Teacher rubbed out most of DS1's work because of handwriting

[thequietone]

He's a sensitive chap (7yo). He's very aware that he needs to work on his cursive handwriting, and is a little behind because he only started school last October (was in another country before then). I've been helping him at home with extra practice, and he's made great progress.

His teacher left at Easter and this new lady has come in. He already told her he needs help with his handwriting. Today, he said he spent a lot of time writing out a story, but was struggling with writing the word "because" joined up. He asked for help - she came over, said "What does this say? What does this say? What's this? And that? I can't read this" and rubbed all but one sentence out.

Is it just me or would there be better ways of her dealing with this? He had no reference now of how to improve on what he'd done.

He doesn't usually offer up much info on what happens at school unless he's upset.

rightly or wrongly I would be absolutely livid. I have real issues with this sort of punishment ie embarrassing a child etc.

At my DSs school his friend was struggling with her hand writing but in top groups for everything else so they just moved her back down for writing to give her the extra help she needed, she doesn't even know she has been moved down - in fact I caught her boasting to my DS that she had moved groups obviously thinking she'd been moved up - that upset my DS of course but actually I thought the school had done a good job to not demotivate her etc so I just spoke to DS afterwards to reassure him as his writing is good.

I would be speaking to the school if it was me, he must be really upset poor thing!

I'd be really pleased if school took handwriting problems seriously at that age!

For my DS they refused to care till he finally had a good teacher in Y6. She used to rip his work up if he wouldn't do his best, and for the first time he realises his handwriting matters.

Of course it is very hard to correct an older childs handwriting and so only limited progress has been made (but some progress for sure)

Anyway, you really don't want to leave handwriting problems. Far, far better to address it now while he's only 7

I agree with Indigo. I wish someone would rip up my DS1s illegible writing.

IndigoBell - the poor child has only been at school a few months! He is 7.

I think the teacher is completely out of order and what she did was cruel.

He needs proper help so that he can catch up. How on earth does erasing most of his work help in any way??

When DS1 was about 7 he was struggling with joined up writing. He had moved schools, and the new school used a completely different style from what he had been taught. His writing was terrible and he used to get very upset and discouraged.

I bought the books from WH Smith and some writing practice books and he did about half an hour practice every evening and at weekends.

He is 23 now and his writing is excellent.

I had to go to remedial classes for my handwriting, it was so bad.

I'm now a university lecturer.

taking handwriting seriously is one thing, destroying a 7 year olds work because she deems it not good enough is quite another.

i'd be very angry, and i would ask her how she thinks that will hjelp? if he struggles with handwriting then she needs to focus on improving that, not just rub out work he has tried hard to do

way to go demotivating your young student.

I dont think she meant to be embarass him, just point out (albeit rather sternly) that if she cant read it then probably lots of people couldnt and so defeats the point of writing it and makes it it impossible to mark which means he wont be able to improve.

However, as you say he is upset by it and it does sound a little harsh when she doesnt know this child very well. I would go in and say 'how can DS improve his handwriting? He knows you think its messy and wants to improve?'

I dont think going in and saying 'why did you rub out his writing?' will help anything but by saying hes upset about his handwriting she may get the hint and be more gentle next time (and with 6 year olds in general!)

Sorry, 7 year olds.

that anyone could think that ripping up a child's work will improve handwriting. The child will be humiliated, demotivated and terrified of disappointing the teacher again. Therefore they will simply try any tactic to avoid writing at all.

OP, I agree with you that this was a bit ott of the teacher, maybe have a word and discuss opportunities for your ds to have help with his handwriting. In most primary classes there will be 6 or 7 children with very poor writing, often some group time with a TAa couple of times a week can make a world of difference.

But they are not taking it seriously, Indigo, they are causing furthermore problems, but ridiculing a child and not helping the situation, by writing skills or confidence in his ability, they are completely undermining his ability, or his level of ability, I would be LIVID, if they done this to my child.

This wont help him nor will it make him achieve anything other than make him lack confidence which will ultimately affect his writing skills for the worse.

I still don't think it is an acceptable way to treat a 7 year old! Its still humiliation and just plain cruel. I can't see how anyone can think it is a good way to make a point that his writing is poor - he probably knows this already and would actually like someone to help him. My DM used to work in my school and do 1:1 with the children to help with their handwriting. She was really good at this and saw amazing results, she taught my DS1 to write before school (not cursive as they never used to use it when she worked at a school), his writing was lovely with just the small curl at the end of each letter, in the second term of YR he was joining up beautifully.

I don't know if cursive writing is an issue at all but some teachers I know have complained it doesn't really help very young children to have legible writing.

Also from what my friends have said, they feel a lot of the issues with their DCs writing is due to the cursive style and also the schools pushing them to join up too soon. A lot of them have gone from just about legible non joined up writing to completely illegible joined up writing. I am not sure what the rush is to be honest, maybe a teacher can enlighten me?!

The teacher hasn't ripped up his work but I can't see that rubbing it out is particularly helpful. I would pick one or two sentences from his work and spend some time re writing for practise using handwriting lines.

I would be livid and she & the head would be hearing about it. She needs to take the time to get to know the children and what their levels are/what they are doing to improve them etc ripping his work up is completely unacceptable, completely.

I really feel for him, I hope you can reassure him that she was in the wrong and that he is improving and did exactly the right thing in asking for help.

Stupid bitch - what the hell was she thinking??

Sorry - rubbing out not ripping up.

Your poor child op. some people have and always will have poor handwriting (are gp's not renowned for it).
I have rubbed out my dc writing before but only because I knew they were mucking about and not trying.
Cursive is alien to a 7 yo I think - it was to me (I got kept in at break time to re do my work). There are programmes your dc can use (provided your school had adequate support for learning) - my ds is a changed boy due to 'speed up'.
DS is 11.
Teacher was harsh imo.

Lou - I think it is so that they don't get too used to 'printing' and get used to 'writing' more quickly. I have beautiful printing (apparently, it's always commented on) but I cannot write joined up properly and not have it look like ant scrawl! It is also quicker for when they get older and have to write essays/exams. I don't think it's a bad thing they get taught early, even though it looks a mess for a while.

Chipping I see what you mean but when I was at school you learnt to do small tails on the end of the letters rather than full on cursive and the transistion to joined up seemed ok then. It makes sense that it is messy for a while but should still be legible, if not maybe they should wait a few weeks or so until they are ready.

I think you need to clarify with the teacher what happened. She needs to justify why she thought rubbing out his work was a constructive thing to do [on a par with ripping work up really].

Was he upset about it?

Stupid bitch?!
This we know (well, we have heard doubly second hand from a 7 year old)
She said 'what does this say? I cant read this?'
She rubbed out all but 1 sentence.
The OP says her child is sensitive.

We don't know how she said it, how much writing he had done (all but 1 sentence is not much when the writing is 4 sentences) or how bad the writing was. We dont know if anyone else heard it or if the child was made to feel as if he was in trouble. Him being upset does not prove that she was cruel in any way.

The child was upset - fair enough, this is not good. But I see nothing in the OP that suggests she was cruel, humilating the child or a bitch. As a few people have pointed out, the main thing she did wrong was to not give the child guidance on how to improve.

OP I'm not saying you or your son is wrong, just defending my proffession! So many people on MNs jump to 'stupid teacher' when they know very little about the situation and its really not helpful. MOST (almost all I would say) teachers care about their children very much and do not wish to upset them.

Not saying your child isn't telling the truth but I don't know any teachers who would seek to embarrass a child because of something they find hard. As teachers we are here to help, guide, teach, give opportunities for improvement. Etc

I have seen nursery staff pull out 3 year olds in front of the class and force them to sing or something in front of the class as they were not singing along with the group, it was awful. I appreciate they are not teachers but I think it is a huge generalisation to also say that there are no teachers that would do this. I would imagine it is few though as I agree most teachers do care! There are still some awful teachers out there are there are awful workers in all professions.

Those teachers on MN IMO are some of the ones who do really care as they are here giving good advice all the time etc.

Is it relevant how many sentences there were, he is 7 and I can't see how it is helpful to rub out the work. Surely you would point out that it wasn't neat enough to read and maybe he could write it out again and say how he could make it better?

Its definitely worth speaking to the teacher about it just to clarify what happened and to let her know you don't feel its the best way to deal with it.

When DD was in Year 3 (7yo), I also worked in her class. Her handwriting was appalling as she didn't take care or time. One piece of work was really difficult to read so she was made to re-write the entire thing out again. The second copy was amazing, so much better than the first piece of work. She was sent to show the head teacher with both copies of the work so they could see how much extra effort she had put in.
She was really proud of the work she had managed to produce the second time, rightly so, and if the teacher ever felt that her writing wasn't up to scratch, she'd flick back to those 2 pages as a gentle reminder.

DD is in Year 8 now and her writing is fine so I do think its important to tackle the issue, but obviously it needs to be done in a suitable way.

DD had years of written comments on her work of 'you must write neatly' or 'This is very difficult to read' etc. None of those comments had the effect of the positive praise from the head teacher.

Definitely speak to the teacher and let's hope she can clarify.