To think her Science teacher was being quite insensitive?

[fedupintheoffice]

My friends DD is 16 in January and in year 11 at school. She is larger than most of her year group at a size 16/18 and by far larger than her classmates in her Science lesson.

She came home upset because the teacher had them weighing themselves in class on weighing scales for some kind of Physics lesson, and then every pupil had to write their weight on the board for everyone to see. The teacher said for anyone who didn't want to write their true weight, write it at 200lbs so friends DD did this, fearing it might be more (she weighs 208lbs really) and the whole class apart from one girl was laughing at her. She is a really quiet girl and this is a particularly rowdy class where the teacher fails to take control and FDD says the laughing and making fun of her went on for the rest of the lesson (40 mins). AIBU to think that the teacher did a damn stupid lesson plan to begin with?

I can't believe they are still doing this.

It happened to me in a science lesson at secondary and it was one of the most humiliating experiences at that time.

It can only lead to difficulties at such a key point in a teenagers life, whether that be because they think they are too fat, too thin or are aspirational about losing weight

so at this

i spent my teenage years obsessed with scales and avoiding eating after a similar expearience, i cant believe that they are still doing this

i wasnt fat but the class started making fun of me, i put my real weight up and went first and everyone else faked theirs and made it less than mine.

its a stupid lesson and they could just have easily weighed other things to get to the same conclusions.

i think your friend needs to be speaking to the head teacher not the science teacher

I agree with madascheese- I would email (make sure it's in writing) the head, and cc it to the chair of governors.

Somebody really needs to have a word with this teacher; if she is planning and delivering lessons that take no account of sensitive issues, she could end up doing a lot of damage to students and her career. Imagine the same approach to a lesson about teenage pregnancy, or child abuse...

She is required to take into account every student's needs when planning and delivering lessons; it doesn't take a genius to work out that there may be at least one student with weight issues in a class full of teenage girls

We did it at primary, and my best friend at the time was in tears because she weighed so much less than everyone else. I can't believe that this sort of thing still goes on! What can they possibly be teaching that couldn't be taught another way? Doesn't every school have an anti-bullying statement of some kind as well?

omg that is awful, the poor girl

most definatly not BU!!!!!!!!!!

i was always the biggest girl in my class and i remember when we had to do this when i was 13 it was utterly humiliating, people were still laughing almost 3 years on when we were leaving and writing in yearbooks etc. i got rid of mine from the comment "Milk, sorry your leaving, bet the scales in rm24 aren't though!"

ive gone all hot and cold thinking of it,
thats disgusting that a teacher would do that. i would tell your friend to go to everyavailable person about this, the head, school governers if ness. completly unacceptable that a teacher would do this

feel really sad for your friends DD

milk xx

YANBU. Please take it further, so no other poor girl or boy has to go through the humiliation. Hope your lovely girl is feeling ok now.

I think the biggest issue here is the fact that a 16 year old girl weighs 208lbs!!!!!!!!!
She quite obviously needs help...

Well without the height described 208 at 6ft would not be exactly massive

way to go for sensitivity there Rollmops

How awful for her. Out PE teacher made us all do skin fold tests in class once. Thank god it was an all girls school but still humiliating!

It's probably just the curriculum.

We had a not dissimilar thing in Biology - we were doing mass/surface area with respect to body temperature. So as homework you were supposed to write your weight down. I did not do the homework and no comment was EVER passed by my very overweight teacher. One of the boys asked to "borrow" my workbook to get some notes and he threw it back to me because of course he wasn't really interested at all in my work - just wanted to find out my weight to take the piss.

*Said very overweight teacher died due to complications of weight-loss surgery.

Perhaps rollmops is considering a career in teaching/counselling teenage girls and is trying a new "talk tough" approach. [hmm}

When I was doing my teacher training my assessor made a 'suggestion' that I could have done my lesson (on the difference between discrete variables and continuous variables) using the weight of the pupils. Can't even remember what characteristic I used now, something innocuous anyway.

It made it quite obvious why he was no longer teaching. The teacher from the school who was my tutor was very polite if distant but as soon as he left shook her head and said that they would NEVER weigh the kids.

I would definitely complain to someone. The head of Science would hopefully be aware that the lesson is inappropriate and would be able to make sure the scheme of work doesn't include it. I would hope it doesn't, but parts of them can be pretty old.

And even if the girl wants to lost weight, being humiliated in front of her class is hardly going to help!

actually i think the biggest question here is why a 16 year old is being laughed at by her class due to a stupid teachers lack of empathy!

and she may need help, but she would need support more!

sensitivity not your strong point rollmops?

skihorse that's s sad about said teacher!

m
x

She should have definitely asked for volunteers - making it an 'opt in' rather than an 'opt out' thing.
I would contact the school asking the teacher to ring tou and CALMLY and OBJECTIVELY tell the teacher how you DD felt.
Going to the head or governing body id judt humiliating her in the same way your Dd wa humiliated -give the teacher a chance to sort it out herself.

Message withdrawn

It sounds like insensitive teaching, height or shoe size would have been better if looking at normal distribution, and rubbish physics tuition. They were measuring their mass not their weight in physics terminology. weight is measured in newtons.

No, it's not 20 stone, it's 15. Which is still very big for a 16yo, but I'm sure she's aware enough of that without suffering this sort of humiliation.

(I was 10 stone at 16 and clearly remember the embarrassment of that fact becoming known. In retrospect, I didn't look at all bad - in proportion for my height - but I was made by my peers to feel like an elephant )

I hope your friend gets somewhere by complaining - this clearly shouldn't have happened.

Are you sure she weighs 208lbs?

Anyway, that's irrelevant. The teacher should not have put such a thing into a lesson of teenage girls, for a number of reasons.

It should be brought to the attention of the head teacher.

I'm amazed a physics teacher was using pounds rather than kilograms. The quality of teaching sounds as worrying as her manner.

Bloody HELL. I'm a teacher and I would be shocked and appalled if I heard this had gone on at my school. What a stupid bint!

That poor girl

Please complain to the teacher, the Head of Department and the Head.

If this fails, CC it to the Chair of Governors and the LEA... seems a bit extreme, but some schools have a habit of sweeping things under the carpet.....

UANBU this was totally out of order and very insensitive, what planet is the teacher on. This sort of thing can help contribute to eating disorders.

thesecondcoming - unusual name for someone whose comments were not welcome the first time.

Maybe it's time for YOU to go back to school - your maths hurts!

What a sad story, this teacher has obviously made some very poor decisions with your daughter's class. You should absolutly bring this to the attention of the school's senior management team/governers.