Who will teach the kids?

Spinning off from the selfish generation thread. Media in the US has reported there are 253,000 cases each year of students assaulting teachers. That equates to 7 percent of teachers experiencing verbal and physical assault.

Link.

The teacher in that link is ready to leave the profession because of the risks. She speaks of some teachers not showing up for work, due to stress.

The American Psychological Association calls the disturbing growing problem "a silent national crisis." They association says "more studies need to be done on teacher assaults and recommended a registry to keep track of assaults nationwide. The hope is that information can be used to better diagnose what is leading to the disturbing trend and figuring out a way to solve it."

Some states propose taking civil action against any student who assaults a teacher.

Behaviour without consequences will run unchecked. What's the answer? Doing studies and creating a registry of assaults? Taking civil action? Expelling any student who assaults a teacher? Other....?

Re: Who will teach the kids?

The irony is, of course, that when corporal punishment was commonly used in schools, assaults on teachers were unknown. I'm not a great supporter of corporal punishment (although I readily admit it kept my unruly behaviour at school in check) but we have swung much too far in the other direction and the liberal consensus now insists that not only should we not "hit" kids, we shouldn't even tell them off for fear of hurting their poor feelings and damaging their fragile self-esteem. This has been immensely damaging to young people who have, in many cases, never been given any meaningful boundaries, never been taught that rights come with responsibilities, and never been shown that actions have consequences. Most young people are fine - just as they have always been, but there is a minority who have effectively been turned into sociopathic misfits by our misguided "liberal" education system. These are the minority of young people who think it acceptable (and inevitable) to stab someone who "disrespects" them, who think it is a badge of honour to shoot and kill another human being and achieve the status of "bad man."
I don't believe we should swing the pendulum all the way back to the Victorian era, but for the sake of these kids we do need to achieve a much better balance than the one we have now.

Re: Who will teach the kids?

It's a small number of children I believe who cause the most problems there must be ways to deal with this, Make parents sit in on lessons, put the children or teachers behind some sort of barrier, special schools for disruptive pupils, take them out and teach them seperate to the rest of the class/school.

Re: Who will teach the kids?

An excellent post Mick, I agree with you entirely.

Re: Who will teach the kids?

"My generation" was the anthem for us over 50s & 60s.
We have benefitted from changes in culture, female rights, building up wealth through property and much more.

Isnt it ironic that having been given a hard time by our parents , we've then been given a hard time by our children

I don't think legislation or litigation are the answer nor part of the answer. We need good citizens as role models. Retired people to give up some time in interacting with youngdters, passing on their skills...

Don't ask me where these pople are,perhaps enrolling suitable people from the community. I don't consider paying for their time is necessary, the right people won't want it.

When I was at school 1953 to 1964, we had some sadistic bullying teachers. So did my brother.

One particular teacher gave him 6 of the best on his rear with a cane totally randomly. on brothers last day.
30 years later at a school reunion the teacher sought out my brother to ask for his forgiveness. Bro waited until the 40th reunion before forgiving him at which point the man wept.

Re: Who will teach the kids?

Unfortunately, the parents of such kids are in many cases part of the problem. No discipline in the home, often no consistent male role model in the home and an exaggerated protective instinct which forgives their children anything ("He may have murdered 5 people and raped that old lady but he's a good boy really!"). These are not the parents who would sit in on a lesson, these are the parents who would come to the school and attack the teachers for daring to "pick on" their poor innocent kids.

Re: Who will teach the kids?

Spot on MIck, the parents have much to answer for.
Philip Larkin , one time POet Laureate wrote.

- This Be The Verse

They **** you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

Re: Who will teach the kids?

Well it was good of your brother to forgive him, even if he did make him wait Robert.
I remember a particularly cruel teacher who seemed to take great pleasure out of whacking us kids, if it happened today the man would be locked up and rightly so.
One evening, long after I had left school, I was working late to finish a special job for my boss, just the boss in the shop and me in the workshop overlooking the shop counter, the teacher came in with his girlfriend and an engagement ring they had selected earlier in the day, the ring was a bit loose on her hand and she wanted it made a size smaller, the boss got on the intercom to me and asked me to come down and get the ring to size, I could already see the teacher and he looked up at me, he was shocked, I just smiled and said to the boss, "Sorry boss, I've already stayed past my time, it'll have to wait until tomorrow." Small revenge I know but it was very sweet to see the anger on teachers face, as he'd have to travel back to Waterford and back again to Dublin the next day.

Re: Who will teach the kids?

This may be focusing on the plight of teachers but as many have pointed out we have all come from a position of corporal punishment in our school days. If you don't believe in corporal punishment, and I don't, then what do you replace it with?

But lets remember that during our schooling there were teachers who never used corporal punishment and still controlled their classes even with disruptive kids - so what were their skills all those years back? Well they did of course have the final and ultimate threat - being sent to the headmaster which would have a corporal punishment option, but they often managed without this final solution.

There are many parents around the world who have never used corporal punishment on their own children but have still managed to bring up good kids.

controlling disruptive kids in class should not IMO be left to the remit of the teachers and principals but should be a total educational response and solution.

Schools have access to other services, psychologists, social workers etc etc and these should be utilized in a 'team' response to analyze the problem and find solutions.

There are also several 'disciplinary' special schools in UK were very disruptive kids can be sent. I have seen them in operation through documentaries - they deal with extremely disruptive kids but do NOT utilize corporal punishment. There are solutions out there.

Re: Who will teach the kids?

I taught in an EBD Unit for for two years in Kent - Emotionally and Behaviourally Disturbed - I was never sure whether 'Disturbed' was the right word - most of them were definitely not disturbed by their own behaviour!

However, it was an amazing experience. What it does teach you is not to generalise about the causes of challenging behaviour. These were the most challenging students from all the surrounding high schools. Some had been put in care as protection from physical and sexual abusive and/or criminal families. Some had diagnosable disabilities such as Tourettes, Aspergers, Autism and ADHD which manifest in challenging behaviour. Some came from dysfunctional homes where parents simply didn't know how to bring them up decently because they hadn't been either. A couple came from decent homes and had no diagnosable condition and there seemed no real explanation for their behaviour.

Teachers often have to deal with several of these types of students in one classroom along with all their other students who also cover a wide range of abilities and behaviours and they can't always get them into special units. It's asking too much of anyone. Teachers are only human.

Forget the "good old days" - they are gone. It's a different world out there now. Teachers do not wield the cane any more and probably never will again. That's in the past. Parents are not what they used to be - many of them defend their little darlings even when it's staring them in the face that they are guilty. The other day a friend of mine who is a Head in a country high school spent almost a whole day sorting out a boy and his mother - boy had been attacking another child and when caught by a tacher, got out his mobile phone, rang his mother and told her it was him who had been attacked and she came racing in to defend him despite there being several witnesses to the contrary. It wasted hours of that Head's day.

Schools are NOT like they were in "our day" and we need a whole community approach if anything is going to change. Although I am cynical about even that as there is such a huge difference in how many children are being brought up these days without any values or morals and the number of dysfunctional, drug and alcohol soaked families.