Discipline at school

SmallL

Haven't read the whole thread but a couple of things stand out to me:

I absolutely hate the mindset of 'punish the majority for the minorities actions'. I hated it at school, i didn't misbehave and it really peed me off to get punished (which was often a waste of time on my part) for something out of my control.
I dont know is the OP mentioned her sons age but if i had been told to put my hands on my head after i was about 16 i probably would have refused on grounds stated above and its a punishment that doesnt benefit anyone and simply wastes teaching time

pimento

Taadaa wrote: »

I never said l would complain, but l would like to know why this particular form was used. The reason being that there is something quite humiliating about it. If you want respect, you have to dish it out, that includes to kids. Maybe they were running riot, but really if this is the most effective discipline the teacher can come up with...l don't doubt being a teacher is hard work but that doesn't excuse poor discipline. As l hve said, l would want to speak to them to get the full story.

What will you do when he starts work? Confront his boss?

pimento

meritaten wrote: »

Are teachers ALWAYS right? seems to me that judging from the posts on here - they think they are.
apparently the kids are always in the wrong and liars as well - I would think that the teachers would be disgusted at anyone using the 'hands on heads' methods - I am wrong again! not ONE teacher has said they think its wrong - and they KNOW it is!

Teachers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. There's hardly any ways to discipline a child these days. They're not allowed to touch them so putting hands on heads for a short while is actually quite a good idea.

Your local school must be the exception as all the teachers of my acquaintance do the job because they enjoy it, not to administer torture to the children.

The OP should wind her neck in and start backing the school up.

aliasojo

OP, how is your son's shoulders/arms today?

Did you make a decision about what best to do?

Dasa

aliasojo wrote: »

OP, how is your son's shoulders/arms today?

Did you make a decision about what best to do?

Having read through the whole thread I wouldn't be surprised if she stays away after some of the aggressively worded posts. Is it really necessary?

daisiegg

meritaten wrote: »

Are teachers ALWAYS right? seems to me that judging from the posts on here - they think they are.
apparently the kids are always in the wrong and liars as well - I would think that the teachers would be disgusted at anyone using the 'hands on heads' methods - I am wrong again! not ONE teacher has said they think its wrong - and they KNOW it is!

I'm a teacher, and I said:

"If it was a permanent teacher and if they used this method more than once and if they seemed to have general problems with discipline overall, definitely speak to the school about it, of course" - implying that I do think it is wrong and something to contact the school about, BUT not in the instance of it being a supply teacher simply because I doubt there's much the school could do/say and it would be wasting everyone's time.

"I agree it's an unconventional form of discipline and not one I'd dream of using but it's not THAT terrible" - which I stand by. Saying I'd never dream of doing it certainly implies that I know it's not 'right', but I do stand by my statement that it's not THAT terrible. S/he didn't touch a pupil, throw anything, call anyone names, verbally humiliate anyone, and it sounds like s/he didn't even get a more senior member of staff involved (which would seem to me to have been the most sensible course of action if the class were running riot, but which would, of course, have actually ended in far worse punishment for the pupils than hands on head).

and....

"I think teachers are 'allowed' to do that (I was never expressly told during teacher training that I couldn't!) though it doesn't seem like the best form of discipline to me."

However, what most people were basing their responses on is the fact that the story as reported by the OP's son is probably not wholly accurate.

Firstly because, as a few people have said, if the supply teacher lost control over the class to the extent that s/he needed to get them all standing with hands on heads for 20 mins, s/he wouldn't have had enough control TO get them to do that in the first place. Don't underestimate how bolshy and confident teenagers are these days, particularly with supply teachers. As I've said, the nicest kids see that their normal teacher is not there and seem to view it as their duty to misbehave, even if they would not normally dream of doing so with their regular teacher.

Secondly because from a teacher's point of view it just doesn't make sense to leave them like that for 20 minutes - as I've said before, you'd be so delighted they were actually being quiet and doing as they were told, you'd use that atmosphere to get them sitting back down and working.

Thirdly because we all know that kids lie to their parents. They just do. The best kids do, it's just a fact of life. It's not saying that 'all kids are in the wrong and are liars', but it is saying that even lovely kids lie to their parents. Chances are as well the OP's son certainly isn't lying in cold blood, but things get exaggerated and stretched out of proportion - imagine that class after they leave that lesson, telling all the other kids at lunch time "You wouldn't BELIEVE what our supply teacher did, I'm in absolute agony" etc etc.

I have never done anything like making kids sit with their hands on their heads but I did once get to the end of my tether so much with a group of chatty girls that I made them turn and sit facing the back wall of the classroom. I said that they clearly didn't want to learn so they shouldn't have the benefit of the lesson when all they seemed to want to do was to distract others. Of course they were in their GCSE year and actually DID want to learn, so they were turned for probably a maximum of 1 minute before one of them apologised very meekly and asked to please be allowed to participate in the lesson, which I of course let them. I had just been making a point because they hadn't actually realised that their talking was making them miss the very important exam preparation lesson, and they got the point.

However, my 'scary teacher' street cred did go up briefly after this when it got around the school that I had made an ENTIRE class (it was four girls) stand (they were sitting) facing the wall for the WHOLE lesson (it was 1 minute) while I shouted at them (I virtually never shout as I am well aware my voice goes squeaky and my face turns red!) and forced them to recite Shakespeare to me to be allowed to turn back round (we were studying Of Mice and Men, no Shakespeare in sight). So you can see how these things get hugely exaggerated by teenagers, particularly when they start to gossip about it?

hunters

Can I suggest Tiger Balm rather than wasting time at A&E

shop-to-drop

hunters wrote: »

Can I suggest Tiger Balm rather than wasting time at A&E

But you are forgetting that he is in 'agony'.

Birdy12

Would love to know if Welshsue's son's shoulder is OK this morning and if she did go up to the school to complain.

Welshsue, where are you?

Taadaa

pimento wrote: »

What will you do when he starts work? Confront his boss?

Don't make ridiculous assumptions about me based on my response to one situation. I happen to think kids do need discipline - appropriate discipline.