Am I being over sensitive?

moggylover

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Only just come to this thread, but asked my husband (a retired Geography teacher) his opinion and he said the punishment was far too harsh. He would have asked your son to repeat the homework and at the same time sent a letter to you his parents pointing out that there may be a problem and could you encourage him to do his best and stressing the importance of the assignment. Then it would have been forgotten.

:T :T :T :T :T :T

There we go! THAT is what a good teacher should and would have done:D

PolishBigSpender

Curious_George wrote: »

sorry but i think you would, they are paid... to clean

Read my post again.

They would not be required or indeed expected to clean the table WITH A SPOON.

bandraoi

What else would suggest they use?

We were given knives, though that wouldn't be any better.

tiamai_d

Acc72 wrote: »

That is what I thought.

Some comments about - properly trained adults, using PPE (Gloves, Masks !!), the proper equipment etc. were unbelievable.

What lesson is that to teach children - you are too good to remove chewing gum (although some less fortunate person somewhere will have to do this for you !)

Maybe you should go and read up on Health and Safety, yes, cleaners do get PPE and even training on how to clean chewing gum up, vomit, clean toilets etc.

What makes you think a cleaner is less fortunate? They are getting paid to do it.

Again, the child did not put the chewing gum there in the first place can you try and remember that or is your head to full of pomp?

Curious_George_2

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

Read my post again.

They would not be required or indeed expected to clean the table WITH A SPOON.

so your actually only offended by the spoon? lol
maybe the humble spoon is the perfect tool for the job
it has a long handle so you dont have to touch the gum, good leverage thanks to the shape...

:rolleyes:

and while im here i would like to congratulate tiamai_d on the excellent use of the word 'pomp'
i like it and shall try to use it today in conversation

tiamai_d

Was reading a book in ye olde english and it just kinda popped out

bap98189

Reading through this thread, thre things strike me.

1. Many people seem to have a problem with the fact a punishment was handed out despite the boy attempting the homework. What everyone seems to have missed is that he most likely spent 2 minutes on it, handed in two lollipop sticks tied together and tried to pretend that was sufficient. The OP admits she had not seen his work, so we don't know any better. To try and pretend we had done work when we had forgotten was exactly the sort of thing we would do at school if we had forgotten our homework. I suspect the teacher has realised this and handed out a punishment accordingly.

2. Do people really expect teachers to write letters home every time children fail to do some homework on time? Crikey, your average teacher would be spending more time writing letters than anything else, especially in a secondary school where they have 6 or 7 classes a day. Far better to deal with it in another way. When I was at school it would have been lines, but since that is not permitted nowadays a detention is the next best option. When I was at school, I would have far rather had a few lunchtime detentions than have a letter home. Telling your parents was pretty much the worst punishment they could throw at you.

3. Has this country really become so overprotective of children that we consider cleaning a bit of chewing gum off some desks to be a task that requires a raft of PPE and job-training? If so, heaven help us.