Headmaster confiscates TV in children's bedroom

[speedymama]

This is really fascinating and illuminating, \link{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5047724.stm\here}.

I've always believed that many children with behavioural problems have parents who struggle with or who do not care about enforcing discipline. It amazes me that this guy has been into houses where parents feel that they have no control over their off-spring and he has turned things around by simply confiscating their electronic and electrical gadgets. I appreciate that it is not as simple as the story implies but surely the parents are the ones who buy their children these things and therefore they should have a say in how they are used. Or am I viewing this through rose tinted glasses?

The thing is people get worn down by the bad behaviour and the cobbles you get told re dicipline.

I went into teaching post kids. When the kids get too noisy I think (but never *say8 lol) 'Fuck this, lets get them shut up'

If they can't listen, they can't learn, simple as that. First and most important rule in my clasroom is 'When the Martian talks, we shut up'

Teachers have been conned into thinking that the kids are their equals and they are not. They are values, yes, for sure. But the kids are not my equals, they are kids ffs! So what I say goes! End of story. You go in and fanny about and try to be their mate (gawd help you) and they will kill you!

And guess what, after a term or so, when they are 'trained', when they realise that I take no shit, we get to have a laugh....but on my terms, and knowing that, they feel happy and secure.

I follow the Custardo school of parenting and teaching....No Shit Sherlock!

HMM MB there still aren't enough of your type to go round thses days. It seems that the selection processes for midwifery and teaching have got muddled up.

We have hardhearted "I'm in charge and what I say goes" types getting let loose as "trained midwives" on vulnerable women in labour and softy, "I'm here to help you and guide you and be your mate and whatever you want to do is O.K. by me" types getting teaching qualifications and being let loose on the impressionable minds of the young.

I think these kids are going to be in for a shock by the time they start work. How are they going to cope when they realise that they are not the centre of the universe, that they have to follow rules, that they have obligations to fulfill and deadlines to meet?

My mother is a wise woman and she says it is not the case that some people can't find employment, it is the fact that they are unemployable. So true.

MB, I'm really praying that my DTS have teachers like your good self and not some wishy washy, fawning, spineless embarrassment that could not keep a pile of dead rabbits in order.

In this link \link{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4666930.stm\here}, scroll down and read what the 10yo says. So wise and insightful at such a young age and so, so true!

Did anyone watch the "that'll teach 'em" latest series with comparisons of 1950's discipline and the fact that some of the kids just couldn't deal with anyone in authority actually meaing business ?

These are very American, But I really, really believe them, and feel that we should teach them to kids

Real life Rules

Rule 1: Life is not fair; get used to it.

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you screw up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes. Learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This, of course, doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

I love the last one

I'm a teacher too and it shocks me how few consequneces there are for children's actions now. If I got in trouble at school, I was in more trouble when I got home. Sadly not the case now, it's more likely to be, 'it's probably your fault, I'm off to complain to the head', great.

Oh yes!

As I posted earlier, the dad who excused his son's dreaful behaviour by saying the subject was boring. So F ing what!???? Unless the kid gets some qualifications he may well spend a lifetime doing boring things!

Sheesh!

I don't understand non-competitive sports days, it's not sport is it, in sport there's a winner FFS!!

And learning that you can't be first at everything is a helpful life lesson.

Also reminded of the little charmer excluded for beating another child to a near pulp, who;'s mother said child had the right to 'stick up for herself' Nice.

A child was eating in my class today, so I confiscated his stash ... a "double pack" of chocolate bourbon biscuits.

At the end of the lesson he came and asked for it back now rather than at the end of the day because it was his lunch

Knowing a bit about the child I'm sure that was the truth.

God, It makes me want to rage and cry at the same time!

One of my form was eating a massive bar of chocolate for his breakfast last term. FFS! a bowl of wheatabix doesn't take any more to sort out, does it?!

When I taught year 1 I regularly had children coming in the morning eatng crisps and drinking fizzy pop, imagine how much fun they were in literacy as the sugar kicked in

So would it help if we had good cookery lessons in school? Drum up some enthusiasm early. Some kids don't see their parents cooking at all - can you imagine?
I know a 7yo child who (regularly?) has chocolate for breakfast. Also, when he was younger, on a playgroup day trip, had chocolate, crisps and 2 bottles of fizzy stuff! It makes me so sad that there are parents out there who really don't know any better.

sadly, in the KS3 QCA curriculum....so apporved by the government, there is no time where a child is taught to make a meal of meat and two veg. they get to design a snack product, a pizza and a birthday cake, but make a meal? Nope!

I checked when my sixthform students couldn't peel a frigging potato!

and you are quite correct, their parents don't know how to cook either. Makes me angry and sad in equal parts.

agree MB with the whole ' be my friend' idea which I have seen ruin a few colleagues over the years.you go down that road you're stuffed.
I always go in hard and strict in sept and gradually loosen up...if I can! and it works.

My mum told me not to smile until half term, I thought sge was being harsh but the sentiment is right, you aren't their friend or parent, you're their teacher.

it has to be a sociatal change - like with smoking.

if your a smoker - god help you - you are a pariah.

the same parent peer pressure to give a decent breakfast as there is to buy a better car than the next door neighbour will do it.

so this means all out war in the media.

my kids do cook at school - but you dont have to be nigella fucking lawson to cook pasta!

and i know the teachers hate me for saying this but i think that certain things are the parents responsability - and we cannot and shouldnt change society through school ( ie the headmaster doing the parenting)

what time then for formal education?

PE is already compusery becuase some parents cannot walk their children like they walk the fucking dog.

some children get to 14 and can barely read. they are at school for 6 hours a day and can barely read. yet they have to do cooking and fucking woodword and metal work (god helpme my bloods boiling.) but can't add 2+2 or read a simple paragraph.

FORMAL education is the realm of teaching and it is in my very humble opinion that the change in society is being pushed through schools
schools taking tellies away
schools teaching nutrition
schools teaching PSE..........weeekly....fking weekly.
now schools are going to weigh children and maintain their diet or send a letter home saying your kids a fat bloater.

its all pete tong i swear

and i say this with utter vehemence at a system my oldest boy has absolutley struggled through - bloody struggled.

you kow what a thick kid does at school? causes trouble.

why do they cause trouble - well becuase they would rather be sent out of class and get peer kudos than look thick as a donkeys donger infront of their mates.

i'll tell you this for nothing, if we had the system like they do in the states - where kids were kept behing if they didn't come up to standard - some kids would work their little arses off to stay in with their mates - becuase no one would want to stay down a year becuase they are thick.

and another thing with the marking system

it has to have a fucking key to understand - A KEY! what with a 6 2 3 1 7 all on one subject - it takes me ages to keep flitting back to see what that means

why?
why cant they do errr. A B C etc....

me for education minister - i can't spell fer fuck but every fucker else would be able to

I know someone whose child has a TV in their room. The child has always had a TV and most nights watches it until 10.30 (he is 8). She even proudly told me he has watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre "but it doesn't affect him". For his last birthday she bought him a mobile phone "so when he's out playing I can phone him to come back".

I wish we didn't have to bother with all this shit, custy, but what do you do with the parents who are too daft, too stoned or just too bloody confused to get their arse in gear? You can't just kiss off that part of the generation, can you?

Trouble if if youv;e done fuck all with and for your kids in 12 years, you have one hell of a job if you try to do it all as the hormone pixie kicks in!

I wish we could just write honest simple reports.

'your son is bright, but will not achieve anything as he is too arogant to take advice and too lazy to do any work'

That would ring a few bells.

Instead we have to write, 'x is a bright boy who can produve work of a reasonable standard when he chooses' Loda shite IMHO.

Have to say it like it is.

i dont know the answer am just a serial complainer

I can't afford forty pounds extra a month to pay for school meals. The school where my kids are have recently increased thier prices in order to meet the cost of the ingredients used in the new school meals.

Maybe thats one of the reasons the national uptake of school dinners is down since jamies campaign.

The meals look lovely and I know my son would eat them but I just can't afford it.

As for a telly in my kids bedrooms never ever will I allow this. My dp girls have a telly in thiers at thier mums and have done since they were one year olds. Not surprisingly they both have sleep problems which we're trying to sort out for the one night a week in which we have them. Thier mum has them out till 11 pm some nights and they are only 2 and 4!