Punishing the whole class for the actions of one student

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

If your class doesn't punish the offender itself (with some sort or social punishment, ostracism/exclusion/insults) after the teacher's punishment is over then that's on your class. The reason it isn't working is because you're making it not work.

The teacher cannot let a misdeed go unpunished, and if no one comes forward or is grassed up then no other option is left. The rest of the class is supposed to be pissed at the offender and dish out its own punishment after the fact.

Except that's not ever how it works. Instead all the kids are pisses at the teacher. Remember that the teacher is always the "other" when it comes to kids. So the kids will solidify in a position against the teacher.

Yeah that is how works a lot of the time. In fact I"m going to go out on a limb here and say that's how it works most of the time. The teacher is a perinatal figure. The fact they're "above" you in that way makes the fact they're an "other" meaningless. You can't "fight" against someone who is "above" you. You can "fight" your peers.

Oh yes you can. My second, second grade teacher* liked to punish everyone in the class every time anyone did anything wrong. This even happened in cases when she knew who the one, or group of original perpetrators was. What ended up happening to her was the entire class made her life a living hell by breaking all the rules, refusing to do class work, and being impossible to manage. This happened to her for like 5 or 6 years before they finally moved her to an administrative out of class room position, where she also sucked at the job. Then when we got the new superintendent of the district, he took half a year of working at it to finally fire her ass. But the lesson here is that yes you can fight someone who is "above" you, especially when they're a teacher who is an idiot and incompetent in their job.

*I had to redo the end of second grade because I was sick and out of school for 2/3rds of third grade from the beginning of the year. Infected appendix that I had to bulk up after getting rid of the infection, before the appendectomy was even possible.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

It's a great psychological tool. Basically it makes the issue the problem of the entire population and lets them know. If you know and do not come forward you are as guilty as those that did it. How willing are you to suffer for someone else's actions.

Except in most schools you'll probably suffer far worse if you get a reputation as a snitch...

I know this particular punishment was a favourite of some of my teachers in secondary school. I don't remember anybody coming forward, ever. The only time anybody ever gave a name to the teachers, it was a popular kid who had no risk of being socially ostracised, blaming it on somebody they didn't like. Overall all it did was make us hate the teachers.

 

[MonsterCrit]

It's a great psychological tool. Basically it makes the issue the problem of the entire population and lets them know. If you know and do not come forward you are as guilty as those that did it. How willing are you to suffer for someone else's actions.

Except in most schools you'll probably suffer far worse if you get a reputation as a snitch...

I know this particular punishment was a favourite of some of my teachers in secondary school. I don't remember anybody coming forward, ever. The only time anybody ever gave a name to the teachers, it was a popular kid who had no risk of being socially ostracised, blaming it on somebody they didn't like. Overall all it did was make us hate the teachers.

Yup and that's the third lesson it teaches. For all the talk about honesty and doing the right thing... doing such only makes your life more difficult and invariably miserable

 

[Someone Depressing]

I remember fondly in highschool when someone got the top of their desk knocked off - it had been broken for years, and the frame was separate from the actual finished wood - by two people toy fighting next to them.

So we all got our desks taken away from us. We had to use each others' backs to write our units, but the teachers didn't allow that because "it would have evaded the punishment".

Punishment for what? Existing as a life form close to where a thing happened? What kind of bullshit planet did you come from? How have you replicated the human iconography?

 

[sageoftruth]

Well, I can't say that I've truly experienced it, but it often feels like it when I'm in chorus rehearsal. One mistake from any of the 30 people in my chorus and we have to sing the part over, and over, and over until everyone gets it right. Singing is fun, but repeating the same 2-3 measures over and over feels more like debugging than performing.

 

[sageoftruth]

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