In the news yesterday, boy at school refuses to stand with the other pupils when his head teacher comes in the room. Boy's Father tells boy it's right not to stand until the teacher earns his respect!! Boy was suspended for four days. The boy's sister is also at the school and ignores the rules about wearing make up and wearing the uniform. The Father told her if the teacher complains kick him in the nuts.
When I was at school, there was coporal punishment. The Head teacher was able to give the cane as a punishment. The way it worked was, if you misbehaved in any class, you got a bad conduct mark from any teacher, get three marks in one week you got the cane, the records where wiped clean the next week. I can honestly say I never got the cane, but the deterrent was there so the pupils behaved. The school was calm and orderly and all the kids respected the teachers. In fact, some of the teachers were so helpful and so popular no one would even think of misbehaving and letting themselves down in front of the teacher, it was not a matter of getting the cane, it was a matter of loosing the teacher's respect. I might add I went to School in Liverpool and there were 46 kids in my class which was the average number of kids in the classes of this school which I attended from I was eleven years old until I left to go to College.
Today we have smaller classes in school but we hear more and more of the bad behaviour of children and of teachers leaving the profession in droves.... I am not advocating the return of corporal punishment, but what is the answer, perhaps we need to re-educate some of the parents?
Jacqui
