Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

dd said a shocking thing about her teacher over dinner.

84 replies

LargeGlassofRed · 07/10/2009 22:38

So all sitting round over dinner something came up about school and grandma said
'oh do you have to stand in the corner if your naughty?
dd2 says, no i'm never naughty, but if you are naughty she stamps on your hands or feet at carpet time.

dd2 is 5 she hadn't realised what she said was shocking she just carried on chatting away.
Later I asked her who she had done it 2 and she named several boys, I asked if it maybe was an accident and she said no she does it all the time

So what do I do? rang a friend who has ds in same class and she is going drop it in conversation with her ds and see if he says the same.

I really don't think dd would make it up but can't be 100 percent sure.

The teacher is known for being shouty.

OP posts:
catwalker · 07/10/2009 23:52

Maybe teacher said something like, "if you mess about and don't sit properly on the carpet I might stand on your hand (ie by accident)". The teacher will have meant it as a warning about what might happen by accident if children don't keep their hands where they're meant to be, but your dd may have interpreted this as meaning when children are naughty the teacher intentionally stands on children's hands as a punishment.

jennifersofia · 08/10/2009 00:01

Have you ever tried to move around or through 30 small people who are sitting in a relatively small space, with 60 hands that could be almost anywhere? It is really quite difficult, I can tell you. I have almost stepped on children's hands several times. I have also stated over and over again how important it is for children to keep hands in laps so that they don't get stepped on. This has included exaggerated mime to model what 'might' happen if someone's hands were on the carpet.
Think there might be a miscommunication here somewhere.

TigerBitesAgain · 08/10/2009 00:07

Well all I can say is "respect" to anyone who is/wants to be a teacher, it sounds like the most impossible job, and if I had 30 DSs to mind for five minutes I'd have lost it with them that's for sure. However, I am sure there is some miscommunication/romancing
going on here.

seeker · 08/10/2009 00:08

I am sure that this isn't happening because , apart from anything else, do you really think the parents of the stamped on children wouldn't be creating the most enormous fuss if it was????????

VirginiaLoveGlove · 08/10/2009 00:18

this issue if it were real would manifest differently first. child/ren suddenly reluctant to go to school, becoming tearful suddenly, for example.

nappyaddict · 08/10/2009 00:40

jennifers explanation sounds likely.

Tortington · 08/10/2009 00:46

i had a german teacher who did that - so he could say it was an accident.

BionicEar · 08/10/2009 01:39

It could be an overactive imagination - my LO was insistant that her teacher puts the naughty children in the bin if they are naughty! Am quite positive that her teacher doesn't do this, as she then went on to say the teacher then stands in the bin as well!

Alibooobaandthe40phantoms · 08/10/2009 01:47

At my secondary school, we had a regular supply maths teacher who used to slam a 1.5m long 4cm square piece of wood down onto the table when he thought we weren't paying attention. If you didn't move fast enough then it came down on your hands.

It took 5 YEARS for the parents, head, head of year etc to believe everyone, and eventually he was suspended just as my brother was about to start the school.

However jennifer your explanation does make sense and hopefully it is that rather than that she is actually stepping on hands!

CarmenSanDiego · 08/10/2009 04:46

When I was in infant school, the teacher used to put the 'naughty' kids under her desk next to her feet. It was grim.

My family were horrified when I told them years later (I didn't tell them at the time because I was scared I'd be in trouble for being naughty enough to be under her desk).

cory · 08/10/2009 07:36

If the teacher was really stamping on their feet, surely the children would come out with bruised hands? And in this day and age, do you really think no parent would react? Not saying that children don't sometimes tell the truth about adults, but you have to think of the physical likelihood- how could you stamp on hands without leaving a mark?

My MIL is 83 but she still looks very sheepish at the memory of how she went storming into dh's school because he had dropped casually into conversation that they were being taught wrestling.

RupertTheBear · 08/10/2009 08:00

When I used to teach reception I kicked a poor child in the head one day. She was sitting on the floor at my feet and happened to lean forward at the moment I was uncrossing my legs. I have also hit a child with a hand bell (very heavy) when ringing for the end of playtime. I have also trodden on fingers and toes. I usually laugh these incidents off (after making sure the child is ok obviously) with oh no I am beating you up again!! This sort of thing could easily be misinterpreted by a reception age child.

piscesmoon · 08/10/2009 08:12

I find it amusing that people think that you could stamp on a DCs hand and they would be silent, have no bruising and not mention it to a parent! There would shrieks and wails to raise the roof!
The most likely explanation is the one mentioned earlier-a sea of DCs on the carpet and teacher trying to get through to her chair says, 'please sit still or I will end up stamping on someone's hands or feet'-(the whole point being that she doesn't want to accidentally step on them.)

JoeyBettany · 08/10/2009 08:16

I think it's a misinterpretation too. DS (7) told me that if he is late he has to stand up in front of the whole class and tell the teacher the reasons why.

I was about to go in with all guns blazing but luckily I asked him about it again. Turns out that any late child has to wait by the teacher's desk and just let her know that they have been late.

piscesmoon · 08/10/2009 08:25

I was once on playground duty and a 5 yr old was stamping on another 5 yr old's hand. It was very noisy, as playgrounds are, but I could still hear it from the other side and went rushing across! At the very least the classes nearby would have heard and they would all have been talking about it. It isn't something you would casually mention in passing, while calmly eating your dinner!

MaMight · 08/10/2009 08:35

My pre-schooler assures me that no one is allowed to go to the loo all day at playschool. If anyone asks, the teacher shouts at her, and when she's crying, the teacher takes her blankie away and shouts some more. They just have to sit quietly and no one plays anything ever.

Now, I have frequently witnessed the teachers taking the children to the loo, and dd has never wet herself despite drinking her water and juice every day, and she always has her blankie with her when I pick her up, and when you arrive early or late or in the middle of the day they are always doing various lovely activities... and dd loves going to playschool and is really happy there...

... but on the other hand I know my 3-year-old wouldn't make this up, so shall I contact the prime minister or just go straight to the red tops?

troutpout · 08/10/2009 08:44

I think Rupert may have it
If she is trying to get back to her chair and children are fidgetting and not sitting 'nicely' she could have accidently trod on figgers and feet. Maybe this kind of situation has been turned on it's head by your daughter...ie naughty fidgets get trod on.

Bluebutterfly · 08/10/2009 08:54

I would have thought that if a teacher was regularly stamping on children, then there would several children with bruised feet and hands going home to complain to their parents?

My ds told me that the teachers had made a wooden gun at school and were shooting spikes at people, when I asked him how school was going the other day. The school has a very clear and vocal "no toy guns" policy and my son has a fertile little boy imagination. I think you need to remember how creative a child's imagination can be, especially when fuelled by the imaginiation of other children.

As parents it is our job to be our childrens advocates, but I would tread very carefully before making accusations; you need more information.

sarah293 · 08/10/2009 09:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

ProfYaffle · 08/10/2009 09:03

dd1 is 5 and in yr 1, she's not generally prone to making up stories etc but she's told me lies about what goes on in the classroom. They're all capable of it at some point.

itsmeolord · 08/10/2009 09:12

According to dsd she had her hands scrubbed with white spirit to get rid of her warts when she was in yr 1.
And the teacher never gave her a reading book because she didn't like her. Just her. (they found about 10 reading books in her drawer)

cory · 08/10/2009 10:02

To my mind, it's not whether children normally lie or tell the truth (ime they might do either) but whether any one particular story would stand up to scrutiny. If ds (who is normally a truthful boy) told me that his teacher had spent the morning breaking the windows, I might pass by the school and have a quick peek at the state of their glass before I even started thinking about whether ds is truthful or not.Of course there are bad teachers, even criminal ones, but that doesn't suspend the laws of nature: certain actions can't really be performed without leaving a mark.

edam · 08/10/2009 10:29

It's not necessarily a 'lie' even if it's not what an adult would perceive as the literal truth - just that a child's way of understanding the world and expressing what they have seen/experienced can be different to ours.

Even if it turns out your dd was mistaken, she probably didn't intend to mislead you.

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 08/10/2009 10:44

Maybe some of the older kids have told the reception kids that to scare them. My older brother told me that the headmaster would cane you at school if you were naughty and I believed him.

seeker · 08/10/2009 11:32

I think there's a HUGE difference between "lies" and "imaginings" or "misinterpretations"

I would be very careful how you approach the teacher over this - it's obviously not the way your dd reported it to you, but she has misunderstood something and it needs to be sorted out.