When Did Our Teachers Become Pansies?

[Sporky111]

It's because teachers aren't allowed to any more. There's always those dumb-shit parents who make the world revolve around their kid, who will file a lawsuit at any "injustice" just because their little angel was punished. Makes me sick, because nobody respects teachers anymore.

Actually, I should give an example from today to cheer us all up. One teacher in my school runs the industrial arts shop. And it is undeniably his shop and nobody can touch him as long as he keeps the kids safe.

So, today somebody left a paint can unsealed and the next person to use it dumped it all over the floor and counter by mistake. He knows that the person who did it is one of the usual slackers, but they won't talk. So, on monday he's going to take the whole clique (four of them) and make them repaint the entire paint room white.

Give the man a medal. Seriously do it. I don't care if it's a flattened pop can with ribbons he and all teachers who try to do their jobs properly deserve them.

Yeah, he is a hero among teachers. It's good that we have him too, because most of the other teachers are either young-and-clueless or old-and-don't-give-a-shit-anymore.

Most teachers equate "yelling" to "authority" and that is about as wrong as it can get. If they can pull it off and be intimidating, good, but if not go for just discipline. You need the respect of the kids more than anything.

 

[DerpyDerpyDerp]

Part of the reason is tenure. With some tenure laws after so many years the teachers more or less become immune to firing unless they overtly break the law so they don't have to care how their students act or what they learn.

Another part of it is indeed the threats from even speaking up to certain children. Part of this can be handled by keeping in semi-constant contact with the parents about their child's behavior and progress so they feel like they know you and understand what is going on a little better. However, with the limited pay and obnoxious amount of work, most teachers don't have the time or don't want to bother with remaining in contact with so many parents.

Another part is that a lot of the new teaching movement pushes the ideas of not raising your voice or being threatening. They believe a brief period of strictness on rules at the start will keep the class in perfect upkeep for the rest of the year.

etc, etc

 

[Belgian_Waffles]

My history teacher takes no shit from anyone,
This guy in my class was talking about how "gay" drama was and he threw his ass out and he's still not welcome back in.
It's a shame he's the only teacher in my high school with any balls left.

 

[Dags90]

I'm curious as to what extent people believe teachers should parent their pupils.

 

[Blatherscythe]

Depends where you live.

I'm a teacher, and my hands were quite literally tied. I wasn't ALLOWED to enforce shit in my classroom. The extent of the discipline I was permitted to carry out was detentions (to which a kid would oftentimes not even show up) or call the parents (who didn't even answer or give a shit 80% of the time). All the while the administration adopted a "you deal with it and stop bothering us" attitude.

You know we're not even allowed to fail students under the current system? I've had grade 11's that can scarcely read or write properly.

I don't work in the youth sector anymore. I was sick of the governmental bull.

Yeah I'm aware that a student cannot offically fail anymore, you have to give at least a 50%. That's bullshit and I'm glad you got out with your sanity.

wait wait wait. Its impossible to fail? What is teh motivation to do good at school then. a reward undeserved is a wasted reward.

Yeah even on PAT's you get a 50%, even if you write one word, even if you only answered one question. That just makes a fifty a failure.

 

[Kaymish]

I remember in school we had various teachers with varying amounts of control.
In chemistry we walked around and were relaxed but we still got most of the learning done.
In maths it was a disaster sort of like in the OP .
And in biology our teacher threw white board dusters at people who stepped out of line.
I cant remember Ethics but i did manage to pass with 80% some how i think it was because knowledge was seeping in as i slept.

EDIT:an addition
we can still fail here in New Zealand except its called not achieved not being able to fail undermines the whole system and is a school policy problem perhaps you should talk to the education ministry about it and see if they can change the policy or get the to correct you if you are wrong

 

[Lunar Shadow]

Probably when it became illegal to smack them with a ruler

I will be quite honest: Try to smack me with a ruler and you're spitting teeth. And I am a pacifist. (granted because I have had self defense ingrained into me from an early age and it would be almost pure reflex, yay for having a former spec ops for a father) Now imagine someone who isn't so worried about harming others and you are looking at an injured person, be it the kid or the teacher.

Corporal punishment would only achieve a hostile learning environment. Using violence as discipline does not work, and is would only engender hatred. This hatred would cause most minds to turn towards vengeance, rather than reform. I do want to clarify that I am not including something like lightly slapping the back of a hand to discourage reaching for a hot stove or something (this is with very little children), but even that has to follow up with an explanation.

When I say smacking with a ruler, I mean how teachers used to put the child's hand on the desk and smack it. Not hitting them in the face or anything like that.

There's a difference between physical discipline and violence. Violence is done in anger/hatred/rage, and nothing should ever be done to anyone in violence. I am an example of correctly administered physical discipline, which is done in love and with the child's safety and well-being in mind, teaching the child what they did wrong and why it was wrong. There's nothing wrong with physical discipline to teach. Some things are bad enough to warrant pain for the consequence to equal the action. Now, I can't deny that a lot of parents go beyond discipline and into violence, but that is the parent's fault. Proverbs 13:24, 22:15, 23:13-14, 29:15

I know from experience that one good spanking is worth a hundred scoldings.

And in my experience, it never worked. It just thoroughly pissed me off. I was never physically discipline, this includes spankings. I have only ever been scolded with privileges taken away. And guess what? It worked. What I did wrong was also explained to me, so that I learned what I did was wrong rather then associating certain acts with fear of punishment. Instilling fear of punishment only leads to tryin to not get caught. And I knew what you meant about smacking with a ruler, doesn't change that I would just dodge/block and neutralize.

Say what you will about Southerners, but the teachers I had never had to do much to control the class. And I went to a public school in the heart of the ghetto.

 

[GeorgeLopezFnarr]

Damn imagine that. Kid's being kids. What kind of ghetto-ass-school do you go to if kids are listening to their ipods and texting in class? Ha

 

[conflictofinterests]

It's a give-and-take thing.

It's hard to have REAL learning occur in a place that is governed, as you say, in a "sit down and shut up" manner. (I for one have taken a liking to being a thorn in the side of any teacher that takes this attitude towards me and goes on to contradict his or herself mid-lecture, or even mid-sentence).

It's also hard to have ANY SEMBLANCE of learning when the kids don't care a goddamn bit about what you're trying to teach, so "sit down, shut up" environments are almost requisite.

The root of the problem is generating interest in learning. If people want to learn, whether they're five or fifty, they're going to exclude the people who want to disrupt automatically. Sadly, until you get to College level, the ratio of clowns to scholars is pretty unfavorable.

 

[Reolus]

I'm a teacher - I can think of a few reasons:

1. Parents and Governments believe that by regulating what the teacher can and cannot do, that will help shape and develop the students. Rather than working *with* the teacher, some parents are happy to have an inconsistent home life and issue demands to the classroom teacher.

2. Too many people have a say in how a teacher should act. The conflict of opinions and the rapiditiy in which they are changed is staggering. Consistency and fairness are the cornerstones of effective discipline and there can be very little success without them.

3. Behaviour Management is a big factor in being a teacher - and some simply have it, while others don't. While I am not simply sweeping this issue under the rug - all I am saying is that even without the external factors which effect teachers, there are some internal factors as well.

Actually, I'd be interested to know if there is a correlation between behaviour management and teachers who have children of their own.

 

[SirDeadly]

There's only about 5 teachers in my entire school that we respect, the rest have no control over their classes

 

[ImSkeletor]

It's a little thing I hate called "political correctness." People can sue teachers for a myriad of fucktarded reasons, like if you discipline a black kid sometimes the parents will say it's cause he's black.

Not trying to be racist if you see that, I'm just saying the way it is.

A+ point right there. Political correctness screws up everything. A kid from the majority race is punished while the kid from the minority is not for doing THE SAME THING.

 

[wkrepelin]

American kids are rotten shits that are almost impossible to deal with. I know I was and it's only gotten worse. We have a problem in this country where people are told from a young age that they are special, unique and can do anything if they put their minds to it. That develops the sense of the individual being important instead of society being important. What we should tell are kids is "Your average, the whole is more important than the individual and if you don't work really hard then your going to be a greater at Wal-Mart".

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

It's called lawsuits. People are bitches and they don't like it when there kids come crying home because they can't take a lil yelling to the face!

Or something like that is my guess.

A government institution doesn't need to enforce discipline, that is my job! That is my job to totally ignore. But if you dare to punish my kid under any circumstances without my hard to get consent, I'll sue your ass!

This attitude may be the demise of human civilization. Think of what will happen eight generations later.

[HEADING=3]Aliens attack Earth and destroy South America!!! Millions are killed![/HEADING]

"Mom, call the lawyers! Those mean aliens hurt my feelings!"

 

[Caligulove]

Mostly because parents who think their child is special, and are willing to drastically exaggerate their issues to deans and other people in charge to punish anyone who makes their kid feel bad or some shit.

Kids aren't special right out of the gate. School is where you discover whose special, the ones who excel.
Thats what should be reinforced. That and power for teachers to remove students who show no interest or show no work ethic

 

[Nick of Blades]

A social Studies teacher at my old school doesn't care what parents think. He carries around a golf club, throws student's objects out his second story window (which he disabled the suicide lock), and calls kids dumbasses and retards (although, only when they are actually being stupid). He's a crazy old man.

Hell, he sounds like a teacher I could get along with.

 

[Sparcrypt]

Its because when the teachers DO anything they're in trouble. I have some friends who teach at a private school and they can't do any of the following:

Can't hit (physical abuse)
Can't yell (verbal abuse)
Can't make them stand in a corner or otherwise punish them (emotional abuse)

They can ring their parents and ASK the parents for permission to give their kids detention after school (can't do it during lunch/break times cause it might negatively impact their ability to work). Guess how many parents want to come get their kids after school when they're trying to cook/work/whatever? Yeah.

With some of the kids, you can talk to them when they've done something wrong and make them see that they shouldnt behave like that.. but many kids know that teachers can basically do nothing to them and act accordingly.

 

[Zorg Machine]

Because the people who become teachers usually do it because they like children. There are ways other than beating a child to get his/her attention. My school (a montessori school, google it)most of the teachers were nice "pansies" as you put it, and they had a special system where they had one teacher who was responsible for the kids who don't do anything. Anyway, it's hard to explain this school system as most people have little, if any faith in the fact that children (age 12+) have the ability to be responsible and plan their studies without much help from adults.

 

[ace_of_something]

Administration, Districts, and Parents are what has caused the problem. Not teachers. They're hands are tied. This is part of the reason why the turnover rate for teachers in the USA has steadily gone up.

 

[Custard_Angel]

Depending on where you live, teachers from the old days had a relatively free ride through university/college. That meant just about anybody could become a teacher, including those who really shouldn't have become teachers. This meant there was a mixed bag of teachers and they could fit any sort of background.

These days, because of costs and study requirements etc. it's only people that really want to become teachers, that are teachers. Meaning there is a large contingent of humanities centered, equal opportunitists who want nothing more than to brighten their students days with flowers and the Dalai Lama.

Fuck that. My favorite teachers were the ones that noticeably hated kids. My worst ones were teachers who told us all about refugees and shit... I developed a conditioned "not give a shit" attitude because of those teachers...