SCHOOL DISCIPLINE
In talking
to teachers today, I wonder how they are able to control their students. It seems they are unable to get students
attention the way they did when I was in school. Yelling or “Losing one’s temper” is subject
to the teacher being disciplined. Sending
a letter home might bring a visit from an enraged parent more often than it
would enlist the discipline assistance from the parent.
I hear
stories of students laughing in the face of today’s teachers. Kids dress inappropriately, and use
inappropriate language. They text during
class, smoke during breaks, and drink or do drugs at lunch. Teachers don’t even have a smoking lounge for
themselves anymore.
When I was
in school, teachers had the power to make our life miserable and as a result we
(usually) behaved. A letter to your
parents would result in massive punishment.
Parents assumed the teacher was never wrong.
If you wore
inappropriate clothes (inappropriate was what they said was inappropriate, “You
know very well what’s wrong with that shirt young man!”) you would be sent
home. If you swore you would stay after
school. If you talked back to the
teacher you would face suspension. Any
of these punishments today is liable to bring a lawsuit against the teacher,
the school district and the town.
Teachers
found several ways to discourage talking in class. Mrs. Brown, the music teacher would start to
cry. Miss Gromlick was a light switch
switcher; on off, on off, until you shut up or got a headache.
The male
teachers were the scariest.
Mr. Khoury,
the Physiography (rocks) teacher and football coach had a stare that nobody
dared challenge. He would grab the
podium with both hands, glare at the entire class for three seconds and then in
a stern, clipped, but calm voice, simply say, “Stop talking.”
You could
hear crickets in the winter.
Mr. Dunham
was a thrower. If there was talking
while he was working on the blackboard, back to the class he would whirl around
and fling a piece of chalk on a rope six inches above the head of the
offender. The chalk would smack against
the wall and explode and the room would fall silent…end of problem.
His chalk
accuracy was legendary.
Mr. Frank
also spoke no words to get the classes attention. Mr. Frank a mild mannered man would go red in
the face, grab an empty desk from the front row, and lift/slam it to the floor
three times. Quiet ensued.
Mr. Hopkins
my English teacher would barely break stride in quelling a problem.
In mid lecture he would calmly and quietly tell a student to leave.
“And so if you are qualifying an action,
Mr. Higgins please leave the room, it is an adverb.”
“Yo, where do you want me to go?”
“I do not care where you go Mr.
Higgins, you are interrupting my classroom, please leave.”
There was
nowhere a student could go during class hours without getting in big
trouble. Going to the principal’s office
was the only choice and that was not good.
“Ah can I stay, I’ll be quiet?”
“Class, should we let Mr. Higgins
stay just this once?”
In unison,
“Yes Mr. Hopkins.”
“And if a word describes a person or
an object it is called an… Mr. Higgins?”
When
teachers did not fear lawsuits, when teachers had real punishment options that
they could hand out, when teachers had the backing of their supervisors and the
parents, they had the respect of their students. You cannot teach without students respect.
Somehow
today’s teachers manage, I have no idea how.
Twenty years ago, I taught in a school where discipline was a joke, but I was the queen of my classroom and therefore did okay. We got a new shop teacher one year - a huge man. He came into my classroom after school one day and went on a rant about the discipline. He said, "We are toothless tigers in a zoo full of animals. We can go around roaring, but the other animals know we have no teeth." It has gone downhill even more in the 20 years since.
ReplyDeleteI remember the days when the lads were cained at school for mis-behaving. I also remember our maths teacher that had a small cricket bat and he used to smack girls and boys equally on the behind when necessary (Now that I think about it, he was probably a bit of a perv but at the time seemed innocent enough).
ReplyDeleteYou are not allowed to touch kids here is South Africa anymore - I assume it is very much the same throughout the rest of the world.
I checked my granddaughter's chat's with a friend. They bragged about texting during class. My granddaughter's cell phone went back to the phone store. They even paid me for it.
ReplyDeleteWow, isn't that the truth. I don't even like walking in the high schools anymore. They just feel, evil. I had a few teachers like you. Not to mention the vice principle. Yikes
ReplyDeleteAnother home run Big Joe. You darn right we respected our teachers! The options to NOT respecting them were too scary to think about.
ReplyDeleteI remember early in one school year I went to "meet the teacher night" with my daughter. I discreetly told her that if "E" didn't behave to just let me know and I'd have a "come to Jesus meeting" with her. The next day she told the other teachers that we were very religious and would get Jesus involved if "E" acted up. ;)
S
I'm gonna stick my neck out here and say that it isn't only in school now.
ReplyDeleteThis has come over into everyday society.
Miscreants can't even be kept in jail because there isn't any room.
There are no longer any consequences for misdeeds unless they are serious felonies.
i don't know how they come out alive each day, actually. so very sad.
ReplyDeleteI remember those days! I had a business teacher in high school, Mrs. Whitman, who would stand in front of the class and purse her lips and we would all quiet down. She had us all at the stern-look- on-her-very-wrinkled face.
ReplyDeleteSome teachers just have the ability to command respect and attention, just by walking in the room. Others, not so much. I remember the swats in school and how being called in to the principals office for anything bad, meant you did not want to go home that night and get it again even worse.
ReplyDeleteNow if you get suspended it just means you get to stay home, surfing the web and playing WoW or other such 'games'.
It's not punishment at all, it's a flippin vacation!
I remember the fear of bringing home a note from the teacher--our parents would punish us even more!! The teacher was NEVER wrong.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. In my day, which really wasn't that long ago. In high school I was spanked many times. I think I would have liked the"Thrower" teacher.
ReplyDeleteThere was a stabbing at my daughter;s primary school.
ReplyDeleteShe was bullied for 6 months.
One child took an entire class into "no work" hostage for a whole year, as the teachers had no way of preventing his behaviour.
The Principal would often take the very naughty boys out for a hot chocolate and a chat, if they got sent to the office too many times.
Discipline now resides entirely upon the parents instilling respect while the children are young enough to be impresionable. And they are expected to do this without any sort of parenting or discipline training.
It won't last. This generation of children will be the law changers at some point and they will kick up a fuss when THEIR children misbehave, because they have been taught to consider themselves the centre of the world.
Except mine, of course. ;-)
It's sad that what you say is true. Teachers don't get any respect/ I taught for a dozen years at the college level but I had leverage since students were paying for their classes.
ReplyDeleteIf I was ever going to teach, I would teach Kindergarten or 1st grade. They are still sweet at that age. I volunteer in my son's Kindergarten class once a week, and the teacher has complete control of that classroom. Those who behave get a yellow "pass" to pick from the prize box at the end of the week. To NOT pick from the prize box...well, that would be a shame. They ALL act well and do their best in class so that they won't be left out from picking from the prize box.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day, my sixth grade teacher yanked a mouthy girl out of her desk by the hair. Well, not all the way. Mrs. Mac just kept lifting her up while her legs hit the bottom of the one-piece flip-top desk. I suppose her arm got tired, because she stopped, and Mouthy behaved for a week or two.
ReplyDeleteThere were no hard feelings. Mouthy knew she deserved it. She was not scarred for life, and was, in fact, relieved that she avoided a trip to the principal's office. She did not hold a grudge. Mrs. Mac got her desired result for a short time. Today, Mrs. Mac would be doing hard time, and Mouthy would be headed for a life of crime.