I'm a secondary teacher. Today after school I made five calls home to parents, all of Y7 students, all in one class - of the five classes I've taught today - and that's quite a light day for calling home for me.
We lost 50% of our lesson today to the behaviour of those students. That's not an exaggeration, btw, we had eight slides of material to cover, we just about finished four. Due to 'silliness'.
Wandering around the classroom, chatting, shouting out random things/insults, shouting answers when another student was trying to answer and I was trying to support them, throwing empty bottles around while I was trying to write on the board, waiting until I gave a warning that we were nearly at the end of a task to declare 'I don't have a pen Miss' and then turn to smirk at friends. Nothing major. All silliness. 50% of my time wasted entirely. 50% of my students time, wasted entirely. Through silliness.
I had the following replies from parents:
'Are you sure, that doesn't sound like my child?'
'My child is very grumpy at the end of the day, they can't help it.'
'I will check they are okay after you told them off then. They will be upset, I hope you are pleased about that.'
'I am sorry, that is bad, I will speak to my child.'
And one parent whose English was too broken to have a conversation with.
Do I think it's fair on the 24 students who behaved well and worked hard, that five pupils thought 'it's just silliness, what does it matter?' No. I think it's fundamentally flawed thinking.
Do I think those 24 students should have their learning obstructed by students who have not yet learned acceptable social behaviours and cannot control themselves in a secondary school classroom? No.
Do I think that those 24 students should be subjected to that behaviour, and have it repeated lesson after lesson after lesson? No.
Can those 24 students make up the missed lesson time? No. The school day is not elastic.
So, yes, if 'silliness' has an impact on others - and it does - then yes, I think it should be treated as seriously as physical or verbal bullying, and should be given an appropriate sanction.
This is every day. Very little behaviour I see is dangerous, almost all is 'silliness' and as a result, I encounter students in y11 with a pre-secondary reading age, students who cannot write effectively enough to be legible, students who consistently do not even attempt exam questions because they have not learned any skills with which to approach the task.
Were my school's behaviour policy to allow it, would I have excluded those five students to seclusion? In a heartbeat. They are behaving in a way which shows they are not in a place to learn. I need to focus my energies on those who are. I cannot force them to stop 'being silly'. Believe me, I have tried. I keep on trying. I am not with those children at home, I do not have time in lessons to explicitly teach basic manners, respect, how to interact with others in an acceptable way. I am not the parent of those children. All I can do is work with those who do want to learn. That's my job, and I'm trying to do it.
Treat this as a wake up call. YOU can make a change here for your child. Please please please do not underplay this, do not 'take your child's side' and sympathise with them about how mean the teacher is. Please give your child a fighting chance of a decent education.
P.s. Bet you can't guess what face I was making during three of those calls...