Standing children in the corner in class for minor issues?

Alicediamond

Hi,

I'm interested in peoples views or any legal/policy issues regarding the practice in some classrooms of standing children in a corner to face the wall, for behaviours such as talking during lessons, or humming!

Any experience of this at all or any views?

Thanks

NB. It's taken for granted that teachers need, and have every right, to use approaches to deal with disruption in the classroom, even if the disruption is minor in nature, so this is NOT a teacher bashing exercise. I have the greatest respect for them and think they do an incredibly hard and valuable job under very difficult circumstances.:A Just wondered what people thought of this particular sanction?

Jo_F

Not a problem with it, in fact when my son used to play up in primary school, the teacher used to put him on a table by himself in the corner, and no one in the class was allowed to talk to him, and he wasn't allowed to talk to them, he hated it, and always made sure that his behaviour improved enough to be allowed back 'into' the class.

Reggie_Rebel

Bit old school (no pun intended) I'd say. Personally I'd make the child miss a play time.

In today's PC world teachers have to be careful that they are not accused of bullying or infringing the human rights so this action means that the child stays in the classroom.

For what it's worth I coach 7 & 8 year olds at football. Any excessive disruption and they sit down for five minutes, do it again and it's ten minutes, third time they go home. We've never had to implement the second or third

jackie_w

Personally I dont think there is anything wrong with it. Im assuming that the child has already been told not to talk or hum in class, therefore standing facing the wall has been the last resort kind of thing.

Just my opinion of course

Jackie

lynzpower

I also think its a good tactic.

It is a punishment that says, if you cant participate by the rules, then you can hear everyone else doing it, but you cant, because you havent complied.
Child can stand listening in the corner and the child has a good moment to think about why they are there .

Meanwhile teacher can keep an eye on the child, meanwhile getting on with the rest of the lesson so the other kids dont miss out.

Neeny82

I experienced this whilst at school! I was what you would call a 'chatterbox' and did not really know when to shut up! Although I was never really really naughty!

Looking back I am in 2 minds about the practice. One the one hand it did embarrass me a little which I suppose was the punishment and I would have rather that than getting sent to the Head for example but also it didn;t really put a stop to people being disruptive as you knew that was the worst that would happen in some classes!

I think teachers have such a hard job and think that over the years it has got harder. When I was at high school (94-99) if I was sent to the Head or a teacher told my parents that I had been playing us (at parents evenings) then I knew I would be in for it when I got home and would be grounded, however I think that now there are a lot of kids who know their parents would stick up for them over a teacher and I think it makes teachers jobs even more difficult as some kids think they can get away with murder!

Alicediamond

jackie_w wrote: »

Personally I dont think there is anything wrong with it. Im assuming that the child has already been told not to talk or hum in class, therefore standing facing the wall has been the last resort kind of thing.

Just my opinion of course

Jackie

I see what you're saying but this is the thing. There is no warning, the child hasn't previously been warned or told off during the course of the day, or done anything else wrong. It's being done for a first time "humming" incident! Not sure if standing them in a corner facing the wall is a bit excessive? But maybe not?

lynzpower

Has this child ever seen any other child be asked to stand in the corner for disrupting lessons.

I just cant believe the teacher wouldnt have said " little Johnny please stop that humming" before going for thr corner option. I jsut cant believe that at all.

jennypdolphin

Hi I'm a reception teacher and we have a similar practice BUT only after a number of warnings have been given, if the behaviour still continues after their time on the "thinking cushion" and they then miss a playtime I must say I get them to face away from me as I let them know that just because they want to miss their playtime does not mean that they get extra attention from me.

Alicediamond

lynzpower wrote: »

Has this child ever seen any other child be asked to stand in the corner for disrupting lessons.

I just cant believe the teacher wouldnt have said " little Johnny please stop that humming" before going for thr corner option. I jsut cant believe that at all.

It's a technique this teacher tends to use for the generally well behaved boys who get chatty sometimes. The boys in the class who swear or hit out at her get a softly softly approach. I know it sounds unbelievable and I wouldnt believe it myself if it weren't for several parents of children in the class raising it (same story every time) clincher was a parent helper who was in for reading and heard/saw it happen.

Alicediamond

jennypdolphin wrote: »

Hi I'm a reception teacher and we have a similar practice BUT only after a number of warnings have been given, if the behaviour still continues after their time on the "thinking cushion" and they then miss a playtime I must say I get them to face away from me as I let them know that just because they want to miss their playtime does not mean that they get extra attention from me.

Thanks Jenny, I appreciate your input. This sounds perfectly reasonable to me and I can totally understand why it would be a useful technique to use in the way you described.