Teachers Who Bully ( We shouldn't be surprised)

WebMD ^ | December 03, 2007 | Katherine Kam /Charlotte Grayson Mathis, MD

[warsaw44]

I had an alcoholic math teacher who reaked of cigarettes and black berry brandy. It wasn’t until I was a working behind a bar years later did I recognize the smell.
She would put students under her desk and kick them if they did not understand a lesson or if she deemed they needed ‘ discipline ‘. She would grab the edge of your desk and scream in your face, spittle foaming at the mouth if you did not understand the lesson. She would grab you by the hair and pull you to the chalkboard. Kids pissed thier pants in fear, cried, and me? Often I would be phyically ill before class out of shear terror and end up in the nurses office.
I was in the fourth grade.

[RinaseaofDs]

This is an enormous pant load of merde. As if teachers have ANY disciplinary weapons at their disposal any more. You want to see bullying? Sit in the principal’s office with a rabid parent of a budding sociopath.

[eleni121]

That’s what unions are for—to protect these psychopaths.

[wintertime]

This is an enormous pant load of merde.

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45% of teachers self-report that they have bullied students. That makes me think that the actual incidence is much higher.

As for using a Spanish word for excrement, does this make it any more polite? If you are a teacher, I know that as a professional you would never do this to a naive, and immature student.

[Sloth]

If children are treated like prisoners in buildings that look like minimum security prisons, if they are marched aroung like herds of sheep to the sound of Pavlov's bell, if they isolated in unnatural same-aged packs, is it any wonder that they form protection gangs ( cliques) and bully? Is it any wonder that the school employees find themselves acting like bullies themselves?

The Stanford prison experiment should answer that.

[Uncle Meat]

This was in ‘69.Was the teacher union thing big back then?All I wanted to do back then was make it through the 3rd grade alive.If there was a union back then,she defiately was one of their goons.

[wintertime]

The answer is yes. If we treat children like prisoners and herd them around like livestock, yes, we can expect bullying from the students ( prisoners) and from the guards ( school employees).

From the Stanford Prison experiment:

“Our planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended prematurely after only six days because of what the situation was doing to the college students who participated. In only a few days, our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress.”

[tiki]

My husband had a cruel principal. He swatted them constantly and he loved it. He swore he was going to kill him when he grew up. Thankfully, he didn’t follow through with his threat.

[tiki]

I remember in 3rd grade a boy named Andy, he was sweet and I’d bet in this day and age he’d be in Special Ed. He was just a little slow, the teacher picked on him mercilessly. One weekend he found a beautiful geode full of huge crystals and to be nice he took all the crystals out and gave everyone in the class one. The teacher ridiculed his kindness by berating him for ruining the rock. I remember feeling sorry for him often.

As for me, I stayed quiet and out of the way until Jr. high and then I gave them hell. I grew up in a big family and I usually had a comeback that could embarrass them worse than they embarrassed me and the students were always on my side.

[brytlea]

There was a JV football coach that I hated for years after I left high school. He was a bigmouth, obnoxious clown we called "Baby Huey". After he got me thrown off the varsity team (I flipped him off for being a jerk), my dad even called him up and threatened to whip his @$$.

Let me get this straight. You flipped a coach off, and you were surprised you got tossed off the team? In addition your dad called him up and threatened to beat him up? Come on...this is a joke, right?

susie

[brytlea]

I agree with your post, but it is unlikely to change.
susie

[Amelia]

Not denying that some teachers do go over the line, and always have, but did we worry about it nearly so much before we became so concerned about Little Johnny's "self-esteem"?

Most of the "horror stories" people are relating on this thread appear to be from "the good old days" when we supposedly still had prayer & discipline in schools, and people still got a good education.

According to my friend who went to school in an Asian country, teachers there have no compunctions about humiliating students who act out or don't perform as well as they could.

I'm not advocating cruelty, but this seems to me like a very thinly-veiled touchy-feely liberal educrat article.

[Balding_Eagle]

I have taught kids who have absolutely no interest in academics. School really does become like a prison for them. Schools in the US ignore the 50% or so of kids who will either not go to college or else drop out of college.

Rush's description of his school years. Almost verbatium

[Amelia]

If you are a teacher, I know that as a professional you would never do this to a naive, and immature student.

Oh, no! R would never do this to "a naive, and immature student"! To do so might damage his/her self-esteem, and scar him/her for life!

[eleni121]

Lots of stories and so many kids have been damaged forever by these teacher FIENDS.

Someone should compile these and write an article...

[eleni121]

I think that vocational training (in auto mechanics, construction work, being a beautitian, etc.) could reduce the drop out rate ...

_________________________________________________

On the surface it sounds good..but I’m suspicious of the Euro system which is so class oriented.

I dislike tracking people especially at such a young age...after all Einstein and Tesla were “poor” students -— their brilliance not shining until they were older.

no—I do think however that all students should be involved in technical/occupations pursuits as well academics.

Get rid of the basket weaving and multicultural claptrap and get those woodworking/horticulture courses in there.

[Spiff]

It is sad that there are teachers out there who act like a bully in ANY classroom, and especially a Kindergarten teacher. A child’s first experience in school is so very important to help instill a love of learning. My advise to any parent is to move your Kindergarten child if he or she does not LOVE school within two weeks! The only reason I say two weeks is that sometimes a child may need just a little time to overcome that separation from mommy, unless they have attended a good preschool program and are used to being away from home. (A Kindergarten teacher - 43 yrs.:)

My kindergarten child LOVED pre-school. He cried on vacation days and even some weekends because he didn't want to miss school. He was SO excited about starting kindergarten. But within a week, he was crying that he didn't want to go to school. He was there 45 days and he got in trouble 51 times. He hardly ever got in trouble in pre-school and we had few problems with the teacher, if any. In fact, he still raves about his pre-school teacher.

My wife volunteered to be an aide in the classroom, but the teacher was hostile to her. The full-time teachers aide had to leave the classroom a number of times, sometimes in tears, because of how the teacher was treating the little kids and even how she was treating the aide.

We tried repeatedly to discuss this with the principal, but he is convinced that she's doing a great job and that she is the shining example for kindergarten academics in the county. But there's no measure for kindergarten academics - not standardized tests until 3rd grade - so there's no way that he can prove this. He refused to do anything about the way she treats the kids. We finally had a meeting with the teacher and the principal and could not resolve anything. We were told to back off and let the teacher do her job without undermining her with other parents. Yet it was the other parents that had been coming to us to discuss the problems and the way the teacher was treating our children.

The problem is solved for us as we were able to take the child out of that school and away from that bully. He loves his new school and new teacher. And an added benefit is that his pre-school teacher is now a 1st grade teacher at his new school. He can't wait to start 1st grade so that he can have his pre-school teacher again.

I wish there was something more we could do to help the other children in that kindergarten class. I've thought about publicizing the problems, but we have two other children in that school and I know that the principal and some other teachers might retaliate.

We used to homeschool the kids. We know what we're up against in the public schools. We stay very involved and monitor everything and raise hell when there's a problem that deserves it.

[art_rocks]

“At the end of the school year, she came up to me and said, “you know, the reason I was so hard on you kids is because I wanted you all to succeed.” “

There is a difference between hard and mean.

[art_rocks]

“sounds like my high school geometry teacher...”

Did you have Mr Torres too.

[shag377]

Almost daily, I holler at my kids. Most of my kids know me that if I *stop* screaming and hollering, there is a problem. Why do I do this? Passion mostly, and it gets their attention.

Berate them? I have. When they don’t do as well as they should on a test, or they fail to give me what I know they are capable of, yes. Oh, and I have the test scores to back up what I do in class.:) One thing that all of my kids will tell you is they would love to have me again.

This 45%, I am sure takes into account the vicious private Church run schools with the famous nuns who would beat children for anything...there is a point in a public school where even tenure will not protect a teacher, but not so in a private school, especially a Catholic school. Oh, and my mother attended a private Catholic school, and saw said abuse firsthand, way more extreme than anything in a public school.

Again, as I have said before, if I had unlimited time to scour the internet looking for articles to bash someone’s profession, I am quite certain I could do that, but I have better things to do with my time. I have a classroom full of students who need some TLC.