Childrens' mouths taped shut and their bodies taped to seats

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'Discipline'

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/i ... xml&coll=2

At least they'll learn to shut up and sit still.

I'd say that qualifies as child abuse.
And what if the kid had an asthma attack while taped up?

That woman should be charged with child abuse, and banned from teaching. That's ridiculous. I would not be surprised if other incidents were found in her past career.

While I would dearly LOVE to do that to some of the loudmouthed brats I've encountered, I know it's not right. One of the reasons I can never be a teacher is that I know that I will be impatient with the little s**ts.

Oh, exactly. I can think of one kid who I would have loved to have shut in a closet. A soundproof one....

I student-taught for one semester with kids who used language a sailor would have blushed at - at me. They'd argue that their work was "good enough" when I'd give it back to them for correction (assuming they turned it in at all). "Sorry, Johnny, a page-long paragraph of only one sentence is NOT ok in this class. You need to go back over what we studied and correct it." That was met with "you are picking on me because I'm black" first, then "you are picking on me because you don't like me" then "you're a f*****g b***h and can go to hell." (Thankfully, the mother in this case took the kid home and, apparently, tanned his hide for both coming out with lines like that and for disrespecting someone who was trying to help him learn to write properly. Bless her. She tried her best.)

God forbid someone tell some of those little monsters something they did or some behavior was "Not Ok" because they are "special" and "unique" and anything they do is just peachy. These were fourth and fifth graders. The parents of the kids in that class were a mixed bag. Some took the same line as the kids above (thankfully, not all). Little Johnny tried hard so he should get an "A". Sorry, there, Dad, but you get an "A" by mastering the material. No mastery, no "A". End of story. Failure is also part of life, and Johnny had better get some coping mechanisms developed to handle it.

Some thought that if the kid showed up every day they should pass onto the next grade. Again, no. You don't do the work successfully, you haven't earned the grade and should stay until you can. You work for it. If you have to work harder than others, if you're coming from behind for one reason or another, so be it. Life's not always fair. You do what's necessary to get the grade. If you can't manage it even with your best efforts, then you need to be exploring some other option for your life.

Seriously, not everyone is cut out to do academics - the world needs craftsmen and people who work with their hands just as much as they do people who can quote 14th century poetry. Quite frankly, I think there's probably too many people going to college as it is. It's become nothing more than a middle-class finishing school that, unless one is receiving specialized training, doesn't really qualify one do do much of anything. (Other than have been indoctrinated into a given set of ideas and ideals, that is.) I see many, many young people graduating who end up working as waiters or sales clerks, or taking the same entry-level jobs they could have gotten without putting themselves in debt for decades to jump through the academic hoops. (Yes, some do work their way up the ladder in industry, but they could have done that without Chaucer and with more years' practical experience.)

Too bad the public schools are pushing everyone into college prep or something so watered down it's useless for anything other than proving one is marginally literate on graduation. I wish they'd put trades training back into the schools as an option, as they used to have. It makes much more sense to offer someone with no or marginal talent in academics (or someone who has other preferences) the chance to learn something with which to make a living - like being an electrician or a plumber, or a computer programmer, or whatever. That obnoxious little kid from the 4th grade class liked building things. Too bad he wasn't put out as an apprentice in a trade where he could build things every day instead of being trapped in a classroom where he couldn't handle the work and had to deal with that every day. He might well have owned his own business by now.

Needless to say, I'm not a public school teacher. I have no patience for the "whiner mindset" or people who think the world revolves around them (and so the rules don't apply). I'd have been fired within a month if I'd gone into a classroom professionally, because I'd do everything I could to help someone who wanted to learn, but wouldn't tolerate slackers. I would definitely call them on it.

And while I can't condone taping their little mouths shut, I certainly understand how it would be an appealing thought. That one fourth grader (who is in jail now for assaulting a cop) is one I'd have sorely been tempted to duct-tape to a wall. Yes, I understand his frustration at life, and that he was 10 years old, and that I was the adult. He was still a royal pain in the tushy and, though I'd never have done it, that duct tape option was darned appealing.


Thanks for allowing me to vent.

I never saw a problem with letting teachers beat a kid's ass with a stick when he or she acted up.

Then again, I was never one of the people getting into trouble.

LOVE your photo there, killercat.

I'd agree, but lots of teachers are stupid and would not be able to tell the difference from a kid with a legitimate problem (such as being autistic, or acting up at school because they are being abused at home) from a kid who is just an annoying brat.

Teachers always got after me. I would often get harrassed and often beaten up and if I tried to fight back, I'd get yelled at and suspended. I was one of the smarter kids in class, too, but those teachers were idiots. I remember one teacher said to me in eighth grade when I was telling on a kid who was picking on me, "Why don't you stop acting like a baby and grow up?" And there was one in Freshman year whom hit me twice before I hit her back and I got a ten-day suspension thanks to her. Nothing happened to her, but I did avoid her as much as I could the rest of the school year. Needless to say, I can't stand teachers. Sure I've had some great ones, but the majority have majorly sucked.

As for the fourth graders, there was no excuse for them to be bounded to chairs. That sub should be arrested. They're kids for crying out loud! There is no such thing as perfect fourth graders!! !

Well, if this were a joke, I may find it funny as I don't really like children. But as it's real I'm not amused in the slightest. I think this is a form of abuse personally. It is essentially gagging someone doing that. I hope this teacher is severely reprimanded/punished for this as that's not acceptable behaviour from a supposed influential member of the community.