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Secondary education

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Original poster

Is it ever acceptable???

44 replies

RemmersMum · 05/05/2018 09:26

Is it ever acceptable for a teacher to call a student a t*t ? For all intense purposes, why not go for full hog and use the C word or is t*t now an acceptable expletive???? 16 year old DS is by no means perfect but the dictionary provides plenty of alternative expressions that can be used if the teacher wishes to express his annoyance with DS actions.
I'm not sure whether it's worth taking umbrage with the teacher involved for his poor choice of language or tell DS not to be and idiot in future and let it go.

Thoughts?

OP posts:
mither · 05/05/2018 14:13

What was the word?

I did ask earlier but was totally ignored!

I assumed tit because twat would have been t**t

However it seems literally everyone else read twat

PhilODox · 05/05/2018 14:15

You have to be aware that there is a regional variation, and to some twat just means Twit! Shocked me no end I must say.

corlan · 05/05/2018 14:19

If it was 'twat' then, round my way , most people use it as an alternative to 'twit.'
It's not on a par with the 'C' word at all.

Witchend · 05/05/2018 17:56

Twat is something that depends on where you come from as to how bad it is considered.
I know it as two meanings, one to hit, and secondly a jokey insult on a par with "silly sausage". I was surprised to find a couple years ago that the area we've moved to considers it to be swearing-and bad swearing too.
Thankfully it isn't a term I particularly use, but I would suspect the teacher used it in the meaning that I grew up knowing.

cricketballs3 · 06/05/2018 07:15

Mid 40s and I've always considered it to mean idiot but whilst I've thought it, never said it to a student. If it was a one off, by a good teacher I would leave it

BarbarianMum · 06/05/2018 08:15

Where I come from in the UK it is a varation on being daft ie messing around.

bonnyshide · 06/05/2018 08:19

This is mumsnet you can actually SAY the words you know....

MillicentF · 06/05/2018 08:26

Twat is a less rude version of cunt. Don’t care for either of them myself, and I would not think it’s an appropriate word to use in professional context.

If I were you, i’d send a very low key email direct to the teacher concerned, just in case they don’t realize what the word means.

MillicentF · 06/05/2018 08:29

And yes of course in popular usage it means being a bit of an idiot. So does dick. But the words actually mean vagina and penis....

EthelHornsby · 06/05/2018 08:38

He’s 16, not 6. I would be focusing on the behaviour rather than the word used

Starlight2345 · 06/05/2018 08:49

As he is 16 I find it hard to think he was so shocked he came home and told you . I assume he is about to do gcse’s and therefore old enough to take this on the chin or correct his behaviour

Icequeen01 · 06/05/2018 09:03

My DS is in 6th form and has always been well behaved and polite at school. However, if a teacher called him a twat it would not bother me in the slightest as I assume he was being just that. Even the best students have twatish moments 😀The only time I have been upset by something a teacher, who didn't know my son's name, said to him in class "you with the monobrow". It's something DS is very sensitive about and he gets waxed regularly. I thought that was just nasty.

dancingthroughthedark · 06/05/2018 09:11

You have your ds' version of what he was doing and what was said to him. Do you have the teachers?

MillicentF · 06/05/2018 09:18

For me this is about professional language. The OP’s son may well have been being a twat. But it was unwise of the teacher to use the word.

BubblesBuddy · 07/05/2018 09:18

It used to mean idiot! If the teacher is older, he probably thought this was the meaning. Or TWA Tea as we used to say! The innocence of youth.

MillicentF · 07/05/2018 09:19

Nope. It’s always meant vagina.

IRefuseToAgree · 07/05/2018 12:38

The behaviour of the OPs son isn’t relevant in my opinion I don’t think a teacher should EVER swear at a student. It’s unprofessional.

gingergiraffe · 09/05/2018 21:59

As a former teacher, twat is a word I would never use in front of pupils, indeed, I never use at all. However, I have always known what it means and would happily point out its meaning to a pupil who used it in class to insult another. I would keep a straight face while pointing out that it meant female genitalia, and watch them cringe with embarrassment!

MeanTangerine · 09/05/2018 22:08

Calling a student a twat is not OK, and if that's what happened (and it could have, teachers are people and this is a stressful time of year) then you'd be entirely justified in notifying senior staff.

At the same time...

Was your ds being a twat? What had he been doing/saying in the 10 minutes prior to the event?

Did he definitely get called a twat, as in "You're a twat" or the subtly-but-importantly different "stop acting like a twat"?

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