Lessons in the classroom
I heard a segment on the news today about a teacher who got herself in a bit of trouble and is now on administrative leave. For taping a student's mouth shut. Here's the scenario I envision:
Teacher: Johnny, no more talking. It's quiet reading time.
Johnny (whispering to neighbor): Hey, do you know what's for lunch today?
Teacher: Johnny, I'm writing your name on the board. Now, no more talking.
Johnny (whispering to other neighbor): I bet I can beat you to the playground at recess. My shoes are super fast.
Teacher: Johnny, if you don't stop talking I'm going to tape your mouth shut.
And, as we all know, sometimes there are things that just come out of your mouth that you wish you hadn't said because then you'll have no choice but to do them if the next line is crossed. I really empathize with this teacher. I can imagine that she just couldn't take it anymore and made a threat thinking it would knock a little sense into the student's head. Unfortunately, it's likely that the only lesson that this student learned is that for all his smarting off it's his teacher that is paying the price. I bet she wishes she hadn't done it. And I bet she's glad that she didn't spot the stapler first and threaten to staple his lips shut.
Hearing this story reminded me of a time when I was in third grade. One of my classmates was an easily distracted kind of kid who spent a lot of time daydreaming. My teacher, after telling him endlessly to "pay attention" and "focus" took her own extreme measure. She placed the student and his desk inside a refrigerator box. The result was that the student had no where to look but at his own paper, forcing him to concentrate at the task at hand. Of course, the other result was that the other 25 students in the class who were previously working had set down their pencils and were now staring at the refrigerator box.
As I was looking for a link to this article, I found another about a teacher in VA who is on administrative leave for his "artistic expression". Here's a link to the article on Fox titled "Teacher Suspended for Painting with Butt". Enjoy.
And to any teachers reading this, hold tight, Christmas break is just around the corner.
Teacher: Johnny, no more talking. It's quiet reading time.
Johnny (whispering to neighbor): Hey, do you know what's for lunch today?
Teacher: Johnny, I'm writing your name on the board. Now, no more talking.
Johnny (whispering to other neighbor): I bet I can beat you to the playground at recess. My shoes are super fast.
Teacher: Johnny, if you don't stop talking I'm going to tape your mouth shut.
And, as we all know, sometimes there are things that just come out of your mouth that you wish you hadn't said because then you'll have no choice but to do them if the next line is crossed. I really empathize with this teacher. I can imagine that she just couldn't take it anymore and made a threat thinking it would knock a little sense into the student's head. Unfortunately, it's likely that the only lesson that this student learned is that for all his smarting off it's his teacher that is paying the price. I bet she wishes she hadn't done it. And I bet she's glad that she didn't spot the stapler first and threaten to staple his lips shut.
Hearing this story reminded me of a time when I was in third grade. One of my classmates was an easily distracted kind of kid who spent a lot of time daydreaming. My teacher, after telling him endlessly to "pay attention" and "focus" took her own extreme measure. She placed the student and his desk inside a refrigerator box. The result was that the student had no where to look but at his own paper, forcing him to concentrate at the task at hand. Of course, the other result was that the other 25 students in the class who were previously working had set down their pencils and were now staring at the refrigerator box.
As I was looking for a link to this article, I found another about a teacher in VA who is on administrative leave for his "artistic expression". Here's a link to the article on Fox titled "Teacher Suspended for Painting with Butt". Enjoy.
And to any teachers reading this, hold tight, Christmas break is just around the corner.
The very best teacher I ever had used to hand me a piece of scotch tape whenever I was talking too much. The inference was that I should put it over my mouth. Now if he actually taped me up himself one day, I might have been a little miffed.
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