Posts Tagged ‘Parenting’

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Calls To Allow Teachers To Use “Reasonable Force” on Students

July 13, 2011

Students should never be physically disciplined under any circumstances.  Whilst a majority of teachers care very much for the wellbeing of their students, there are teachers around who are more concerned with quiet compliant classrooms than the needs of their pupils.  Giving these teachers the opportunity to use force is asking for trouble.

Telegraph journalist, Bertie O’Brien disagrees:

Here’s hoping that the Government’s plans to allow teachers to use “reasonable force” to control disorderly pupils in the classroom is the beginning of a turnaround in our society. The culture of child protectionism – developed in tandem with health and safety and political correctness – is preventing children from entering the professional world as well-developed adults.

It’s about time teachers were lawfully allowed to regain control over pupils. Let’s get back to the purpose of being young: becoming a well-rounded adult, not having a good laugh or being “empowered”. Young people have to learn to lose out sometimes, and to follow orders. It is necessary that they learn to live in a world which won’t continue to worship them when they do grow up.

What does “reasonable force” mean anyway?  What is reasonable for one teacher may not be reasonable for other sections of society.

The argument that corporal punishment will help students become well-rounded adults is plain wrong.  Teachers help their students become well-rounded by understanding, connecting and appreciating their students, by setting a good example and high but fair expectations, imposing fair and consistent consequences, making their lessons engaging, fostering their students’ talents, creativity, critical thinking and independence as well as offering support and guidance.

I bet any teacher wishing to inflict corporal punishment on their students has in fact failed their students.  I would encourage them to spend less time worrying about using reasonable force and instead concentrate on their own performance.

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Posted in Corporal Punishment | Leave a Comment »

Losing Custody of Your Kids Because of Obesity is a Disgusting Thought

July 13, 2011

Shame on you David Ludwig for making a conclusion that belies all common sense and sensitivity.  How can you justify the idea of taking children away from their parents because of their obesity?  How is such a move in the best interest of the child?

Should parents lose custody of their kids if they get too fat?

A commentary in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association says yes.

Harvard obesity specialist David Ludwig says putting children in temporary foster care can be more ethical than providing weight-loss surgery – but only in extreme cases.

Ludwig says the point is not to punish the parents – but to act in the child’s best interest, and provide care that the parents do not or cannot provide.

Ludwig says the goal is to get those kids back to their parents as soon as possible – and for parents to learn the proper ways to prevent future obesity.

There have previous calls for government intervention, in cases where parents either neglect or refuse proper efforts to control a child’s extreme weight.

A doctor from London cited a Wisconsin case from 2009 in which a 440-pound 16-year-old almost died at UW Hospital in Madison.

Doctors had talked about reporting the parents for neglect – but they didn’t have to, because the girl later lost 100 pounds with her family’s help.

The Journal article comes a week after an annual study reported that 27-percent of Wisconsin adults are obese.

This method will further punish a child with enough to contend with as it is.  No parent wants their child to be obese.  Yes, some do more than others to avoid obesity, but that doesn’t mean that they are not loving and caring parents.  Many of them, as reported, suffer from obesity themselves.

As a society we must learn to support rather than threaten.  The child’s welfare does not rely on just a loss of weight but also the continued love and support from their parents.  We must not fingerpoint or punish parents for obesity.  It won’t help one bit.  Instead we must offer as much support, education and guidance as we can to ensure that families are able to pass up cheap calorie laden products for the more expensive, yet far more healthy alternatives.

 

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Posted in Childhood Obesity, Parenting | Leave a Comment »

Some Principals Seem to Be Ignorant About Bullying

July 11, 2011

Pricipals are concerned that parents use the “bully” label too quickly, without properly understanding what a “bully” is.  They believe that parents often get “bratty” behaviours mixed up with bullying ones.

BRATTY students are being unfairly branded bullies by parents and teachers who do not know the meaning of the word, according to a Victorian educator.

Peter Hockey, head of Beaconhills College junior school, said the word “bully” was overused and victims of schoolyard nastiness should harden up.

“Rather than just say, ‘Well that person is a bully and that person is a victim’, we need to empower children to stand up and confront these people who are being nasty,” Mr Hockey said.

“I don’t like to say ‘toughen up’, but they need to be taught to argue back or stand up for what they believe is right, explain themselves more fully or use humour or whatever other skills they have.”

Sure, resilience is a valuable skill and one worth advocating, but Mr. Hockey’s approach sounds defeatist to me.  Harassed students shouldn’t need to stand up for themselves, they should have support from teachers and school administrators (including Principals).  Students will naturally “toughen up” when they have the support of others.  When they’re left on their own, they often fail to properly assert themselves.

 

The veteran educator said the correct definition of a bully was “a person who is habitually cruel to others who are weaker”.

Mr Hockey said he had only encountered a handful of bullies in his 36 years of teaching.

“I have taught many children who have been nasty to others, but these children are not bullies,” Mr Hockey said.

“They are very often simply being nasty because they have been hurt by a situation, or they are being selfish or are responding to an earlier problem.”

He said most “nasty” children could be taught to be nice, while bullies were born bad.

That’s just nonsense Mr. Hockey.  “Born bad”?  Bullies don’t need to be born bad, they just need to harass, torment or seek to undermine others.

 

“To label a child a bully who has made the mistake of being nasty is wrong,” Mr Hockey said.

“Nasty and naughty behaviour is fixable and we must educate all not to engage in this sort of behaviour.”

Are you saying that “bullies” are not “fixable”?

 

At the end of the day, these labels are irrelevant.  What really matters is that those students who are negatively affected by others are given the support they need and those that recklessly hurt others get the consequences they deserve.

 

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Education on Climate Change, Not Scare Tactics

July 10, 2011

No matter how strongly teachers may feel on the subject of climate change, there is no place for scare tactics in a Primary classroom.

PRIMARY school children are being terrified by lessons claiming climate change will bring “death, injury and destruction” to the world unless they take action.

On the eve of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s carbon tax package announcement, psychologists and scientists said the lessons were alarmist, created unneeded anxiety among school children and endangered their mental health.

Climate change as a “Doomsday scenario” is being taught in classrooms across Australia.

Resource material produced by the Gillard government for primary school teachers and students states climate change will cause “devastating disasters”.

Australian National University’s Centre for the Public Awareness of Science director Dr Sue Stocklmayer said climate change had been portrayed as “Doomsday scenarios with no way out”.

The fear campaign must stop.  It is a manipulative and immature tactic by a desperate Government.  Our job as educators is to empower and motivate not scare our students senseless.

I refuse to teach Government resource material that has the potential to frighten my students.

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Posted in Child Welfare | 3 Comments »

Kids Are Addicted to the Internet

July 4, 2011

If kids are addicted to internet, Facebook and Twitter, it’s not as if their parents have no options. Reading about how fearful parents are about theeffects of their children’s addictions, I couldn’t help but wonder why they felt so powerless.

A third of all UK parents believe that their children are in danger from the internet and 80 per cent think it is possible to become addicted to social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, a new study suggests. It also found that a third of parents even believe that the web can “rewire” a person’s brain.

Internet charity the Nominet Trust, who commissioned the research, say there is no evidence that social networks are harmful in themselves, and that there is no neurological evidence of the web changing brains.

Facebook and Twitter, they suggested, usually in fact reinforce existing friendships, while even playing video games has been show to improve coordination and ‘visual processing skills’.

Parents can take control over their children’s internet access.  Some recommendations include:

  • Capping time on the internet
  • No internet access in their bedrooms
  • Ensuring that they do not have a Facebook page if they are under 13.
  • Imposing strict bedtimes.

If you do not hinder access to the web and have no rules or involvement in how it is used, you have something to worry about.  This addiction is very real and requires a proactive response.

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Posted in Parenting, Social Media, Technology | Leave a Comment »

Teachers Are Not Their Students’ Parents

July 3, 2011

A teacher defends kissing, cuddling and touching the behind of a female student by claiming that is the way he treats his own children.  And how did the authorities respond to this pathetic defense of an indefensible action?  They bought it hook, line and sinker.

A TEACHER who kissed and cuddled a schoolgirl defended himself by saying that was how he treated his own children. Jeffrey Cave, who taught at Willows Primary School, in Basildon, also pulled a boy’s hair and then told him that was how “teachers used to handle misbehaving pupils”.

He was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and has been reprimanded by the General Teaching Council.

Mr Cave touched a girl pupil on her bottom over her clothing, allowed her to sit on his lap, kissed her head and cuddled her.

Mr Cave admitted in his witness statement kissing her head and cuddling her, but said that was the same way he showed affection to his own children.

He said during police interview he stroked the pupil’s bottom over clothing in a downwards motion to test if her trousers were dry.

The hearing heard Cave. who has had a clean professional history for 26 years. was going through a period of personal stress at the time of the incidents, and his actions were not sexually motivated.

I have no doubt that the soft “reprimand” response came about from his defense.  Their soft ruling sends a very bad message.  The public must be reasuured that teachers can not in any way show affection to students in the same way as parents do.  I am a parent too, but I have no right to treat my students like my children.

My message to all male teachers is to avoid being in a room alone with a student, act with professionalism and integrity at all times and keep your hands to yourself.

They are not your children, they are someone elses.

 

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Posted in Professional Conduct | 4 Comments »

Maths Lessons Should be “Toughened Up”: Gove

June 30, 2011

Michael Gove might think that rigorous daily and weekly testing in maths is the answer, but my experience tells me that testing doesn’t work for all types of students.  There are some students that lift their game when tested.  Their competitive juices get going, and their drive to get a good grade is palpable.  Then there are students who need to learn in a less pressurised and more r
elaxed setting.  They freeze during formal testing, but progress extremely well when the focus is on the skill or concept rather than the grade.

Michael Gove disagrees:

All primary school children should be given daily maths lessons and weekly tests to stop pupils falling behind those from the Far East, Michael Gove suggested today. 

Mr Gove said schools should also “bear in mind” a system used in Shanghai where pupils have daily maths lessons and regular tests to “make sure that all children are learning the basics”.

What disappoints me as a Primary Maths teacher, is that in the quest for better results the focus becomes testing instead of engagement.  I believe that Maths can be taught in a turgid and lifeless way.  Conversely, it can be taught in an interesting, engaging and creative way.  Whilst constant testing will make students resent the subject, there are ways of teaching maths which can engage and excite students.

The answer to improving our students’ maths skills should not result in them hating the subject.



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Our Kids Are the Digital Revolution!

June 29, 2011

It’s a very different childhood to the one we experienced.

SEVEN in 10 Australian households have access to the internet at home, one in five of us want to work less and the most popular physical activity is walking, the latest data on social trends shows.

Four out of every five children aged 5-14 use the internet, making them the digital generation, and 86 per cent of households with children aged under 15 have access to the internet at home, the latest Australian social trends study from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.

Eighty five per cent of children used the internet for educational activities, 69 per cent played online games, 47 per cent used the internet to download music and 22 per cent used it for social networking.

Only two out of three households without children had access to the internet at home, the study found.

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Posted in Child Development, Technology | 2 Comments »

Middle Children More Likely to Become Bullies

June 28, 2011

A recent study has explored the so-called “Middle Child Syndrome”, and came to the conclusion that being a middle child increases your likelihood of becoming a bully.

CHILDREN with both older and younger siblings have a higher chance of becoming bullies, according to research.

The Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex and the University of Warwick conducted the study covering some 40,000 British households.

It was traditionally assumed that the oldest child is likely to dominate or use violence against his or her siblings. However, it turned out that those in between had a higher chance of being involved in physical conflict while striving for parents’ attention, as well as competing for power among siblings.

The study also showed that children who received corporal punishment are more likely to bully siblings or their peers. Of the about 2,000 children researched, about 42 per cent of those who experienced physical punishment resorted to bullying.

‘We know from experience that sibling bullying increases the risk of involvement in bullying at school,’ Professor Dieter Wolke, the co-author of the study told a local media.

‘Children involved in bullying are 14 times more likely to suffer behavioural and emotional problems; they have no place that is safe for them.’ It is known that the manner of bullying at home showed no relationship to the education or economic level of households.

I am surprised by the findings.  I can see how being the oldest or youngest child can draw one into bullying habits, but I am surprised that it is the middle child who is most likely to become a bully.

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Posted in Bullying, Corporal Punishment | 1 Comment »

“Fight Club” School Uncovered and the School Defends it!

June 24, 2011

Twenty four students are suspended in South Australian school Stuart High for starting their own version of a Fight Club at lunchtime.

What makes this story so bizarre is that the school knew about it and didn’t take any action until footage was disseminated online.

The school’s principal says fight club had been going on for some time and they’ll now offer army cadet training for students to exercise instead.

Not only did the school know about it, but they initiated the club:

One of the parents Mick says it started off as an organised activity by the school itself.

“It was an organised activity at the school but the teacher never turned up, so the students took it into their own hands to organise their own exhibition.”

So what does the school Principal have to say about the violent exchanges occurring in the schoolyard every day?

School principal Veronica Conley said the fights were based on the movie Fight Club, and some of the students followed the film’s motto “whatever happens at Fight Club, stays at Fight Club”.

“It was not horrible, they were using boxing gloves and if anyone got hurt they stopped the fight and checked if he was all right,” Ms Conley told The Advertiser last night.

“Some of the parents were upset that we suspended everyone we identified on the footage, even those who were watching, but it was not safe, some schools have boxing at their school but it needs to be supervised.

“When you have kids this young and energetic they look to use that energy. We first became suspicious when we noticed they all failed to come to a soccer competition that occurred on the same day.”

You have got to be joking!  At least the Education Minister is horrified, right?  Nope!

“They went into an unused room and in groups, using boxing gloves, carrying out a fight club was, of course, unauthorised and from time to time some students were injured through that,” he said.

“All of the students who participated and all of the bystanders have been suspended by the school and all of the parents have been notified.”

What about the school?  Who is supervising?  Who suggested such a practise?  What about the Principal that seems to be defending her students’ right to box at lunch time?

What an awful response to a unnaceptable episode.

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