Shaking hands with students

[Stripeyblue]

Hi,

We’ve had a directive today that standing outside our rooms and greeting each student personally is not enough. We now need to shake the hand of every student.

SLG have basically said we have to do this and are dismissing arguments related to hygiene and staff and students being made to feel uncomfortable. It is to apparently foster good relationships with students.

It’s a inner city secondary school. SLG are panicking because a recent invited inspection (not ofsted) judged us as RI and that behaviour is a major issue. Our last Ofsted judged us as outstanding.

What do people think about this? Can they make this kind of directive?

It is very unhygienic to the poster who implied the op was being unreasonable!

If you've ever seen how quickly sickness bugs spread/ the lack of hygiene in children, you wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it.

Christ, have heard it all now. What a load of tosh. Just smile and say hello . Unhygienic to shake hands. Some wee bugger will be sure to have spat on his hand first or have been scratching his bits.

Many students will be beyond uncomfortable with this level of physical contact, especially with a teacher. It's an awful policy.

Francis many students are uncomfortable and have expressed this. It worries me more that some students won’t feel able to express it because they won’t want to ‘snub’ an authority figure. They may go along with it because they don’t feel they have a real choice. It’s not a great message in an era when we are trying to teach young people that their bodies belong to them and they have total choice in who they touch and who touches them.

Today’s development was that we just need to try it. It’ll work. Give it a go. All genuine concerns and feedback addressed in this way.

This would infuriate me. I would tell them to stick it sideways.

the germs!

Can i fist bump?

No fist bumps allowed!

Anyway, the language they are using to talk about it has changed. They have acknowledged the controversy it has caused and now we are to continue with our ‘GUSTO’ strategy and if we ‘feel like giving a handshake’ then that’s good.

I don’t feel like it so still won’t be doing it. It’s no longer a directive though.

‘GUSTO’ strategy? What fresh hell is this? Is it an acronym?

Yes an acronym.

Greet students
Uniform (check)
Seating plan
Task on entry
Objectives clear

They had the word then shoehorned stuff into it!

My GUSTO as someone without a classroom would be:

Great, my next lesson is two flights of stairs away
Uh oh, those kids fighting on the stairs are my class bored waiting for me
Struggle into the classroom carrying a shedload of crap
Try to log onto the computer while the kids roam in
Oh great, the previous teacher hasn’t cleaned the board so I’ve got to do that as well before I can even write the title

I think a lot of that Dix stuff is totally fraudulent and extremely faddy. I wasn't convinced by the book and even less so after training in person.

Noble

Life as a teacher without a classroom is not pretty!

FowlisWester are you saying that that teacher's personalised handshakes are stupid and a waste of time? I think he is amazing, and I have heard a bit about him before. Those kids all look very pleased and happy.

GUSTO?
What GUFF!
I would have absolutely hated shaking the hand of my teachers as a student. I would equally have felt really uncomfortable shaking students' hands as a teacher.
Thank fuck I am away from all this madness now.

It's fine to offer a handshake. No problems there. But forcing people (teachers and students) to shake hands is ridiculous.

At DS school they all have to shake hands with their teacher and say “good afternoon” at pick up time. I like it. I have bought Bath and bodyworks mini hand gels for the teachers as presents before though - DS is 5

claraschu that teacher is an American. he is fist bumping etc and putting himself as the central person is those children's universe in what is a very deprived area. It's a very particular climate where he wanted to make children feel positive about teachers and school in general. He didn't as it goes do it every lesson : he always taught the same class , unlike secondary teachers and he ended up doing this on Mondays and Fridays, I read.. I do think we should note he is male , quite young and at the 'fun teacher' end of the spectrum. Those children, iirc, are also quite young and not surly (and big) 16 year olds. High fiving etc is (used to be?) a very particularly American, sports based, urban thing. I think the point is different strokes for different folks. There are times in school where we need to be consistent, but consistent in lots of schools can slip over into diktats.

noble's GUSTO sounds rather more like mine!

Also, I work in a school where some students have an 8 minute walk to get to me, so they do tend to arrive in dribs and drabs . I could eb waiting a long time at that door! Plus at least six students are always late in some classes. Do they get handshakes or not? I am assuming in a a school with GUSTO there is some enormous administrative protocol about latecomers too! And sixth form? Do they get endless handshaking?

I think Dix is gaining traction because schools that aren't feeling the zero tolerance approach see him as more positive and human and lie that he has routines Plus he runs workshops and training sessions but I think many other behaviour 'experts' have much more practical and practicable advice.

Didn't take long for them to back down did it.

I will admit I like that Dix is opposed to endless sanctions. I am not a detention giver myself. But, if others want to do it, crack on.

Piggywaspushed I know. I have seen videos about him and read about him before, and I am American myself. I just thought that it sounded like FowlisWester was kind of sneering at him, which I didn't like. He is great.

I also think that some of my children's teachers in England could learn something from him.

The extreme negativity about hand shaking on here is a bit weird to me. Hand shaking is the norm in Switzerland, and in some Dutch schools, so it is not just American.

It is true that shaking hands before ever class in secondary school would probably be awful, and I definitely wouldn't have wanted to shake the hand of my high school teachers, but I also hated most of those teachers and went to a very impersonal, uncaring school.

I think that creating an atmosphere where kids and teachers are happy to recognise and appreciate one another as individuals and fellow human beings is a great ambition for a school. The handshake is a symbol of that. Of course a handshake can't create that kind of relationship where it doesn't already exist.

In school, the handshake can be a weapon of subversion.

In my DS’s Y6 class, the children had to shake hands with each other in the playground before lessons began. There had been a lot of relationship tensions in the class and this was supposed to be a way of cultivating friendship and respect. But, if anything, the handshake initiative only served to highlight fractured relations. Children would accept the hand of some but point-blank refuse the hand of others, or shake hands as if the other child was diseased.

If the handshakes had been with teachers rather than other pupils, there would still be the same sort of subtle – and not so subtle – signalling of distaste in evidence at times, I think.

But I do like enthusiastic but slightly mad handshakes in appropriate settings.

The recent power handshakes – complete with post-shake lingering handholds - of Trump/Macron and Kim Jong Un/Moon Jae-in were a joy to behold.

I'd refuse to shake any teachers hand if I went to that school

Well, I am not entirely sure I agree that a handshake is a sign of individuality, tbh .... and I do think it is important to state that my personal belief is that the students are not in a corporate environment, not at an interview (which is what we in the UK probably most associate handshakes with) and that, more controversially, children are not the equals of teachers. But I definitely do not, and never have, equate handshakes with being 'caring'.

I am half American , by the way, so have no bias against US mannerisms or values but can appreciate they are culturally very different (and am assuming the Swiss are perhaps very formal?) The US can also be much more formal than us despite what some may think : rituals surrounding sport, calling your dad 'Sir', calling all adults Sir and Maam : all still very commonplace.

When I was at school (in Scotland) we stood up if a teacher walked in a room. Perhaps we should bring back that kind of respect and formality? (Disclaimer : don't necessarily believe in this myself , but it's a thought)