Am I being over sensitive?

Kirri

I think this is an outrageous way to treat a child!

Some of you comparing this with work, yes if you hadn't done something you may expect your boss to have a word, but not punish you every lunchtime or make you do the office cleaning or equivalent - would you take that at work? no! or if you would take it, more fool you. If you think that is preparing you for life, then your life must be fairly miserable.

This is a young child, discipline is one thing, but the child had done the homework (what if a child wasn't arty, should they be punished for not being good enough?) he did the homework and what would he gain from spending more than 2 hours on it anyway. Really what long term use in life is this going to gain him, making a model?! He might gain a hatred of that teacher, maybe not hatred but nervousness, not all children respond well to things like this, some children could look back on their schooldays for years to come hating things like this.

When I left school and became an adult and went back to do some evening classes I realised the huge difference between good and bad teachers, someone that moaned and punished me when I had done nothing wrong wouldn't encourage me, wouldn't make me want to learn more. You just grow up and what you had to put up with at the time, you realise was wrong.

The child didn't do anything wrong. I would go and speak to the teacher.

mrcow

Kirri wrote: »

The child didn't do anything wrong. I would go and speak to the teacher.

The child missed a detention.

That is wrong.

Kirri

mrcow wrote: »

The child missed a detention.

That is wrong.

The child was incorrectly punished in the first place!

Minxy_Bella

mrcow wrote: »

The child missed a detention.

That is wrong.

Yes, it is but it happened after the chain of events was set in motion, IYKWIM. It wasn't the catalyst for all that followed, it was a complication.

He should have attended the detention if there was no intervention from either parent or senior management.

However, I don't blame him for 'forgetting'. Who would want to be in the same room, alone, with that scary teacher?? :eek:

mrcow

Kirri wrote: »

The child was incorrectly punished in the first place!

That is a matter of opinion.

He does not make it any better for himself by disobeying the teacher. This is why he's been given a harder punishment.

It wasn't the catalyst for all that followed, it was a complication.

No it wasn't a catalyst.
It was the root cause of what followed after!

Smashing

Well, he won't leave it to the last minute again will he?

Unfair? Perhaps. Welcome to life on planet earth.

Minxy_Bella

mrcow wrote: »

No it wasn't a catalyst.
It was the root cause of what followed after!

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that issue. Yes, it exacerabated the situation but I don't think it can be classified as a 'root cause' as it was a reaction to an over-reaction IMO.

Minxy_Bella

Smashing wrote: »

Well, he won't leave it to the last minute again will he?

Unfair? Perhaps. Welcome to life on planet earth.

No, perhaps next time, he won't do the homework at all....

You're right, life isn't fair but it's an unnecessarily harsh lesson to learn that doing your work leads to punishment IMO.

Smashing

Minxy_Bella wrote: »

No, perhaps next time, he won't do the homework at all....
.

The he'll get 5 detentions instead of 3. It's his choice.

My mother never pestered me to do my homework - if I didn't, I was the one who faced the consequences. If I did it half-!!!!!d, same deal.

tiamai_d

Minxy_Bella wrote: »

No big deal, really - it's just not the norm for siblings to go to different schools, that's all.

I went to a different school as my brother. 3 year age gap. I chose my school and he chose his. We did not attend the catchment area school.

Anyway, to the OP. If you have some mixed feelings about this, especially as to whether he did deserve the initial punishment (disregarding the secondary punishment-extra detentions). You don't have to complain exactly, but perhaps a phonecall or visit to speak to the teacher in question to get his reason as to why he thinks he didn't put any effort in. I would, simply to find out how he is working out the 'effort input' of each project. Is he simply going by how it looks? Perhaps your son is not the greatest at 'arty stuff', I know I'm not (you should see my scientific drawings, my 3 year old does better). Also explain that he had no help from you at all.

It's a bit crap that he is being punished after he did actually make a model (even if he did not use the whole 3 weeks, wonder how that would work out anyway, 3 weeks to do homework from a class you only get 2 hours a week, what would it work out as per week if each class was allocated a homework allowance (my school did this so that we were not over or under loaded with homework)).

The punishment for forgetting a detetion is a bit severe, but well, he did forget.

And I was told once to scrape chewing gum off tables, but refused. I'm vomitphobic and it just set me off, chewing gum from mouths where vomit comes from...(sets me off thinking about it) I was sent to my head of house and given an alternative detention, an eaasy on whatever I had done wrong.. think it was how smoking stunts your growth and that being underage I should not have been smoking let alone caught smoking! :rotfl: