happening in the classroom while you are greeting the last quarter of your 30 pupils? I think get ‘em in, get ‘em busy is a safer approach.

In his book he tells the story of how he greeted some kid every day for months with a cheery good morning and the kid would reply with a sullen ‘fuck off’. And then a slightly less sullen fuck off. And then something something something Paul Dix = hero and child = model citizen. Can’t remember what exactly.

Anyway, that’s not a good model for schools. I cannot rescue each and every individual troubled pupil. It would be nice if I could, but in the meantime the rest of the class are waiting to learn some maths. Of course I take the time to talk to teens, greet them when they come in and so on, but my main job is to get as many of them successfully through the maths curriculum as possible. The particularly troubled ones I refer to other people whose main job it is to help them (and who are much more skilled at it than me).

noblegiraffe

And the thing is, also, that works - with some kids - because of something they begin to perceive about you: that you give a fuck about them. That isn’t going to happen when they know it’s policy.

Its particularly useful for SEN/SALT pupils who may not necessarily want to shake hands (high fives instead) but are encouraged to make eye contact with the teacher which is an important part of social communication.

Oh yes, I can see how stressing out students with SN at the start of every lesson of the day is great. Not.