Student behaviors and student respect for any adults in buildings are both horrific. The kids are out of control, do not care, and make it known. I’m surprised more teachers aren’t yelling. Raise better children, teach them respect, teach them to follow directions, follow rules… etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter says she doesn’t want to return to her in-bounds school this coming school year because “all the teachers yell.” Truth be told, I have noticed this myself but have never directly discussed it with her before. I appreciate the difficulty teachers must have with managing ES kids, but it does seem like the default for many is yelling: in the classroom, in the hallways, at recess, at pick-up.

Why is this? Is it the default at other elementary schools? (Ours is Ludlow). I’m not trying to disparage LT - it has a lot of good points, too - but I’m interested in others’ experiences. Thanks.

Have you ever tried quietly saying something to large groups of active kids? How did that work for you? How did you get —and hold—the attention of the kids?

FWIW, I’ve spent many years working in elementary and middle schools. I have a very soft voice. I have had some feedback from kids that my very soft voice can, at times, be confusing/intimidating for them. It takes a lot of experience to quietly interact with large groups of kids.

I guess the question is is the teacher loudly talking and the noise a problem (a valid concern especially for young kids with sensory disorders but not necessarily a think every school with huge classes and bad acoustics can control) or are they telling specifically at students.

Because the second is definitely not normal and if teachers are often yelling at students directly (not just loudly talking for attention) then yes that's a problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter says she doesn’t want to return to her in-bounds school this coming school year because “all the teachers yell.” Truth be told, I have noticed this myself but have never directly discussed it with her before. I appreciate the difficulty teachers must have with managing ES kids, but it does seem like the default for many is yelling: in the classroom, in the hallways, at recess, at pick-up.

Why is this? Is it the default at other elementary schools? (Ours is Ludlow). I’m not trying to disparage LT - it has a lot of good points, too - but I’m interested in others’ experiences. Thanks.

I’m curious what grade your kid is in. My only experience with yellers at Ludlow are with folks who are not gen-ed classroom teachers. There is one such teacher that my mostly well-behaved Ker is really not a fan of and I think he must be experiencing it at lunch or recess, because there’s no other obvious overlap.

My kids haven’t complained much about the yelling, but I do think the biggest complaints along these lines tend to be in the K/1st age group and it’s partially because of the sudden increase in classroom expectations with a lot of kids (especially boys) who just aren’t developmentally ready for it. (Note: I am not blaming the boys at all. Modern K is much more akin to 1st grade even 20 years ago and it’s just too much sitting quietly for a lot of kids — especially those on the younger side.)

DCPS expectations for K are not age-appropriate, I agree (at a different school). It's especially problematic because the PK program is very informed by childhood development (and the vast majority of PK teachers have masters in early childhood development) so the shift to a K classroom can be abrupt for kids. My DD struggled with it even though she doesn't have trouble sitting still. It was the amount of academic work and the time they spent doing unengaging activities like worksheets or standing in lines to move around the school.

I think some of the K teachers in DCPS do a good job bridging kids from PK to elementary and some do not. My kid was in a team-taught classroom and one of the teachers was great at this (and my kid became super attached to her and is still close to her years later) and the other had moved down to K from previously teaching 1st and 2nd and was much more rigid and my kid got "in trouble" with her more often. Generally it was a for speaking out of turn but this teacher didn't give the kids chances to speak and interact with each other! The expectation that 5 and 6 year olds are going to sit silently and attentively for 6 hours a day is just not realistic.

I think the intense focus on reading in K in DCPS has come at the sacrifice of some better socio-emotional teaching and age-appropriate schedules with more classroom exploration and interactive activities. K should look like a cross between a PK and 1st grade classroom, but in DCPS it just looks like a 1st grade classroom with slightly less advanced material. It's especially hard on the younger kids or any kid who is developmentally a bit behind.

We are at a Title 1 and most teachers do not yell but especially in the upper grades, some of the student behavior is so egregious that I would not blame them if they did occasionally. Not because it's effective (we all know it's not) but because if you are dealing with kids who are consistently, daily, disrespectful, late, not listening, refusing to work, throwing things, getting up and wandering into the hall without permission, etc., you could be a saint and you'd still lose your temper now and then. Yelling isn't good but also these teachers have no recourse. Kids may be given temporary timeouts or sent to the school counselor but they don't learn anything and come back in and do the same stuff. You could call their parents but odds are good they won't show up. These kids do not care and in many cases, their parents don't either.

We are leaving the school because we want a better environment, but we aren't leaving because of the teachers. We want a school community with more involved parents and kids who are learning socio-emotional skills at home and whose families value education.

I would be surprised if L-T has these problems, at least to this degree. They aren't Title 1 anymore. I'm sure there are some teachers who are more stern than others but there's just no way the classroom environment is as disruptive and stressful as it is at schools with really high at risk percentages.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have others experienced this at L-T? It's also our IB and now I'm stressed about it. My kid is highly sensitive to yelling/raised voices.

My kids are at L-T. Like many schools, I think there are a few teachers who are more likely to yell and others who are less likely to. I also think kids can also experience the same teacher differently. My middle kid's favorite teacher is one that other kids have described as a yeller, but he could only think of one time she ever yelled and it was a safety issue that doesn't strike me as out of line personally. However, she definitely made it known when she was unhappy with the class' behavior. So I'm not sure it was the yelling per se that the other child was internalizing vs the clear displeasure. These kids were old enough that I don't have an issue with this approach (and, as mentioned, this my kid's favorite teacher ever), but if you had a kid who really internalized things, I could absolutely see why this teacher would be dispreferred to one who always gave warm and fuzzy vibes (and L-T definitely has some of those too). In any case, my personal experience is that it's a real mix and probably more teacher-dependent than school-dependent, but I will say that all of the ECE teachers lean towards the warm and fuzzy type.

There is a huge range of appropriate professional behavior between yelling at children and warm and fuzzy vibes.

I don't disagree at all. What I'm saying is that I actually don't think there's a lot of yelling in any of the classrooms, but there is definitely a divide in terms of behavior management techniques. I have been around the school a lot and the only yelling I've really experienced is on the playground, which I think was FAR too chaotic at the beginning of this year especially (Principal's decision to group 3 grades for lunch was incredibly stupid)... but still isn't great.

Anonymous wrote:My daughter says she doesn’t want to return to her in-bounds school this coming school year because “all the teachers yell.” Truth be told, I have noticed this myself but have never directly discussed it with her before. I appreciate the difficulty teachers must have with managing ES kids, but it does seem like the default for many is yelling: in the classroom, in the hallways, at recess, at pick-up.

Why is this? Is it the default at other elementary schools? (Ours is Ludlow). I’m not trying to disparage LT - it has a lot of good points, too - but I’m interested in others’ experiences. Thanks.

I’m curious what grade your kid is in. My only experience with yellers at Ludlow are with folks who are not gen-ed classroom teachers. There is one such teacher that my mostly well-behaved Ker is really not a fan of and I think he must be experiencing it at lunch or recess, because there’s no other obvious overlap.

My kids haven’t complained much about the yelling, but I do think the biggest complaints along these lines tend to be in the K/1st age group and it’s partially because of the sudden increase in classroom expectations with a lot of kids (especially boys) who just aren’t developmentally ready for it. (Note: I am not blaming the boys at all. Modern K is much more akin to 1st grade even 20 years ago and it’s just too much sitting quietly for a lot of kids — especially those on the younger side.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have others experienced this at L-T? It's also our IB and now I'm stressed about it. My kid is highly sensitive to yelling/raised voices.

My kids are at L-T. Like many schools, I think there are a few teachers who are more likely to yell and others who are less likely to. I also think kids can also experience the same teacher differently. My middle kid's favorite teacher is one that other kids have described as a yeller, but he could only think of one time she ever yelled and it was a safety issue that doesn't strike me as out of line personally. However, she definitely made it known when she was unhappy with the class' behavior. So I'm not sure it was the yelling per se that the other child was internalizing vs the clear displeasure. These kids were old enough that I don't have an issue with this approach (and, as mentioned, this my kid's favorite teacher ever), but if you had a kid who really internalized things, I could absolutely see why this teacher would be dispreferred to one who always gave warm and fuzzy vibes (and L-T definitely has some of those too). In any case, my personal experience is that it's a real mix and probably more teacher-dependent than school-dependent, but I will say that all of the ECE teachers lean towards the warm and fuzzy type.

There is a huge range of appropriate professional behavior between yelling at children and warm and fuzzy vibes.

Anonymous wrote:All teachers yell at some point in their careers. Especially around this time of year. A teacher trying to get the attention of 20 or more kids has to use a voice of authority at times. It gets better with time, newer teachers yell more.

+1 at least teachers in schools with a good amount of need - and yes especially this time of year.

Being yelled at on a regular bases, or even just being around consistent yelling, is a trauma.

https://www.nami.org/advocate/the-problem-with-yelling/

https://taylorcounselinggroup.com/blog/psychological-effects-of-yelling/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/overcoming-destructive-anger/202307/please-dont-yell

https://www.attachmenttraumanetwork.org/the-problem-with-yelling/

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24460-misophonia

https://compassionbehavioralhealth.com/the-impact-of-yelling-at-someone-with-ptsd-psychological-effects-communication-tips/


In a workplace it can contribute to a hostile environment [https://ceoptions.com/2025/05/how-to-handle-conflict-at-work/] -- and it is so much worse in a classroom where children do not have agency.

Anonymous wrote:So … there is a culture of yelling at some schools. Watkins. LT. … schools that historically had a lot of lower income kids. You don’t see this at schools like Brent, SWS, etc.

This is one of the stupider posts I've read on here. Watkins gentrified long before Brent. More recently, Brent is far wealthier than Watkins, but "historically" it's the absolute opposite.

Anonymous wrote:Have others experienced this at L-T? It's also our IB and now I'm stressed about it. My kid is highly sensitive to yelling/raised voices.

My kids are at L-T. Like many schools, I think there are a few teachers who are more likely to yell and others who are less likely to. I also think kids can also experience the same teacher differently. My middle kid's favorite teacher is one that other kids have described as a yeller, but he could only think of one time she ever yelled and it was a safety issue that doesn't strike me as out of line personally. However, she definitely made it known when she was unhappy with the class' behavior. So I'm not sure it was the yelling per se that the other child was internalizing vs the clear displeasure. These kids were old enough that I don't have an issue with this approach (and, as mentioned, this my kid's favorite teacher ever), but if you had a kid who really internalized things, I could absolutely see why this teacher would be dispreferred to one who always gave warm and fuzzy vibes (and L-T definitely has some of those too). In any case, my personal experience is that it's a real mix and probably more teacher-dependent than school-dependent, but I will say that all of the ECE teachers lean towards the warm and fuzzy type.

Anonymous wrote:Breaking news: sometimes teachers yell. This thread is completely pointless. It's as if no one here has ever stepped foot in a school building before.

Breaking new: Adults should model better behavior to children. The fact that my kid's class rotated among four teachers and three managed to not yell at them, suggests the problem is not the kids.

Anonymous wrote:This was our experience at our IB Title 1 school as well. It really bothered my kids. They are at other schools now (DCPS and DCPCS) and that is not the norm at those schools.

This is a very interesting discussion. We also have experience at a Title 1 DCPS and at a "good" DCPS and DCPCS.

At the Title 1, the majority of the teachers didn't yell, but there were a few who did.

At the other schools, no yelling whatsoever. My kids both seem calmer, and I wonder if that is part of why.

This was our experience at our IB Title 1 school as well. It really bothered my kids. They are at other schools now (DCPS and DCPCS) and that is not the norm at those schools.

[quote=Anonymous]It absolutely isn't okay to yell at students multiple times a week, and can be damaging to some students. I have ADHD and teachers yelling stressed me out, and when I started working in schools a few years ago I noticed it was often the neurodivergent kids (suspected or diagnosed) that would get more distressed. Many of us are more sensitive to rejection and have sensory issues. Shouting at students triggers both of those.

I can see why teachers might be more prone to yelling as they're under a lot of pressure, there's big systemic issues. That doesn't make it okay, and I think all school staff should ideally have training on emotional regulation and trauma-informed techniques. I'm sorry it made your daughter's school experience harder. Every student deserves to be taught in a safe and predictable environment.[/quote]

By nature, schools arent predictable environments. I’m pretty sure teachers aren’t out there yelling for fun. Kids aren’t being parented these day- they rely on schools to do it for them. This is why education is going down the drain in the US.