AIBU: Negative Stereotyping

[MiddletonMama]

My 10 year old son's teacher calls him the Class Clown in a derogatory way. I'm fuming about this. I accept that my son may be misbehaving in class and disruptive but surely teachers are better equipped to deal with this than resorting to name calling and labelling with a negative stereotype. My son moves up to high school next year and I am worried he will carry this label with him and always be the class clown and never have aspirations to be anything else. AIBU?

OP, I'm with you. I would hope you are supporting your son at home to have higher ambitions than to accept the label, and also to help him change his ways. It sounds as though you are. Slapping labels on a person does not help them change. It's drummed into us now, label the behaviour, not the person. Isn't it? Surely a teacher should be more professional.

Isn’t class clown code for annoying little shit?

I wouldn’t say class clown is name calling. Would you be bothered if the name had been class genius?

I agree with you. Humiliation is an absolutely shit way to get control, it’s bullying.

@Pumperthepumper

I agree with you. Humiliation is an absolutely shit way to get control, it’s bullying.

But op says that he does it so he make people laugh and think it's a positive thing to be laughed at. He pursue the role of class clown himself. Why is it a bullying if the teacher says so when the child actively seek this role himself?

Well it's better than pain in the arse kid.

@Ohalrightthen

If a child is playing up for laughs from their peers, generally the most effective way to get them to STFU is to take them down a peg. Negative feedback for negative behaviour.

That wouldn't work for a child like the OPs who has confidence issues though. Will just make it worse.

What is being done to help the child feel more confident with his peers?

@unmarkedbythat

That's unprofessional of her. What has she said when formally raising her concerns about his behaviour with you? What strategies other than mocking him publicly have been put in place? What have they asked you to do?

he actually suffers badly from social anxiety and has nervous tics

And yet the hard arses in this thread are falling over themselves to say how awful you and he are. Such lovely people on MN .

Well, you know what mumsnet aibu is like about mental health issues . There's a really nasty thread going on where an OP is being more or less accused of faking PTSD after rape.

The attitudes on here towards mental health issues are so last century

OP, while the PPs have a point, I also agree with you that using this term repeatedly is unhelpful and unprofessional. Hard to know if its said lightly or in a scathing way though which would make a lot of difference.

My DS’s teacher told me he was the class clown but explained she meant it in an affectionate way. She seemed very fond of him. Could she have meant it like that?