Being made to sit on the floor

[MandaLo]

I'm genuinely interested to hear what others thoughts are on this.

DS10 is in a class with a teacher new to their school. She's very young but seems quite pleasant when I've spoken to her.

He told me last week that as a punishment for talking the teacher is making children sit on the classroom floor for 30 minutes each time. It hadn't happened to him though.

Today he came out of school to say that he'd asked the child next to him what book they'd chosen from the library and was made to sit on the floor for half an hour. He wasn't massively upset, just said that his bum went numb from it.

I've never come across this before. DS said some children are constantly on the floor. Does this sound ok?

No, but your boss can start disciplinary procedures. They can fire you.

Your child's teacher can't do these things.

No-one has said that the child is looking up at everyone else. They're not sat in the stocks for people to throw things at them. They are sat on the carpet; something that other children will have done at other times in the day.

Logical consequences are all well and good, and should be used in many or most circumstances. But discipline needs to be taught, as much as maths does. Yes, it would be great if there was a logical consequence to every misbehaviour. But the logical consequence of repeatedly calling out and disturbing learning is not just a playtime to catch up on work. Because the whole class has had their learning disrupted, and you can't keep them all in - or if you do keep them all and say "it's because Fred called out so much", that would be far more damaging than sitting on the carpet. So the teacher needs something. I'm not sure whether this teacher's consequence makes sense; if it's as the child describes, it doesn't appear to be working. But the responses on this thread are insane.

Physical discomfort plus treatment that could be viewed as humiliating - literally lowering them beneath the other children?

I'd be down that school first thing tomorrow morning

They're doing that out of choice in their own home.
Very different to being told to do it as punishment by an authority figure at school.
It’s a ridiculous punishment by a brain dead moron of a teacher.

Im just thinking from my own personal experiences. I've worked in schools. I personally feel like ive seen a lot of good practice by teachers.

Amd i also feel like I've seen a lot of abuse by teachers. A lot.

Teaching is very prone to abuse. Any position around children. I remember working in a private school where the parents were paying a lot of money to send the children there. And I was shocked at what some of the teachers were like. I was thinking if the parents only knew what went on.

I remember teaching a class there , and one of the little girls was telling me about another teacher abusing them. I did pass that information on to the head teacher.

I saw a lot of it going on. People abuse their power in those situations.

Yep. This teacher may seem nice - to an adult - but is a bit too bloody ready to dole out punishment to children.

'snowflakes'

I wouldn't let it be done to my child. We do t have to put up with everything the teacher does

It's an ineffective approach to classroom management.

The library and assembly examples are obviously not the same.

I had teachers in year 3 and year 5 that used to do this with us so it doesn't seem weird to me, just maybe a bit old fashioned (it was the late 90s)

A brain dead moron of a teacher? Do you always feel so intellectually superior?

MidnightOnceMore · Today 01:05

pollyglot · Today 00:20

MidnightOnceMore · Today 00:09

pollyglot · Today 00:06

Oh FFS! We used to sit on the floor for 30 minutes 3 times a week at school assemblies. And chose to sit on the floor in the library to read. What a snowflake. Just don't go to live in Japan.
These situations are entirely different.

How??
Because one is the norm and one is punishment? Is it child abuse as a punishment, but perfectly acceptable as a pragmatic solution to lack of chairs?
It's an ineffective approach to classroom management.

The library and assembly examples are obviously not the same.

Here was I thinking that the issue was the actual sitting on the floor. That it was seen as cruel and unnatural punishment in all contexts. Because it is uncomfortable, or is seen to be.
I would never have used it as a classroom management tool because there was apparently no punitive component in being made to sit on the floor. My "flop corner" - sitting on the floor beside my collection of exciting and relevant-to-the-subject books, and being able to choose one when work had been competently completed was a huge hit. Sprawled out, perched or sitting upright, reading Horrible Histories or Asterix was a reward, so far removed from being a punishment.
Ergo, it's not the sitting on the floor that's the issue. It's the being singled out as a result of bad behaviour, whether it be standing in the corner, outside the door, separated from the others to avoid disrupting their learning that's at the heart of the matter.
QED - children need to learn to respect their peers' rights to learn, to follow instructions and to realise that actions have consequences-(gasp)-even having to sit on the floor. Otherwise, they will indeed become little snowflakes, incapable of recognising that they are "not the only pebble on the beach" as my Granny used to say.

Many Mumsnetters threaten to be 'down that school in the morning'? or an equivalent threat, but they never say what they are going to do when they get there. Would you care to enlighten those of us who so often see a certain type of parent making much ado about nothing.

I would not call sitting on the floor a harshity when often primary school aged children sit on the carpeted floor for all types of discussions and learning sessions.
It is being used to separate the child from their usual person with whom they are interupting the class.
I could not judge how disruptive each child is without being there. Though separating them would make them more quiet and over time the child would clearly learn that they could work just as quietly beside their friend as they could sitting alone on the floor.

I am a big advocate for quiet classrooms when working on core subject content (not when discussing, interacting role plays, working in groups, asking for input etc.)
And I trust that the teacher knows best when either quiet and noisy is advantageous for the classroom.

Sounds Victorian. Clearly not working if it’s happening a lot. I wouldn’t be happy. Much better methods these days.

Oh this makes me feel old, teachers used to Chuck blackboard rubbers at our heads to make us shut up!

Just read @pollyglot last reply - very well put.

I nearly came on to say this. It wouldn’t be a school day without the usual suspects walking round with a rectangular shaped chalk mark on their person.

This thread is very eye-opening as to how little recourse teachers have to behaviour deterrents nowadays. I feel like I’m reading the Onion

Years ago we used to sit on the floor at school for assembly, watching TV, or story time. It wasn’t a punishment it was just the way that it was. The floor was no worse than the wooden chairs we sat on to do our written work.

I don't get it..if a parent used same punishments at home at the school, the parent would get a SS referral-as all these methods isolation etc. have been found detrimental to mental health.

My kids are home educated, for hundreds of reasons my children wont enter these aslyms.

My daughter had her chair taken for a week. She had to kneel at her desk.

It is very common for the younger years to all sit together in the carpet for the input. Also, if the space is smaller with no spare desks and they aren’t concentrating, moving them back into the carpet to work for a bit can help them refocus.

Hahaha wowwwww people who are claiming it as physical punishment. Geez, when I went to primary school sitting on the carpet for lessons was just the norm. Entire class sat on the floor listening to the teacher and we were only sat at tables/desk for actual activities. People are so precious these days.

You are taking what a schoolchild told their about why they were punished as gospel? How saintly would a child have to be to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in those circumstances?

I wouldnt want for started to sit on the filthy carpets- I went to school in another country,all hard floors washed daily, students had outdoor shoes that were echanged for indoor shoes as soon as students arrived in the school at the changing rooms. Teachers regularly checked the soles of the shoes that they would be clean.

and we never ever-sat on the floor. Not even in the assembly rooms,largest room of the school filled with chairs enough tot ake 4x35 student class.

Why are british schools so minging, no changing shoes and then put kids in clea clothes sit on top of filthy carpets?

Another thing i never had at school ir ever ib my life-headlice, seems to be common in victorian/modern britain amongs schoolchildren...

*sorry for typos above typing with one hand on the phone