Unacceptable for teacher to call child a 'dipstick' ???

[SchoolMum66]

My yr 1 daughter has told me that her teacher has called her a 'dipstick'. When I questioned her further I found out she has said it more than once, and to other children also. Is this acceptable for a teacher to say??? I don't think so.

Also when my daughter went into school on Friday (arriving in the free time before register) she went to the teacher who was sitting at her computer in the classroom. She wanted to tell her something interesting and relevant that had happened the afternoon before. (my daughter does not often feel confident to approach the teacher, so well done to her) . I asked her when she came home " Did you tell Mrs A about ** ?". My daughter said "I went to her at her computer and waited until she had finished her sentence [typing on computer] and I said "Mrs A" and she said to me "Go away B" Once again, is this acceptable??? She could have given her 10 seconds of her time, or at least said can you tell me later, rather than GO AWAY!!! without even knowing what she was about to say. The teacher has form on this.

I think dipstick is only ever used as a very light josh.

It's very difficult for teachers to be authentic, realistic adult role models if they're not allowed to demonstrate that they're fallible with limited patience and a mildly teasing sense of humour.

It’s not acceptable to just say “go away” even if the child should not be there at that time. It would not be acceptable amongst professionals or within the family, why is it acceptable from teacher to child? “please come back later/not now I’m busy/is it important?/I can’t talk right now” all those would be polite responses.

I think dipstick is quite sweet. Weird the things parents get upset about.

Is it possible your DD didn't actually approach the teacher? . I know both my DS's, who were equally shy at going to teacher, and have at times told me the teacher didn't have time to deal with something that they had in fact never asked her about.

What about ‘go away for the moment...?’ ‘Go away and get on for now ....?’ Much more likely to have been said (in my experience as a teacher for 20 years) ... the child still could have gone home and said ‘my teacher told me to go away’. The OP sounds like she’s the kind who questions her child at the end of the day and is desperate to complain. There’s always one and it makes it really difficult to connect with a child when every little thing is picked up on.

Dipstick is not used here as an insult. It is an affectionate way of telling the child they have said or done something daft. It is on a parr with doughnut silly sausage and others.

The go away comment is hard to read without context and tone which you don't know. I often have kids come to tell me things before school. I try and listen whilst doing but it isnt always possible. Your child may have been told to 'go and play now please or go away for the moment or whatever. You are making a mountain out of a molehill.

Unless she called her a fucking dipstick I wouldn’t think twice about it.

It’s affectionate.

How are teachers supposed to talk to the children they spend all day every day with? Talk in formal psychology-speak all day? “Child, your behaviour is a little unfocused and you are not concentrating on the consequences of your actions. In future please put the lid on your full water bottle before you put it in your book bag”.

FFS, get a grip, OP. It's something used affectionately as has been said.

Don't be "that" parent.

Don't be "that" parent.

Or indeed, don't be a dipstick :)

Dipstick wouldn't bother me, children can be daft, it's affectionate. Ds2's teacher used "sugarlump" or "nana".

"Go away" is also fine (assuming no emergency or distress). I'd assume it wasn't "talking to the teacher" time. Child may also have form for interrupting.

Does your dd tale-bear a lot?

I had forgotten about calling someone dipstick. I used to be called a drip when I would do something silly. I always found it funny

Is her teacher miss trunchbul? I don't like other people's children. One of the many reasons I didn't become a teacher. But I don't speak to anyone that way because it is rude. To do it to someone else child, especially when you are being paid to nurture them, is unacceptable. Have you complained? You really should. She should either do her job properly or find a different job.

It's really, really annoying when you're trying to get something done quickly and a child comes up to you to chat. Teachers have so much crap to do and while they'd be happy to chat later, if they're trying to do something, "Go away, B" is perhaps a better answer than they wanted to give.

This is a non-issue, OP.

its really really annoying when you’re trying to get something done quickly and a child comes up to you to chat
Yes teaching would be so much easier if it wasn’t for the kids eh?

I used to be a teacher. While it's impossible to say the manner in which the teacher in question said those words, I do know that I would have once said similar things but in a very loving way.

When a child in my class did something daft, I'd often say "you plonker, Rodney" in my best Del Boy voice. It was something all the children came to know and do, and it always came from a place of love. My classroom was a place where it was ok to make mistakes, and I encouraged the children to own them and acknowledge them. That was part of it. So, to my mind at least, it could be perfectly acceptable for a teacher to call a child a dipstick.

As for the "go away" thing, I often used to say this to my children, but again in a loving and jokey way. They knew that they could tell me interesting things in the morning at the time I took the register. At other times of the day they knew to only interrupt me if it was crucially important at that time. I often used to say "what am I going to say to you, [name]?" and the child would laugh and say "go away!"

I like to think that I was an open and fun teacher who never lost my temper. I loved each child like they were my own and everything I did was out of love and consideration for their whole development. Obviously part of that was ringfencing the time I had for preparation and planning and ensuring I wasn't interrupted.

In sum, I think you should cut the teacher some slack, unless further more serious events arise. Nobody but the teacher knows if they acted unfairly or not. I should also add that being a teacher is incredibly hard - far harder than many people give credit for.

Do you never tell your child to go away? Did she scream it in her face? Total non issue.

I’ve spent the year fighting my school to let my dc into school at all. Her teacher doesn’t engage with my dc at all in anyway because she has a disability. So to me this is a total non issue.

Also, what WAS the interesting thing?

Go away is an instruction. A clear straightforward instruction. I couldn’t get annoyed about it to be honest.

Yeah 'dipstick' is probably an affectionate term like 'donut' or similar. I think if the teacher meant it horribly they would choose a different word.

As for 'go away' I have said that to kids. Not in a snappy 'oh just piss off go away' sort of way (tempting!) but more in a 'ah that's nice, go away for a minute I'm just doing this' sort of way.

Neither of the things in your OP would give me cause for concern unless there were lots of other issues.

Kids want to tell me 'interesting things' all the time. Sometimes it has to wait.

Yes! I’d like to know the interesting thing too!

Acceptable for you to call my child:
Dipstick
Divvy
Dafty
Silly sausage
Narna
Cotton headed ninnymuggins
Cheeky chops
Silly Billy
Tom Pepper
Loopy Lou

Unacceptable:
Little fucker
Little shit
Little bastard
You fuckwit
Dickhead
You knob
Any description of their appearance.

Hth

Exactly missy.

We had the same joke when I worked in retail a long time ago i.e. no customers lol

It's no wonder teachers are leaving in droves is it? It's open season at the moment. And no, Racecardriver we are actually paid to teach. The nurture you get for free,

Dipstick is just a jokey term as others have said. When ds was in year 1 his teacher used to call people "Silly Sausage" which is roughly equivalent.
He (not one for writing) wrote in her leaving card without being asked "I love Mrs H because she calls me a silly sausage"

In infants half the children come in with "interesting" things to tell. Most are along the lines of "my aunty is coming to see me next week" and will be desperate to tell at the very moment the teacher is trying to get something important to tell.