Teacher's Pet ???

[Curiosity]

What's with teachers these days? Home schooling has to be better than this.


http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2075745,00.html

Teacher cuts off kid's tongue
27/02/2007 13:54 - (South Africa)


Milan - An Italian teacher has been suspended by her school in Milan after cutting off the tongue of a lively seven-year-old child with a pair of scissors, daily Corriere della Sera reported on Tuesday.
The boy has since had his tongue stitched back but is afraid to go back to school. His parents say he suffers nightmares and runs away whenever he sees a knife. They are now suing the school for damages.
The incident took place a week ago but was only reported on Tuesday.
According to Corriere, the 22-year-old substitute teacher threatened the child twice with a pair of scissors before actually chopping it off.
"Pull out your tongue. I'll cut it, and you'll no longer talk," she was quoted as telling the child.
The teacher, who has only been identified by her initials RS, has since apologised, claiming it was an accident. The school's principal, Anna Maria Dominici, has suspended the teacher and ordered an investigation, saying her conduct could in no way be excused.

 

[temperance]

I cant imagine being a teacher these days ,disipline is at all time low ,But the tongue thing is a bit far ,soap (threating to wash your mouth out with soap) lol I really wonder if much learning is going on

 

[Curiosity]

Temperance

You hit the important thing we should be concerned over..... not too much learning is going on.

There are the top percentile who will learn whether the teacher is assigning them work or if they are
on their own.... but the schools gap out the large middle population and seem to gear towards the lower groups who have normal intellect but no interest - thus a general dumbing down of the potential and never creating any interest with the kids floundering in the basement who need some definite incentives to learn rather than spend hours in school because the government says they must "learn"...whatever learning is any more.

I look at the fact that most children of normal intelligence and there is a huge range in this group - have one or two specialties which would boost their desire to take on more risks at school and tackle some subjects which aren't their favorites if they had some success with their special favorites.... even if it is current popular music or athletes.... when you find their "niche".... they can fly with the eagles and many do.... I think boredom robs many kids of the desire to tackle the stuff they have no interest in learning because they cannot see the "use of it"...

Teachers have to show them the "why" of learning.... in order to succeed in their adult lives .... to have success both personal and for their contribution to society.... and once the spark is ignited (it often takes a while...) the kids get the idea pretty quickly.

There cannot be enough praise or pointing out every child's potential to their peer group... that all have worth and diverse interests and that's what makes our society so terrific....

One thing I didn't address because I hate to see it in print.... the teachers are bored, are afraid to be different, are cut down for being too flamboyant in creating good learning skills, and are generally stuffed into a one-size-fits-all kind of teaching which would drag even the most eager student down after a few weeks...Let the teachers "soar" and their students will find their own "wings".

 

[Vereya]

I had to teach English for about two years. And once I had a class of small kids, ages from 7 to 9. Trying to make them behave and listen to me was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my entire life! To do so I had to play games, and to sing songs with them, and what not! There were two forty-five minute lessons, with a ten minute break between them. By the end of that time I was more than half dead. :laughing7: But I never thought of the scissors, though... and the strangest thing was that the kids actually seemed to enjoy their lessons...

 

[Curiosity]

Vereya

Because you were a creative teacher... anything to get their interest going....

 

[karrie]

That poor teacher.

Yeah, I know, obviously, poor kid.

But MAN.... that poor woman must have gone ten kinds of crazy to actually be able to cut a kid's tongue out! Can you imagine the horror as she stood there, realizing what she'd just actually done? Can you imagine how out of control she must have felt, how poorly equipped to do her job she must have been? Sheesh.

These days, you'd think teaching would be like any other dangerous profession, needing regular psych screenings.

 

[Sean D]

My wife is an Educaational Assistant, and the things she has to put up with I would not wish on my worse enemy. What makes it worse is that the prinicpal and school board do not help in the least, they would let the EAs hang out to dry.

 

[hermanntrude]

My wife teaches in a Cree town up north. The school is one which thinks of attendance as optional. They recently had a new principal (the school had been running fine without one for months). He's decided to impress people by cracking down on attendance by calling every parents whose kids didnt show up today. Excellent idea but CRAP timing. Halfway through the school year, suddenly the teachers at the bottom of the school find themselves with ten or so kids who've never been to school before, and don't know about sitting down and shutting up. It ruins things for the others and makes it impossible to teach anything.

I'm sure cutting tongues off has roughly the same effect, except on the kid whose tongue was cut off. rather more effect to him/her i spose

 

[karrie]

I've known quite a few people who used to work on the Assumption reservation as teachers. Essentially the same sort of situation as where your wife is working, with only two slight differences: slightly more accessibility (it's only 2 hrs from the nearest towns), and it was Dene Tha, not Cree. The basic rule of thumb though, is that the teachers will find out from the community what they want. If they want a push for attendance for their kids, the teachers will push. If they don't, they don't. The teachers do a lot of community work aimed at earning community trust, and making it clear that it is beneficial to have the kids attend. It's a real balancing act. The Dene Tha I met when I lived up North, were demoralized people. If I walked down the street with my kids, the Dene men would hang their heads and look at their shoes, avoiding eye contact and not speaking as we passed. If my kids (tots at the time) said 'hello', the men would look to me for permission before so much as smiling at my kids. It was heart breaking. I'm sure if the teachers at Assumption decided they wanted all the kids at school, all it would take is to stand up and say "Send your kids, we demand it", and they'd be obeyed. But, at what sort of social cost?

 

[hermanntrude]

I've known quite a few people who used to work on the Assumption reservation as teachers. Essentially the same sort of situation as where your wife is working, with only two slight differences: slightly more accessibility (it's only 2 hrs from the nearest towns), and it was Dene Tha, not Cree. The basic rule of thumb though, is that the teachers will find out from the community what they want. If they want a push for attendance for their kids, the teachers will push. If they don't, they don't. The teachers do a lot of community work aimed at earning community trust, and making it clear that it is beneficial to have the kids attend. It's a real balancing act. The Dene Tha I met when I lived up North, were demoralized people. If I walked down the street with my kids, the Dene men would hang their heads and look at their shoes, avoiding eye contact and not speaking as we passed. If my kids (tots at the time) said 'hello', the men would look to me for permission before so much as smiling at my kids. It was heart breaking. I'm sure if the teachers at Assumption decided they wanted all the kids at school, all it would take is to stand up and say "Send your kids, we demand it", and they'd be obeyed. But, at what sort of social cost?

It's not like this in the place my wife works. The locals there have pride and prefer to do things their own way. The main obstacle to access to the town is a large river. There have been plans drawn up many times to put a bridge across but the elders refuse them, they have seen clearly in towns on the other side of the river ways of life dying out completely, so they value their remoteness, and i suspect the signs on the way towards town are confusing for a reason.

 

[L Gilbert]

I wouldn't send my kids to public school in BC these days. Home schooling or private.

I think Vereya has the idea; young kids shouldn't be educated in formal circumstances. By far, the majority of kids are easier to teach if you can hold their interest. I used to be an assistant scout leader as a teen when my cousin was the leader. Noticed back then that kids learn easier when they're actually interested in the subject.

 

[L Gilbert]

That poor teacher.

Yeah, I know, obviously, poor kid.

But MAN.... that poor woman must have gone ten kinds of crazy to actually be able to cut a kid's tongue out! Can you imagine the horror as she stood there, realizing what she'd just actually done? Can you imagine how out of control she must have felt, how poorly equipped to do her job she must have been? Sheesh.

These days, you'd think teaching would be like any other dangerous profession, needing regular psych screenings.

I can't seem to get past the idea that the kid shouldn't have been in the job of teaching in the first place. If teachers don't have any idea of what it's like to be among a batch of yardapes until they actually have to be, there's something wrong with the system and the noggin the teacher is wearing.

 

[Vereya]

I used to be an assistant scout leader as a teen when my cousin was the leader. Noticed back then that kids learn easier when they're actually interested in the subject.

Absolutely! Besides, it works not only for the kids, but for most adults as well. When I had to explain some grammar points (and grammar is the most boring thing when learning a language), I always tried to invent some examples, illustrating the different grammar phenomena, so as to make them absurd, or even ridiculous, so they would stick in the memory better, due to their being so silly. Or to invent some phrases that might reflect the students' interests.