25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them (10 page)

SCENARIO 1.28
Assault With a Deadly Playground

The worst experience with a teacher was when I was in second grade. I was outside on the playground and a kid somehow fell or got hurt on the barrels. It was raining. I somehow got wrangled into being at fault (and maybe I was). I got dragged into the school and had to go to detention which was absolutely awful.

As an education major, I can see that the teacher didn’t see it and so had to just do what she thought she heard. Maybe I was to blame.

The legal term “assumption of risk” usually applies to adults who knowingly enter a dangerous situation where they might get hurt. If they get hurt, it is their fault. A second-grade child cannot be expected to assume the risk of playing on the playground. Playground safety is an adult responsibility. The playground should be as childproof as possible. If a child gets hurt on the playground, there may be something wrong with the playground setup. The teacher assumed the child was at fault and physically dragged the child into detention.

Experienced teachers know that the school is responsible for playground safety and that a child engaged in reasonable play should not get hurt. The student in this scenario seemed to be engaged in reasonable play and may have caused an accident. The teacher should have tried to comfort the child while examining the child to determine the extent of the child’s injury. Punishment should not have been on the agenda.

Resourceful teachers would have the nurse tend to the injured child and would have seized the moment as an opportunity to review playground safety rules with the class. The other students could learn from what happened to this student. This could be a very effective learning experience because the other students in the class can also learn vicariously from the injured student’s consequences (Bandura, 1986).

SCENARIO 1.29
Punishment Befitting the Crime

During my senior year, I was kicked out of a physics class for excessive talking and laughing and was threatened with expulsion.

This is obviously a case where the punishment does not fit the crime. To expel someone for talking and laughing is excessive. In many cases, it is not so much the offense that is important, but it is the underlying need for control and the power struggle that has polluted the classroom climate. When teachers have a “do as I say or else” approach, students can experience some bizarre punishments. Wanting to curb a student’s talking is very prevalent in classrooms. For some students, school may be their primary source of socialization. They risk the wrath of the teacher because they have to steal class time to interact with their peers. This is especially true in high school where there is no recess. Extreme punishment of this nature only serves to contribute to the drop-out population and it is entirely inappropriate.

When my son was either a freshman or a sophomore in high school, he was suspended for ten days because he and some other young males were caught throwing paper off the roof of the school. He was in advanced math and science courses. A ten-day suspension would have put him so far behind in his course work that he would risk failing some classes and jeopardize his graduating on time. This snowball effect could have been so discouraging that he might have even considered dropping out. Luckily, I was able to intervene and reduce the time. A more fitting consequence for throwing paper off the roof might have been to have the young men clean up all the paper around the school on a Saturday. I see little to be gained by suspension. Students often see it as a vacation and this attitude could make suspension a negative reinforcer, increasing the
likelihood that undesirable behavior will continue to occur.

The knowing teacher has the foresight to make the punishment fit the crime. In education, the purpose of consequences is to minimize student problems, not to create problems of greater magnitude.

SCENARIO 1.30
Old Betsy and What’s Her Name

My second-grade teacher never remembered my name and called me by my older sister’s name the whole year! She hit students with a ruler she called “Old Betsy.”

I find it ironic that a teacher could place enough importance on names to call her tool of punishment, “Old Betsy,” but didn’t think it important to remember to call a child by her given name. Many teachers might confuse siblings initially or occasionally, but to not use the correct name for the entire year is dehumanizing. It is a refusal to recognize the child’s individuality.

During a session when my undergraduate students were orally relating their worst-experience scenarios, one student recalled a teacher who gave each student a number and called them by that number all year. This made her interaction with her students less humanistic and more mechanistic and routine. Not using a child’s name is degrading. It undermines the teacher–pupil relationship that is necessary for good classroom rapport.

I learned in teachers’ college that the sweetest sound to a student is the sound of his or her name. Teachers who learn their students’ names early in the school year have an advantage. They can minimize discipline problems, can engage students more easily, and can start to build good classroom relationships early. Competent teachers usually know all of their students’ names by the first week of class if not sooner. Of course, teachers with multiple classes may take longer.

Mistake

2

Physical Aggression

SCENARIO 2.1
Punishment or Perversion?

My worst experience in school was the beating I received from my fourth-grade teacher for not completing a homework assignment. This teacher seemed to enjoy paddling students because she did it a lot. The beating I received was four swats with a walnut paddle with holes drilled in it. I was so hurt that I was unable to return to school for three days. Damn Mrs. M. wherever she may be.

A nonsexual connotation of sadism is a delight in extreme cruelty. There are several bits of evidence that suggest that this teacher may have had some sadistic tendencies. For example, the frequency of the beatings, the extreme nature of the pain and suffering inflicted, the perception that some delight was derived from the paddlings, and the use of a specialized instrument of pain. The most incredulous part of this problem is that such a person could get away with injuring a young child to the extent that the child would miss school for several days. This abnormal behavior has no place in the classroom.

Most teachers are caring but firm disciplinarians. A teacher that would engage in the deviant behavior described in this scenario is certainly not the norm. Good teachers know that missing homework is a minor offense that does not warrant flogging. They are aware of a variety of appropriate consequences if they find that consequences are necessary. Suggestions can be found in most classroom management textbooks (Charles, 1983).

SCENARIO 2.2
Pit Bully

I was in first grade. I can’t remember my teacher’s name, but I do remember her jerking me up by one arm from my desk after I had spilled some glue. She then pulled me toward the corner of the room. I tripped and my head hit the corner of a wooden table, then she jerked me up and put me in the corner. I remember great pain and a wicked woman. I heard years later that she had been in trouble for breaking a child’s arm.

The madness displayed in this scenario is nothing short of child abuse. In her rage, this woman risked serious injury to a small child, first by jerking the child up by the arm and then by causing the child to trip and sustain a head injury. The head injury is especially troublesome. To add insult to the child’s injury, she jerked her up again with no words of apology or concern. To call this woman wicked is much too kind. Her temperament and abusive behavior make a plea for professional help. The young age of her victim suggests that there might be some bullying behavior involved in this situation. She might be reluctant to pull such antics on an older student.