I resist criticising parents, because as one myself, I know that it’s not an easy job. Parents make mistakes, it’s just a fact of life. But some mistakes, parents just can’t afford to make. Shaming a ten year-old in the way that this mother does, takes a small problem and turns it into much larger one:
A Townsville mother has punished her son by making him sit in public wearing a sign that read, “Do not trust me. I will steal from you as I am a thief”.
The boy, who was also wearing a pair of Shrek ears and writing lines, spent almost an hour near a waterpark on Sunday while his family ate lunch nearby, the Townsville Bulletin reported.
Diane Mayers told the Bulletin that she was so “horrified” when she saw the boy, thought to be about 10, that she alerted Child Safety Services.
The former Child Safety Services worker said the long-term effects of the public humiliation would be greater than any form of physical abuse.
“A lot of people walked past and were laughing at him, including boys who would have been his age,” she said.
She said the parents had clearly put a lot of work into the punishment, with the boy wearing laminated signs on both his back and his front.
Ms Mayers told the Bulletin the boy took the Shrek ears off at one point when her daughter overheard the boy’s mother say, ‘Put them back on or I’ll smack your head in’.
That boy may never steal again, but does the punishment really fit the crime? Not even close.
Whilst I feel that the courts made the correct ruling, preventing an Indiana high school from punishing two girls for posting racy photos online, I applaud the school for trying to address the behaviour. This was clearly not a school issue and therefore not within their jurisdiction. This was something the parents of the two girls could either address or ignore. But what I like about this story is that a school cared enough about their reputation, setting an example of proper behaviour and helping those two girls reflect on their actions.
Two Indiana girls — one 16, one 15 — took racy photos of themselves at a slumber party and posted them online. When their high school found out, it suspended the girls from participating in a certain amount of their extracurricular activities. Can the school legally do that?
A federal district court in Fort Wayne, Ind., recently ruled that it cannot — because the punishment violated the girls’ First Amendment rights. The legal question of what rights students have to post provocative material on the Internet, and what rights schools have to restrict such postings, is still unsettled.
I hope schools become far more active on the subject of cyberbullying and cybersafety, two issues which are not clearly within the jurisdiction of schools. For too long schools have been only too happy to turn a blind eye to what their students do outside the school gates.
This was not the appropriate time to act but at least it wasn’t summarily ignored like so many other matters are.
Remember when quality time with another involved talking? Remember when a family dinner was a daily not twice yearly occasion? Well, times have changed and some think that the lack of real conversation between family and friends is quite acceptable and just a new feature in the era we live in.
Four in five parents described playing video games with their children as “quality time”, while 32 per cent of parents play computer games with their kids every day.
Many grandparents revealed that they play video games with their tech-savvy grandchildren, in a bid to get closer to them.
Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Reader in Psychology at Goldsmiths said: “These findings are important because they highlight the social benefits of playing videogames.
“Previous research has tended to look only at the individual effects of video games, but in the era of social networking games appear to play a vital role in enhancing social relationships. The fact that both parents and grandparents are using games to connect with their children and grandchildren, and quite successfully, suggests that video games can improve social skills and make a key contribution to both effective parenting and child development.
The social benefits of playing video games? Are you a doctor of psychology or a rep for Nintendo? Just because parents are resorting to these lengths in a bid to connect with their kids doesn’t mean that it’s the best way to communicate with them. You can spend hours every night playing Mario Bros. with your child and never begin to understand how they are feeling, what their troubles are and what excites them etc.
Imagine if dates consisted of smartphone operations and video game playing instead of dinner and romantic walks? How would that work? The answer is it wouldn’t, because people need to actually converse in order to connect.
I think in certain circumstances it would be a most valuable experience for teachers to visit the homes of their students. By doing this they will get a clearer picture about the environment in which that child lives in and unique aspects of their lifestyle.
The new chief of the Chicago public schools, Jean-Claude Brizard, suggested recently that teachers visit the homes of their students. Many people reacted to that badly, as math teacher Jason Kamras’s principal did when Kamras dropped in on his students’ apartments near Sousa Middle School in Southeast Washington.
The Sousa principal feared for his young teacher’s safety in a high-crime area. Kamras, however, found the visits invaluable. He understood his students better. Parents were more supportive. Now a D.C. schools official, Kamras is one of many educators who think unannounced visits can be worth the risk.
In the District, officials are looking at the possibility of home visits for elementary school students. The nonprofit Concentric Educational Solutions has been knocking on the doors of persistent truants for the past year. The group’s executive director and co-founder, David L. Heiber, said the visits would be even more effective if they occurred before students got into trouble. “Home visits by themselves do not correlate into academic achievement,” he said. “However, if done with academic goals and targets as the objectives, they do work.”
I commend Mr. Brizard for his brave and innovative suggestion and I’m disappointed it got so much backlash:
That thought is dismissed in many schools. Administrators such as Kamras’s principal see danger in some neighborhoods, and don’t think their staffs have the time or the energy for such after-school and weekend enterprises. “Teachers are overworked already,” Heiber said he has been told. He said administrators say that “our social workers only see our special needs students” or that “we are short staffed as it is.”
You don’t need me to tell you that it is unhealthy for preteens to target. I would go even further than that and say that it’s unhealthy for preteens to be fixated on their weight to begin with.
A book aimed at helping young children lose weight has outraged an eating disorder help group.
Maggie Goes on a Diet, aimed at 6 to 12 year olds, tells the story of an overweight girl who goes on a diet and goes on to become the school soccer star.
Its Hawaiian publishers pitch the book on their website as an inspirational tale for kids.
“Maggie has so much potential that has been hiding under her extra weight,” the website says.
Deb Schwarz, manager of Eating Difficulties Education Network (EDEN), a New Zealand not-for-profit organisation, says the book could have the opposite effect, and encourage eating disorders among children.
“Research shows poor body image is associated with depression, bullying, eating disorders, risk taking behaviours, and reduced physical activity. Messages like those in the book promote body dissatisfaction.”
She says there are concerns that dieting messages increase disordered eating in children.
This is another sad situation of literature published for the purpose of stirring controversy and making money at the expense of the vulnerable.
Being a father of a young girl with a nut allergy, I really hope that schools work hard to reduce the stigma of a child with anaphylaxis. It would be a shame if she was ostracised or treated differently because of the allergy. I personally am in awe of how she can deal with eating differently from her peers without so much as a whimper. She just accepts her lot and doesn’t let it get her down.
Children with potentially deadly nut allergies are being bullied for being different, say researchers.
And their parents are stigmatised as ‘neurotic and attention-seeking’ by other parents, they found.
Relatives of some victims of the condition are even suspected of deliberately giving a child nuts to check they really are allergic.
Overall, the impact of a nut allergy is so great that it could be considered a disability, the Leicester University researchers found.They interviewed 26 families from the Leicester area about their experiences.
Some children told how they were bullied by classmates, who taunted them about their allergy and threatened to trigger it.
What loving family member in their right mind would feed nuts to a child with a severe nut allergy to check if they are really allergic? And for those parents that think we are “too neurotic” about ensuring that our children are safe and not exposed to substances that can kill them, take a long walk down a short pier.
I don’t understand why parents can’t be subject to the kinds of consequences their children are for bullying and harassment. Parents who set up internet groups and Facebook pages to spread untruths about their childs’ teacher should be punished for their actions. Anything from a warning to in the most serious offences expulsion of their child from school is appropriate.
Some may think this is a bit harsh and that children should not be penalised for the deeds of their parents, but bullying is a very serious offence and schools that take it seriously reap the rewards by maintaining a safe environment. Schools are too dismissive of parents who bully teachers. Teachers often feel marginalised and lacking of support. The statement that bullying of any kind will result in strong penalties is essential to delivering the best outcomes from an academic and social standpoint.
Teachers are the latest group found to be at risk of cyber-bullying, according to a recent report.
The study by Professor Andy Phippen found several instances where teachers had been targeted for abuse by social media users on websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
One head teacher interviewed for the study said she had a breakdown and was left feeling suicidal.
The headteacher suffered a year of abuse by a parent at her school who used a Google group to post libellous untruths about her and her school. “I eventually had a mini breakdown in the summer holiday, needing an emergency doctor to be called out as I had become suicidal,” she told researchers.
The message should ring loud and clear – Either play by our rules or find somewhere else to send your kids!
I am in favour of schools playing a far more proactive role in dealing with cyberbullying and advocating privacy settings to protect against cyber stalkers, but spying on their students’ Facebook pages is not appropriate.
SCHOOLS are using internet monitoring companies to read what students are saying on social networking sites.
The typical service used by schools such as Ascham looks at any publicly available material posted on sites such as Facebook, Formspring and Tumblr to monitor the sometimes ferocious use of the media by young people.
Whilst schools often go into their shells when it comes to cyberbullying, spying on their students is an invasion of privacy. Instead of concerning themselves with publicly available material they should work harder to ensure their students have their privacy settings on.
This measure will do precious little to stop bullying. Bullies are much smarter than we give them credit for. They find ways to harass away from the watchful eyes of anyone that might punish them for their crimes.
Yet whilst this will do little to prevent bullying it will make the students even more negative about school and authority in general.
Teachers should stop being so precious about time wasted due to toilet breaks. Of course it’s not ideal to have children come in and out of the classroom from the toilet whilst you are teaching a skill or conducting a classroom discussion. I don’t doubt that students have the option in going at break times but choose not to, and they must learn to take those opportunities. I also know that some students use it as an excuse to leave the classroom whilst not needing to go to the toilet.
But ultimately, so what?
The frustrations listed above should never lead to an imposed trial which could result in children wetting themselves. I would rather have lessons impaired on a constant basis that have even one child wetting themself on account of a harsh rule I have introduced.
PARENTS are alarmed that children at a primary school in Melbourne’s east began wetting themselves after the school tested an approach that discouraged them from going to the toilet in class time.
In the Kew Primary School trial, which parents said was conducted without their knowledge, the entire class would go to the toilet if one child needed to go during a lesson.
One mother, who asked not to be named, said she first became aware of the trial when her child wet herself at the front door. ”I said, ‘What happened? She said, ‘I’m holding on, I didn’t want the whole class to have to come with me to the toilet.’ At first when she told me the rule I disbelieved her.”
Another mother took her high-achieving child to the doctor after she wet herself twice at home.
”She hasn’t done this since she was three,” the mother said. ”There was a kind of ripple effect where parents slowly became aware of changes in their children. Children were complaining of headaches, they were constipated, they weren’t drinking water and were coming home with full drink bottles.”
A group of parents wrote to Kew Primary principal Kim Dray, expressing their concern about the trial and citing medical research about the impact of constipation on children.
In an email, obtained by The Age, Dr Dray said the ”whole class” method of toilet break supervision was ”used successfully by some other schools” and was being tested by some classes.
”Team leaders met at the end of last week to discuss the trialled approaches, and although you may find this surprising, some commented on a decrease in disruption to class lessons, especially in senior and specialist classes,” she wrote.
Below are two clips from a film made by Australia’s behaviour management guru, Bill Rogers. I think all teacher’s will find this useful regardless of experience.
Clip 1
Clip 2
Please share these clips with your colleagues. I’ve attended a Bill Rogers seminar and found it very useful.
Topical Teaching 