Silly things teachers think will work

[NAR4]

One of the teachers at my child's school (he is in sixth form) thinks giving out yellow cards and red cards for 'bad' behaviour in class will somehow motivate 17 year olds.

At my 14 year old's school (a different school) he was asked to write a letter to Father Christmas during an English lesson. The teacher was dead serious. REALLY?

I pressume that nether of these teachers have children of their own, but should surely have been taught at uni that these things were completely age inappropriate.

If yellow red/yellow cards can work for a bunch of 20 something footballers, then why not a bunch of teenagers?

"This "bunch of teachers", were they really saying they want violent children in their classes? How strange. "

Well they were spit-roasting a parent for daring to say said child should be removed. I don't understand it either.

Although to be fair we were talking about disruptive rather than violent children. I won't misrepresent.

I think the red card/yellow card thing sounds like a good idea, done by the right sort of teacher.

Is it really unacceptable to suggest that someone who isn't a teacher may not necessarily understand classroom management techniques used by teachers? I have no idea why that might be offensive.

I just ran it past DH (private sector), who laughed at me, and asked if I thought I could troubleshoot the code he's working on.

I've taught a violent student (towards students rather than teachers). The school did everything in their power to plan and support their move to a more appropriate educational setting but were overruled by the LA on monetary grounds.

I expect there are parents out there moaning about how ineffectual the school were in not booting this child out. Probably the fault of the liberal teachers.

I don't think you can claim that a bunch of teachers on a thread you hazily recall were 'spit-roasting a parent for daring to say said child should be removed' & then go on to assert that you 'won't misrepresent'.

My lower ability year 11 would definitely pick you up on your failure to provide evidence, although they'd enjoy identifying the emotive language & hyperbole.

Were they suggesting that maybe some thought should be given to where the child was removed to?

I mark in red.

The point I'm making is that the teachers and the parent (basically me) in this case mainly agreed. But the teachers were mortally offended that a parent should make a suggestion and really just didn't want to agree because it didn't come from a teacher. It was ridiculous, the tying in knots to try to disagree with me and agree with each other. They wanted to say "you don't know anything about it" )in fact did! - but we basically agreed on what should be done.

So that's the thing really, I'm not bothered about a rehash of that argument, it's more - why do teachers clutch their pearls so very histrionically when a parent has a view. You'd think the sky was falling, you really would.

Last time I checked, "her" referred to a specific person.

You can't go on about a "bunch of teachers" and then accuse others of making sweeping generalisations!

Brycie - bad form to bring up a thread on another thread.

Oh ravenAK I don't mind linking to the thread. I'd happily quote bits of it here but I don't think that's allowed? I especially liked the part where I suggested sin bins / isolation units and was roundly disagreed with (by a teacher) and then another poster suggested sin bins / isolation units and was Uriah Heeped all over (by the same teacher). Good times.

Yes I thought it might be but I wasn't saying "you said this" to anyone on another thread, just generally what was talked about, so I thought it would be alright. I was just trying to prove my point that teachers really, really don't like parents expressing a view.

I mean, feel free to report if you want, I don't mind.

Eviltwins you said ."not a teacher .. therefore has no idea"

nothing about the op (except that she's not a teacher)

and "it's not her job to know" - ie she's not a teacher how would she knpw

nothing about the op (except that she's not a teacher)

Parental support means the parent has read and understood the home-school agreement that they signed.

As an experiment one year, I didn't sign the home-school agreement. No one chased it up, not that year nor any of the subsequent years. It is clearly a tick box exercise.

IIRC the agreement was all about our obligations to the school (a school that we had no choice in attending since it was our catchment school). There was nothing about the school's obligations to parents or pupils.

Honestly - I don't mind an informed opinion, criticism, or even a good argument.

It's when someone wades in announcing that a task they know nothing about beyond the title is 'age inappropriate', or that selection would sort everything out because everyone knows clever kids (read: that poster's kids) aren't naughty...

...well, dh has been downstairs all night recording his new album. I haven't breezed in telling him 'you don't mix heavy metal in dubly', to quote Spinal Tap, because I would then look like my opinions had run ahead of my knowledge...

Same thing. That's all.

I'm so afraid I'll get deleted for talking about another thread! So anyway this is my comment which is "safe" from the post that's probably about to get deleted!

Why do teachers clutch their pearls so very histrionically when a parent has a view. You'd think the sky was falling, you really would.

I don't mind parents talking to me. I like it. I enjoy discussing things with parents. However, if a parent said "My child told me that you did xxx in his lesson. That's silly and clearly won't work" and expected me not to respond and/or defend my position, then that would be a differnt matter. However, in RL, this has never happened.

And I stand by the fact that someone who is not a teacher would not understand lots of stuff that happens in the classroom, in the same way that I don't assume I understand everything DH does in his job. He trained to do what he does, and has over 15 years experience of it. I would never be so arrogant as to assume I could do it just as well as he could. Why would I?

That's great raven, there's no way I'd suggest all teachers think parents aren't worth listening to, just some. And also it's nice that a teacher acknowledges that parents are worth listening to.

Actually as an aside, my teacher friend says she's the parent her children's teachers "hate" most - because she's a teacher. Hate is hyperbole, obviously.

Again, and I know you're arguing with EvilTwins here, but why would it be offensive to suggest that someone who isn't a teacher might not understand techniques used by teachers? I don't get it.

Fallen - there was actually mainly agreement on the techniques - but there was hostility to a parent expressing it. That's what I'm saying.

I wouldn't like it if someone said you need to do xxx in my job and they were right. I would feel chastened and irritated, but it wouldn't mean they were wrong and didn't have a clue.

Brycie even the teacher on this thread that you think thinks parents aren't worth listening to doesn't think that parents aren't worth listening to. And has said so.

But it's the same circular argument we had on the previous thread. (Sorry ET, I know it's bad form).

Brycie: Why don't teachers remove naughty children from lessons?

About 6 teachers: Actually we do .

Brycie: oooh, look, you all agree with me really! Why are you clutching your pearls? Is the sky falling?

They have now Noble. Which is lovely. I think the sweeping generalisations earlier were very damaging, and let's face it, you'd hardly read "I always listen to parents opinions" in the statement "not a teacher therefore doesn't have a clue". Would you? I mean, I know you want to disagree with me, being a parent and all and you being a teacher, but you can't really, on this. You've done well with your last post though, that's quite a good effort at disagreement for the sake of it.