In case anybody was wondering why teachers are jaded...

[duchesse]

Here's a current thread on the TES website about verbal abuse by pupils and how it is dealt with in our wonderful child-centred world.

Reminds me why I'm no longer teaching.

Sorry, I'm not going anywhere near the TES forum!

very wise...

Good grief! I would sincerely hope that if any of my dc spoke to a teacher in that way I would demand that they apologise myself and would certainly expect a further consequence (detention at least). I don't expect any of them would dare speak to a teacher in that manner, but if they did, I would be thoroughly ashamed and would expect them to feel ashamed too!

Sadly, Aero, many parents do not feel the same...

riven- I don't know- I trained in 2000 and they certainly trained us in how to deal with psychopathic behaviour on my PGCE. I get the impression that it's been going downhill since the early to mid 90s.

Please can you give parenting classes!

i think what has happened is that some teachers are letting the side down and some parents see it now that the teachers are less than perfect - in my fmily weve had 2 v bd experiences of techers on seperte occsions 1 teacher who ctually bullied my son and was forced to resign and years later a male teacher man handled our 8 yr old son causing bruising now 2 of our 3 children go to an excellent school and we re often complimented by staff because our boys are so respectful,we dont do disrespect in our home no matter what.

you and me both duchesse.
I trained in 1990-94, they were starting both the national curriculum as lesson content, and crowd-control as a teaching strategy at the same time. The cheek of the children was quite astounding at the time [and I thought it was because I was a mere student... though I don't remember them giving the Head teacher any more respect]

Hasty exit from mainstream schools once graduated I can recommend it.

What depressing reading that site makes! They have a point when they say no other occupation accepts bad language or violence...there are signs up at Council offices and trainstations now about protecting employees. What protection do teachers have? None, it seems.

I work as a TA in a primary school and even the 'violent' children there (only a couple) have their needs addressed and are told to use 'kind hands and feet' rather than being told off....

I'm not sure where this softly softly approach sits with me. Schools seem to feel they are responsible for a childs emotional health...and I don't think that should always be the case.

I may remove dh from his job if he doesn't get the support he needs from his head.

DH is actually there to improve behaviour, amongst other things, and is tackling it at grass roots level, dealing for instance with the hard nuts at lunchtime because no one else will. But when he got shoved in the back last week by 'hard nuts', was told via email from SMT that they 'accidentally fell' into him . What chance does any less experienced staff have? DH is trying to make the staff feel supported, acts incisively and yet SMT are so weak.

that is shocking. if my son said things like that i would expect for him to get a total bollocking at school, then for me to be told so he would get a bollocking at home.

i'd be absolutely distraught if he came out with stuff like this.

Things have gone too far in the child's favour, ludicrously so and we are all suffering as a society even the children with "rights" suffer from muggings/bullying and theft of their possessions.

I so wish the government would get tough and allow all schools to adopt a zero tolerance approach to foul language and aggressive/disruptive behaviour or bypass the civil liberty groups objections to introducing cctv in some schools.

Its clear that in a not insubstantial strata of society, the concept of family life has broken down and normal inhibitions/boundaries no longer exist so we can't expect parents to tackle it as they are already a generation away from when the rot set in.

The government has the ultimate sanction, remove financial assistance of whatever type is being offered, even if it's middle class parents (with foul mouthed authority challenging teenagers) in receipt of child benefit and exclude their child from school.

Cctv is in some schools. I don't think it's in the classrooms, though.

Where would excluded pupils go?

Well the governments plans are if a school excludes a pupil they have to take a child who has been excluded from another school its called the "one out one in" law...
education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2268260,00.html

I have been called such things a few times while teaching and not much happens. If you are lucky, a more senior teacher will get the kid to say sorry, which just makes me feel awkward and patronised. I have been off work with depression since the new year and have to intention of returning to teaching. It's a thankless and emotionally draining job. Why would I want to spend the day with other people's heinous kids when I could be at home with my little angel?

It's true, not all teachers are perfect, and if my ds was being (truly) bullied, and it was quite clear that this was so (I think I know ds1 well enough to know when he's telling the truth and when he's swinging the lead), then I'd also have something to say, and would want to get things sorted. Even then though, I wouldn't be happy for him to disrespect any teacher. He's not the type to do that anyway and is always the peacemaker in these situations. I do agree though that it boils down to how things are at home and how much respect for others is taught there from an early age. Sadly, the case is that many children are supported by their parents in every situation, whether they're in the wrong or not. How that's supposed to help them grow into well rounded adults I'll never know!

well said :-)

Mrz- schools in France used to operate a similar system- they would swap difficult pupils between schools. If nothing else, it meant that the really disruptive rarely had time to develop a group of followers or get truly settled into bad habits in any school, particularly if they refused to settle as they got moved on again pretty quickly. Frankly, some children are so badly behaved and disruptive that nothing short of secure accommodation/ boot camp would make any difference to their behaviour