Monday through Friday
Posted: June 1st, 2010 by Chick Moorman & Thomas Haller
On Monday, Mrs. Williams pinned a fourth-grader up against his locker, stuck her finger in his chest, and stated loudly, “I told you to respect me!”
On Monday, Mrs. Morgan, using a serious tone, told a fourth grader, “I get frustrated when you talk while I am giving directions. Next time, please wait until I have finished before you begin your conversation.”
On Tuesday, Mrs. Williams told her class, “If you are good when the sub is here, I will be giving you all a candy bar.”
On Tuesday, Mrs. Morgan told her class, “There will be a guest teacher here tomorrow. Let’s build a list of ways we can show him the respect he deserves while he is in our classroom.”
On Wednesday, Mrs. Williams told one of her students, “Keep your hands to yourself. Why don’t you act your age?”
On Wednesday, Mrs. Morgan told one of her students, “Carlos, that is space-invading. We don’t do that in fourth grade. Here, we respect the other person’s right to be touched or not.”
On Thursday, Mrs. Williams wrote on top of a student’s book report, “Tevi, your penmanship is sloppy and your first sentence is poor. Where were you when I told the class how long the report needed to be?”
On Thursday, Mrs. Morgan wrote on top of a student’s book report. “Clarissa, Your penmanship is difficult to read, the first sentence did not get my attention, and the report did not fit the length requirements that I explained last week. See me so we can talk about what you might choose to do about it.”
On Friday, Mrs. Williams announced, “Tamika, if you do that again I am sending you to detention. That’ll be a good place for you.”
On Friday, Mrs. Morgan announced, “Brenda, if you chose that behavior again you will have chosen to go to the Responsibility Room. I hope you don’t make that choice because I like you here, and I will miss your smile.”
On Saturday the decision was made that Mrs. Morgan would be fired. Her native accent would be a bad influence on children who were learning English.
Chick Moorman
This hits me hard, Chick. I just finished writing a note to my Aunt about home schooling the children. Because of situations like this and other values I will not compromise, our children currently learn at home and beyond.
I intend to discuss corporal punishment with the school board here at some point, though, since staying quiet doesn\’t help.
Amy
1 Jun 10 at 8:26 am
Thank you for this. It’s just one more example I can share with my family that supports our decision to home-school our 6- and 4-year-old children. While this may be a “story” I’m certain scenarios such as this take place more often than we care to admit.
Monica in HB, CA
1 Jun 10 at 10:19 pm
I believe in Public Schools with the addition of teaching my kids at home in a less formal setting. If they don’t learn how to deal with people they don’t like they will have a harder time as adults in the working world.
What they don’t do is see how the children respond to each teacher. I am sure that the teachers that use words and a gentle approach are the ones that teach the children the most. Not only how to behave but spending more time teaching instead of punishment.
Susan Schmidt
8 Jun 10 at 9:23 am