The F word in primary school

[kesstrel]

friendlyneighbourhoodteacher.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/the-f-word/

That is very true, especially as my DS idea of adult words includes idiot and other similar. Getting to the bottom of what actually went on is highly complicated as well!

Ha ha - DS (just 5) told me that he knows the f word - "it's idiot mummy"

That's pretty horrible - the use of the pretty neutral "you're annoying me enough that I need to say something to get the annoyance out" FUCK is chastised hugely, but the much more judgemental and personal FAT is seen of as less serious.

I'd not mind at all being called a FUCK (especially as chances are in school I was actually doing something fuckish to the other child), but being called FAT, or UGLY are much more nasty.

Mind you the reaction to either word appears completely over the top.

A child in my class came to tell me that X had sworn.

"What does it begin with?" I asked.

"Ch."
After thinking for a moment, "Whisper it to me."
"Chesus."

Ditto Fred, are we really going to get hung up over saying 'fuck' I'd be far crosser if little Delilah called my little Dilbert 'Fat' :(

I learnt bloody was a rude word when a girl reported me.
I had drawn a dragon, it was covered in spears and bleeding, i said "look at my bloody dragon" she told, i bet the teacher laughed in the staff room later.

My children know the swear words but know not to use them in front of me.

They also know that they'd be in a world of pain if they called someone an idiot or fat or anything deliberately unkind

Fuck was definitely pretty standard in the playground when I was a kid, certainly in yr6, probably less accepted by the other children in yr5 though it was used. BUT never in front of teachers or parents of course.
I also remember getting a pretty big bollocking for calling another child an ignoramus and getting another child into trouble because he called me a cow. In yr4 I only felt one of these was a bad word, and it wasn't the one I used!

The wee lad I look after came home from P1 the other day with a new word, "scanky", though he was referring to the bin so really he wasn't that far off but I was still a bit at that word coming out of the 4 year old's mouth!

Our HT has really tried to stamp down on swear words (actual swear words) in the junior playground leading to many parents to say they really didn't like the HT for now allowing swearing

I would imagine that the child actually did get told off for being nasty to the other child, but that wasn't the point of the anecdote.

I found it amusing as an example of the importance of not instantly leaping to believe what a child tells you happened, because given the limits of children's understanding of the world, they may be inadvertently misrepresenting the circumstances.

I had to explain to students the other day that talking about someone's 'Shih Tzu' was not the same as the 's word'.

Dd is 5 and in reception. Said to me before that her friend had said a naughty word today at the end of a song, I dared to ask her what letter it began with- she said "f" oh dear me.. Then dd said the next letter is "a" so I was a bit confused :(
So I whispered "fat?" And she said "no it was fanny" I was mortified