Whole class punishment due to a few chatters!

[pigsinmud]

Ds1 is in yr 5. He works really hard at school and is doing very well. He has 2 part time teachers - both seem very nice & approachable. However since half term ds1 has become very aggressive at home, especially with his younger brother. He seems really angry and flies off the handle at the slightest problem.

Eventually got out from him that one of the teachers is punishing the whole class because a handful of children are chatting during work time. This is really upsetting ds1. He is keeping them in for "half of break time" - probably not that long, but seems it to ds1. He is not one of the chatters and feels wrongly punished. I know this is a common form of punishment - ds2 has it sometimes at his school. Ds1 loves play time and runs around playing football - runs off the excess energy.

Should I speak to the school? Anyone else have this problem?

yes, speak to the school. this punishment is unfair and doesn't really work as is being proved by the fact that it is ongoing

I'll do that. Not too good at that sort of thing , but ds1 is a little angel at school (not so at home ) and it seems unfair. Very good point about punishment not working as is ongoing.

Sometimes a teacher does have to punish the whole class for the misdemeanour of a few pupils. Those pupils need to understand the consequences of their actions - presumably they are slowing down the lesson, and one natural consequence of this would be to extend the lesson so that all the work is covered. If it is really only a few puplis that are causing trouble, then the others can group together and put peer pressure on those boys.

I would hope that this is a short, sharp shock, and that the teacher doesn't fall into a predictable pattern of punishments. I would also hope that she recognises the victims of her tactic, and makes up for it somehow with those pupils.

I personally would not call a meeting about this, but may put a note in the diary (eg DS is unhappy for getting kept in a break - he doesn't know what he has done wrong)

Read a message on facebook yesterday about school memories in Zimbabwe.

"whole class got lashed for upsetting a teacher"

Different planet.

Hmm scienceteacher - good idea. They have planners this year, so a note could easily be sent. Really don't like to interfere unless absolutely necessary.

Bonaventura

I complained at my DCs school about whole class punishments and how inappropriate they are.

I made the point that if a teacher is unable to control the behaviour of a few poorly behaved children, how on earth are their peers expected to be able to do so.

Classroom management is not the responsibility of the 'good' children in a class - but that of the teacher.

It stopped as soon as I brought that fact to the school's attention!

Spot on 'Soapbox' !
Whole class punishments are at best totally misguided and at worst downright lazy. It is the teacher's responsibility to punish the real offenders - they know who they are and it is usually the smae old culprits time and time again. In my experience, the culprits are usually the class bullies too so it is well so it is impossible for any so-called peer pressure to have any influence over them.

It also sets a pretty bad example for the kids. Surely school life is supposed to educate kids about what the adult world is like? They're not supposed to have different standards. We shouldn't be teaching kids that it's a natural thing for the innocent to suffer penalties that should be reserved for the guilty. If law courts make the distinction, it's clearly wrong for schools to ignore it.

Another way of looking at it is that if one member of a community is out of order, the whole community suffers. I would not condone this sanction for any length of time, but it may be effective depending on the makeup of the group.

When I was teaching in prep school, we had a system of housepoints and minuses. A minus was -5 housepoints. At one point, the house captains started to tackle any of their members who got a minus - and it was far more effective than the minus itself (until then, a minus was a third of the way to a detention, which prep school boys could take on the chin). Peer pressure does work!

Without knowing the full story, it's hard to say whether the teacher is acting appropriately or not. On the face of it, she should really just hold the offenders back. I suspect there is more to it than that, though.

The only time I would hold a whole class back would be if a dangerous or expensive piece of equipment, eg a scalper, were unaccounted for. I like my cup of tea too much

• scalpel

i've done this once when someone did something bad in class and no one would own up so i kept the whole class in