This thread reminded me of a course I took in college. One day the professor was discussing how to deal with problem students and told a story about when he was teaching high school. There was a particularly disruptive teenage boy in his class who seemed to always defy him. Nothing worked on this boy. One day when he was particularly disruptive, the teacher leaned over and whispered in his ear, "You have a pimply face." The kid behaved after that. I never knew what to make of that. Can't believe the prof would make up a story like that. Can't put myself in the boy's shoes, because I was never disruptive. Why did it work?
I think that although disruptive kids do what they do to draw attention to them, no one but no one wants a pimple or several pimples to be the reason people notice them. It’s a vanity issue.
As you know, the principle of “in loco parentis” applies to the schools so that they officially act in place of the parent or instead of the parent while at school, so that whatever is within legal rights for a parent to do to discipline their child is given to the schools. Of course, parents and teachers should both be in agreement. They should be in sync with each other for the benefit of the child, and no teacher should administer any type of physical punishment, and should keep the parent informed of disruptive behavior, and what the teacher plans to do to correct it. If that doesn’t work, then the teacher, student and parent need to have an official visit with the principal or his assistant (disciplinary problems are often part of the asst.’s duty, as well as assignments for bus duty) This is often an effective way to solve the problem, because (most) students don’t want to look badly in front of the parent, as it may cause him/her problems at home. But this can also be a dangerous strategy, because the student may view this as a personal attack to bring in the parents, when he/she then thinks the teacher is not strong enough to handle the problem and so the disruptive behavior may resort to more subtle, behind the scenes, actions to “get even” with the teacher. Yes, the discipline problem is one reason I left the teaching profession earlier than I expected.
Good morning to all- Alan- I read your post with great interest. I am a retired public school teacher. For 37 years I worked in a wide range of school settings from inner-city ghetto schools to tiny backwoods rural schools to fairly large and upscale suburban schools. I have found that no public school setting has a lock on bad student behavior. There are kids with problems- and who ARE problems- everywhere. And in the public schools, unlike private academies and such, these kids have a right to be in attendance- problems and all. I'm afraid I can't agree with your idea of assigning extra homework as a behavior modification tool. I very rarely assigned homework to any of my students. I covered my work in class where I could see what they were doing and make immediate corrections if needed. And most "problem" kids aren't going to do any homework anyway, so why put myself in a position where I'll have to respond not only to the kid's behavior in class, but also his/her refusal to do assignments? And yes, there are really very few "school" problems. There are lots of problems from home and community that are brought to school where they must be dealt with by others. You have touched upon what in my opinion is a major concern for public education: what to do with kids who bring disruptive and often dangerous behavior to public school. It is not an easy situation to deal with and to try and correct. good day to all- Ed
I was a HS teacher (20+ years). I have seen the system deteriorating from one semester to the next. Nobody can tell me this was not orchestrated to graduate people who couldn't read / write. IMHO, the government wants people easy to manipulate,
Well, only a few people on this forum know anything about farm and/or ranch life. All of the farming students I knew all thru high school, who were involved with FFA and 4-H, were very descent teenagers in high school. However, there were some fairly indecent ones. The high school students I knew all had farm work to do after school and on weekends. I never heard any foul language from any of them, like I sometimes did from the students that would rather smoke a cigarette or two at local convenience store instead of eating lunch at school. Of course, back then, during the mid-to-later 60's, teachers didn't have the problems with students like today.
I had a friend whose son turned her into the police for abuse when she insisted he do homework or would lose privileges. No consequences and everyone passes. grrrrrrrrr
A little off-topic, but an Engineer, at a company I worked for years ago, told me this short story about his step-daughter: She called local P.D. and told them that her step-dad and her had an argument and that he had locked her in her room. When they arrived, and told the step-dad who called them and why, the step-dad told officers, "my step-daughters door only locks from the inside, not the outside." The officers talked to the step-daughter and left. Disciplined, yes, but he didn't tell me what. The mother was as upset as the step-father was about P.D. being called.
I had a Principal who changed one of my students final grade (F) into a C to graduate him. No consequences.
Ok, time to confess.........my step-dad had me take Drafting, of which I hated. For each (F) I got, I put an extra line in it for an (A) or made two loops for a (B). So, an A or B......whichever I felt like I wanted LOL. After my step-folks would sign the report card, before I turned it in, I'd erase the extra line and it would be an (F) again. I was so good at erasing, the erase mark couldn't be seen. I done the same with my Algebra Class. Actually, on my "end of semester" exam, I cheated by glancing at the paper of the student next to me. Susan was a pretty much straight-A student and I got a B+ grade. Didn't have to erase anything and my step-parents were so glad of my grade. However, my regular grades in Algebra were D's. Neither my Algebra teacher or step-parents questioned me about getting D's and then a B+. As for Drafting, my step-dad told me, "I knew you'd like Drafting" (little did he know (LOL) and both said "you must have studied very, very hard for the Algebra semester exam!" Again........little did they know. Bottom Line......don't make me take a high school class I don't want to!
[QUOTE="Cody Fousnaugh, Bottom Line......don't make me take a high school class I don't want to![/QUOTE] But YOU LIED TO YOUR PARENTS......the Principal lied to me, to the parents, to the kid and to the system.
But YOU LIED TO YOUR PARENTS......the Principal lied to me, to the parents, to the kid and to the system.[/QUOTE] To a point, Silvia........welcome to the "teaching" career. I completely understand how you felt, but then again, wonder how often this happens today. Probably a whole lot more than the school system will admit?