Yesterday I posted a distressing video showing a teacher being bullied and humiliated by a gang of students. Unfortunately, this behaviour has become more frequent by the year and the perpetrators are getting younger too:
Children as young as four have violently attacked their teachers, new figures suggest.
In one instance, a nursery school teacher was reportedly smacked, kicked and headbutted by a child in Walsall, West Midlands.
Elsewhere, it is claimed a pupil punched and headbutted a staff member after grabbing them by the neck in Houndslow, West London.
One teacher in Derby was stabbed in the arm with a pencil, according to reports.
Teachers across the country were scratched kicked and even bitten by children they were attempting to control, The Sun on Sunday has reported.
Figures published by the newspaper suggested that children as young as four have violently assaulted teachers 21,000 times in the past two years.
On average, there are 55 assaults in school per day.
In the 2011/12 academic year there were 10,000 attacks in classrooms while in 2012/13 there were 10,750.
The figures were obtained from 70 local authorities in England and Wales by the newspaper via a Freedom of Information Act.
A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘Teachers have more power than ever to maintain discipline.’
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Tags: Blaming parents for disruptive and violent children, Bullying Teachers, Education, kicked and headbutted, News, pupil punched and headbutted a staff member, teacher stabbed in the arm with a pencil, teacher was reportedly smacked, Teachers Stress, violence against teachers, violently attacked their teachers
Topical Teaching 
December 16, 2013 at 6:17 am |
Does this mean children, in general, are becoming more vicious? Or are we seeing a symptom that not all is well in our education system?
When I began teaching this phenomenon was relatively rare to the extent that it was unheard of. What has changed? Corporal punishment has been largely abolished. This development was supposed to stop the encouragement of violence. Whatever one believes about corporal punishment it cannot be denied that it served to clearly mark boundaries which students shouldn’t cross. That being said I don’t think the abolition of corporal punishment is relevant. In my experience it was quite rare even when permissible.
What has changed is the general attitude towards the teaching profession. Teachers have to train longer and are given a politically inspired, rather than educationally inspired program of training. They are not as well trained over 4 years as they used to be over two years.
When teachers were respected professionally by the employing authorities they were more respected generally by the community. Now they are more prone to bullying by the employing authorities running an agenda which is politically driven.
The curriculum has changed. It no longer takes into account the level of children’s cognitive development but is designed to teach more faster. A lot of what is dished up for children today may be likened to the force feeding of a goose. I believe there may be a condition which I call “cognitive indigestion”. If what a child is expected to learn, what a teacher is expected to teach, is inappropriate for the child’s level of cognitive development there will be consequences. I believe increases in violence and disruption in schools is down to this more than any other factor.
Why do teachers attempt to teach that which is cognitively inappropriate? They have no choice in the matter and this is another thing that has changed. Not only is the curriculum wrong it is more vigorously enforced and teachers have no control over it. I have seen frustrated teachers struggling to get a concept across and failing because it is too difficult for the children at their current level of cognitive development. Wait a year or two and the children would get it naturally. Teachers don’t have that option so rather than continue to flog a dead horse they end up telling the children the “right” answers just for the sake of closure.
When teachers had more control over what they taught and how they taught it can be likened to lubricated machinery. Where the machinery is not lubricated friction inevitably occurs and breakdowns become more common.
December 17, 2013 at 12:39 am |
Brilliant comment! I absolutely agree!