what is normal re: teacher yelling/harsh words?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
I was volunteering for my daughter's first grade teacher this afternoon. I do twice a month- helping with copies, laminating, cutting, etc. Volunteers don't do the work in the classroom (for various reasons, not the least of which is COVID) but I did happen to pass by one of the other first grade classes walking down the hallway and one of the students (who was at the head of the line) was walking very very quickly. When she reached the classroom, the teacher said something to her and I believe she rolled her eyes or something and the teacher responded "You are the most disrespectful girl I have ever met in my life." and then an aide said "I've already told her she's on the wall at recess" and then the teacher gestured toward the student and said "absolutely pathetic."
This is a teacher that does yell and is very strict. I try not to judge- it's a stressful year for everyone and lord knows I wouldn't always be patient Ms. Sunshine if I was a teacher. But IDK, something about this just made my heart sink. Am I overreacting? |
Anonymous
No, you're not. What the teacher said is disgusting and borders on verbal abuse. Who calls a 6 year old "absolutely pathetic"? |
Anonymous
Its inappropriate. A teacher can say, stop being disrespectful or that tone of voice or what you said is disrepectful but not that. And, never absolutely pathetic. |
Anonymous
| not ok |
Anonymous
| What you describe is abusive and should not be tolerated. I say that coming from a background of working in elementary for many years as support staff. And to answer your topic question, NO amount of yelling or harsh words is "normal" or appropriate. Some teachers get away with that kind of behavior but it is harmful to the students and should not be tolerated at all. |
Anonymous
That makes me sad 
|
Anonymous
| Elementary teacher here. I have, on occasion, encountered a very disrespectful first grader. But that should never be met with MORE disrespect. Adults at school need to model what is not being taught at home. Highly inappropriate. |
Anonymous
| 1st grade teacher here. This makes my heart cringe. If the teacher said this in the hallway I can assure you that what she says in the classroom is far worse. Shame on her. Kids have enough to deal with. "On the wall?" This is not prison. Kids need to get out, exercise and run around. If anything, let her read a book on the bench and then go play as at least this punishment helps the student. I do encounter toxic teachers who I think like to exact their issues out on kids or get a power trip by making little one's feel inferior. I often "rescue" these kids and give them compliments to help build them back up or give them an ally. I was the kid teacher's hated and I suffered very poor self-esteem partly because of it. Next time, give Larla a compliment like " I love how you are leading the line but pump those breaks. I can hardly keep.up with you." |
Anonymous
| That is neither normal nor appropriate. |
Anonymous
|
Teacher here. You should do this child and her classmates a favor and make an appointment with the principal and tell them this. If you feel better sending an email, do that, but you never know where it might be forwarded, although you can see clearly that you don’t want it forwarded and you want your name kept out of it. I really feel that you have a moral obligation to report this to admin. Sometimes, there are teachers who need correction, but admin can’t address it if they don’t know about it. They may be looking for more documentation to make a case against the teacher. Then they can put her on an improvement plan and address this kind of thing. Those poor kids in that room.
In our district it’s against regulations to take recess from a child, so there’s that, also. |
Anonymous
+1 Berating a kid like that is not appropriate. My kid has a really strict teacher, but she maintains order without yelling or insulting the kids, and without making it personal. |
Anonymous
Some of the kids are total jerks, but you do catch more bees with honey. |
Anonymous
This is completely unacceptable and unprofessional, and sadly, common in public schools. I'm a teacher and there is plenty of research out there showing that this kind of behavior really hurts students and prevents learning, and yet many teachers are like this. There is little accountability, even when the counties themselves have policies that prohibit many of the specific behaviors you mentioned. You are not overreacting, but chances are the principal won't do a damn thing and may even be like this him/herself. |
Anonymous
|
Yelling is the worst and should be avoided.
This kid might be very challenging and stressful every day… which is hard when you’re dealing with a class and not just one kid. So I’m sure the teacher is frustrated especially if the parents aren’t helpful or supportive. But that’s not a good way to handle the frustration. They shouldn’t be yelling at the student and be careful with words but if the student is super challenging and has parents who let everything go and would never tell their child they’re being disrespectful or having bad behavior/not being nice (however you wanna word it to a first grader), then the kid does need to hear it from some adult in their life. If the parents let all bad behavior go, and they teacher and admin aren’t stern and let it all go too, then this kid is going to have a very hard life. But the teacher shouldn’t yell and should have calmly and sternly told the stupid their behavior was not appropriate and then there should be a consequence whether that student has a chart where they can or can’t earn a star towards a prize or something.. If the teacher is someone always yelling at kids then that’s very bad but if they’re frustrated bc they have a very challenging kid on top of all the others, then they need admin support (and parent support, if possible). Totally fine to report to admin so they know the teacher needs support. If the kid truly is a challenge then admin might not be shocked, but will need to create a plan with the teacher bc yelling isn’t going to help the kid and could make their behavior worse and cause more issues for the kid. |
Anonymous
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/r8gg26/they_broke_the_teachers_will/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
I just watched that and kids can be awful to teachers!! Read some of the comments about kids making up stories about abuse. One said a girl tried to say her teacher sexually assaulted her but when asked what day it happened, the girl kept saying a day when the teacher wasn’t even at work. Yes there are really some AWFUL teachers out there. But kids can be AWFUL too!! The awful teachers are worse as they’re abusing kids… but the awful kids are causing a lot of the better teachers to quit. It’s more of a problem is middle and high schools, of course. But I’ve even heard of upper elementary kids purposefully being awful and trying to get the teacher “in trouble” for fun. 
So I’m a bit off topic but teaching is a very stressful job. The man in that video looked like he was about to SCREAM but knew that wouldn’t be good so he just left. And look at how those kids thought it was funny and worth recording. Yes even good teachers always have room to grow and make mistakes like making yelling at a challenging student. But admin need to offer better supports. A lot of parents need to do a better job. Teachers aren’t their parents. They have lots of kids to TEACH. They can try to teach academic subjects and how to be a better human, but it would help if parents tried to teach how to be a decent human and behave and then teachers had more time to focus on academics. And good ones didn’t quit because they try hard but end up breaking when kids and/or parents cross the line and are too disrespectful too often. I don’t think it’s the hardest job in the world, but teaching is HARD and required SO much patience!! And I honestly think kids are getting worse because they think being disrespectful and filming it is funny. Who needs to learn and get a good job someday when you can just be an uneducated idiot who makes YouTube and Tik Toc videos, right?!
I’m genuinely scared for this generation of kids. Gen Z or whatever they are currently in k-12. |