to think teacher calling kids this is inappropriate?

[OWetOne]

My child(9) told me their teacher will call a child a wet wipe if the child is 'being a coward' (how my child explained it). My child wasn't offended and told me about it because they thought it was funny, but they obviously have never heard it being used before. I wouldn't want my child calling someone else a wet wipe.

Am I being a wet wipe? Or am I right to think this is inappropriate?

A jokey comment from a pupil? Why not?

I threatened to throw a kid out of the window today for not showing their working. They threatened to report me to the headteacher for threatening to throw them out of the window. Funnily enough, both of us knew that neither of us meant it.

Teachers are not robots and neither are kids. You have to build relationships with them because otherwise this artificial situation in which we have to tell them to do work and they have to get on with the work would be interminable.

Really? I once had a student call me Susan Boyle and I took it the way it was intended. AKA a joke.

Kids like funny teachers. Teachers like funny kids.

I'd be surprised at the tameness of the horror that is Andrew Tait if 'wet-wipe' is the best he can do.

No it's banter and demonstrates a relationship between teacher and pupil. You are being super sensitive. Your child isn't bothered

"Wuss" feels like slang, though?
I'd expect primary teachers to use "wet lettuce" rather than wuss or wet wipe.

@noblegiraffe I have a lot of respect for you and the intelligent arguments you present on other threads. However what you and other secondary school teachers on this thread seem to have missed is that the OP is talking about primary age pupils. They are at a very different stage of development to the older pupils you teach and ‘banter’ with. Unless you have taught primary age children for over thirty years like I did? Respectfully you don’t know what you are talking about with regard to younger children.

Bullying is systematically targetting or singling someone out.
Its amazing how many people think that its bullying whenever their child feels a bit sad or annoyed.

Lots of people on this thread have widened the argument to secondary, not just me.

That said, the kid is what, Y5? Not a reception child.

Our Y7s seem to be incredibly immature this year. I’m not sure what has gone on at primary or whether there was something in the water that year, but teaching them to be a bit more robust wouldn’t have gone amiss.

I didn’t say it was just you. I wouldn’t call children ‘kids’ either as to me a kid is a baby goat but you do you. I am old now and probably old fashioned. Ah I see you are one of those secondary teachers who believe that the primary teachers haven’t done their jobs correctly because of the particular intake of children you have received. I am not sure what goes on at secondary school nowadays given the issues that many young adults seem to have when they leave. Or maybe their issues are absolutely nothing to do with their schooling?

This thread reminds me of my poor TA who was wonderful at her job but left shortly after a parent objected angrily and made a formal complaint about her child being called a ‘silly sausage’. The child was very much being a silly sausage.

She was so embarrassed and upset about the whole thing that she gave notice, went sick and went to work at a supermarket instead. We had a few issues with parents moaning about water bottles and jumpers, which I knew she found difficult to deal with when they were all guns blazing- but the complaint and the absolute mountain made out of an innocent comment was the final straw.

Honestly, absolute wet wipe parents are a big reason why I left.

I have DC too who are incredibly pampered souls and I consider myself a fierce advocate for them- but if a teacher had called them a wet wipe, my first response would be ‘but were you being a wet wipe?’

I wouldn’t call children ‘kids’ either as to me a kid is a baby goat but you do you

Good grief. Now we’re objecting to that level of language?

I don’t know what has happened to this cohort of Y7s, I suggested that there could have been something in the water that year. But they are incredibly immature and if people are handwringing over teasing them or even calling them ‘kids’, one wonders how far that protective bubble has stretched and whether it is to their detriment.

And there are lots of problems with secondary schooling that are causing young people to have various issues. I’m quite happy to admit that.

I can object to whatever I wish. I won’t call children ‘kids’ and I never resorted to calling children names when I was teaching. I think calling actual children immature is a bit silly. I do hope the problems in secondary schools can be resolved.

There is literally nothing wrong with calling children 'kids' whether it also refers to baby goats or not.

And if you don't understand what I mean by referring to Y7s as immature, then this conversation seems a bit futile.

Who said anything about primary teachers not doing their jobs?

This years Y7 cohort are noticeably less mature, more silly and generally needier than previous cohorts. Not surprised there's a few more wet wipes in Y7.

@noblegiraffe as I said in a previous post you do you. That is your choice to use that language. It is my choice not to call children ‘kids’ no matter how many times you tell me there is ‘literally nothing wrong with it’. I don’t really use slang terms very much. Children are immature because they are children and have not reached maturity. Additionally different children mature at different rates. That has always been the case. If you can’t understand that then it is inevitable that you will get frustrated with some of the children you teach going forward. Are you able to retrain for a career working exclusively with adults? It may be less stressful for you.

@Hercisback1 see above ‘I’m not sure what has gone on at primary’.

If you were really happy to let 'you do you' you wouldn't have piously said that "I wouldn’t call children ‘kids’ either as to me a kid is a baby goat". You'd have kept your own counsel on that matter instead of trying to sound superior.

As for children being immature and maturing at different rates: you will surely know that there are behaviours that you would expect to see generally in Y2 that you wouldn't expect to see in Y6. If your Y6s were behaving in a way you would expect more from Y2, then that could be described as immature.

I'm not sure why exactly this needs explaining.

I’m not convinced that raising a generation of kids who can’t cope with mild teasing without parents leaping in to defend them isn’t actually turning them into a bunch of wet wipes. Resilience seems to be through the floor.

This? It should be seen as a slightly funny term for being a bit silly about refusing to do/try something. My kids would laugh if i called them this. Why is everyone so bloody traumatised by everything?!!

What has gone on at primary encompasses far more than individual primary school teachers doing or not doing their jobs, by the way.

Just like 'secondary causing issues with pupils' not being down to individual teachers. There are a lot of systemic failures.

I will keep my own counsel when you start doing the same @noblegiraffe. I guess there would be no MN if everyone did that. You certainly wouldn’t have started and commented on numerous threads if you had kept your own counsel. I have been nothing but polite to you while you have responded rudely to me calling me pious and superior because I don’t agree with you. I have taught quite a few children in Year 6 who had the emotional development and maturity of a Year 2 child and even in some cases of Year 1 children. I used to use differentiation with those pupils. Perhaps that doesn’t happen in schools anymore? I have been retired for a while now.

I described the behaviour, not the individual.

@noblegiraffe the behaviour that you attributed to me as an individual without any proof whatsoever of my intentions. You have really gone down in my estimation. Very disappointing from you.

Gosh, this thread was bat-shit when it started and it seems to have deteriorated to borderline deranged.
The lack of resilience in schools (I am Primary) is very worrying to me. When I read some of the responses on here though, I begin to see where it's stemming from.

I think this is probably a matter for the police.
Has the child been found a safe space to explore their feelings, is there pastoral support, and has anybody considered saging the school?

And you've been prattling on about how I should perhaps retrain as I'm clearly not suited to teaching kids which is the tired old fallback of people who can't actually engage with what is being said so I'm pretty sure I don't care about your estimation or your disappointment in me.