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*NOTE* The original post detailing this issue was pulled from the blog it was published on due to concerns regarding privacy (attention from a national news agency). I have permission from the blogger who posted it to re-post (and gently edit) it here.
My re-posting has been reviewed and approved by said blogger (whose husband *is* the teacher). Due to the unusual circumstances, I will not be linking to that blogger.
~*~
*NOTE* The original post detailing this issue was pulled from the blog it was published on due to concerns regarding privacy (attention from a national news agency). I have permission from the blogger who posted it to re-post (and gently edit) it here.
My re-posting has been reviewed and approved by said blogger (whose husband *is* the teacher). Due to the unusual circumstances, I will not be linking to that blogger.
~*~
Dictionary.com defines corporal punishment as:
Monday, a teacher in a K-8 public school was called into the district's Legal Department for assigning a punishment to his students that is categorized as corporal punishment.
Have your attention?
Wonder what he did?
Have visions of spanking?
Paddling?
Canings?
Nope! He made them sing, or recite a poem, to regain text books, musical instruments, notebooks, backpacks or other items that belonged in their locker, but were left behind in his classroom.
The non-PE teacher equivalent of running laps. Which, by the way, is also defined as corporal punishment.
This teacher has a huge classroom, a portion of it houses lockers for the middle school students. All 100 middle school students tromp in and out of his room between classes to access their lockers.
According to the teacher, there are days when you cannot even walk into his classroom because there are book bags, lunches, coats, sweatshirts, etc. all over the floor. You know how a teenager keeps their bedroom? Yeah ... that's what they were doing to his classroom.
Enter in creative discipline. The rule is simple. If you don't put your stuff in your locker, the teacher assumes it is lost and puts it in the lost and found pile. If it is a text book, binder, notebook or instrument, he puts it in his pile - and you have to earn it back.
The teacher used to assign essays, but switched it up to memorizing and reciting a poem or singing a song. Last year, his kids thought it was funny and named the teacher's pile "The Glee" pile.
Everyone has had stuff in the pile. If a kid was too overwhelmed by the idea of singing, the teacher would work out an alternative.
The teacher did have other options. He could have given detention, resulting in his loss of all of his before and after school planning, and lunch period, to supervise the detention. Instead, he decided his creative punishment was a better fit for the crime.
It was not a big deal. It got the student's attention and deterred them from doing it again.
Best of all, the parents were happy. They were not paying replace things like text books, band instruments and other high dollar items.
Until this year. Ten days into school, and a parent decides that rather than talking to the teacher, or the principal, he'd go straight to the legal department.
The teacher was officially told he could not use essay writing, poem memorization or singing to punish the kids ... or else he loses his job ...
The teacher has no recourse if kids leave their belongings all over his room, treating the classroom like it is their bedroom. He is expected to pick up after them. Nothing else.
The principal isn't happy either. The only option his middle school teachers have for punishment now is to send the kids to the office. This is far from ideal as the goal is to enable the teachers to solve minor discipline problems themselves. Now, in addition to everything else, the principal will be tasked with handing out punishments, or not punishing at all.
Anyone else bothered by this one?
Have we really become a society where making kids write an essay as punishment is the equivalent of spanking or caning or flogging?
Or has this gone too far?
The teacher apologized. "Admitted" that for the past three years, he has been administering an illegal punishment. That he met with the legal department who explained to him what he was doing did not follow district guidelines. The students are all smiles until he let them them know that now he is going to punish them within school guidelines. First offense for leaving your belongings outside of your locker is detention. Second offense is a longer detention. Third offense may include detention but could also be a suspension.
I'm thinking all of the students would rather be singing now!
1. Law . physical punishment, as flogging, inflicted on the body of one convicted of a crime: formerly included the death penalty, sentencing to a term of years, etc. 2. physical punishment, as spanking, inflicted on a child by an adult in authority.
Monday, a teacher in a K-8 public school was called into the district's Legal Department for assigning a punishment to his students that is categorized as corporal punishment.
Have your attention?
Wonder what he did?
Have visions of spanking?
Paddling?
Canings?
Nope! He made them sing, or recite a poem, to regain text books, musical instruments, notebooks, backpacks or other items that belonged in their locker, but were left behind in his classroom.
The non-PE teacher equivalent of running laps. Which, by the way, is also defined as corporal punishment.
This teacher has a huge classroom, a portion of it houses lockers for the middle school students. All 100 middle school students tromp in and out of his room between classes to access their lockers.
According to the teacher, there are days when you cannot even walk into his classroom because there are book bags, lunches, coats, sweatshirts, etc. all over the floor. You know how a teenager keeps their bedroom? Yeah ... that's what they were doing to his classroom.
Enter in creative discipline. The rule is simple. If you don't put your stuff in your locker, the teacher assumes it is lost and puts it in the lost and found pile. If it is a text book, binder, notebook or instrument, he puts it in his pile - and you have to earn it back.
The teacher used to assign essays, but switched it up to memorizing and reciting a poem or singing a song. Last year, his kids thought it was funny and named the teacher's pile "The Glee" pile.
Everyone has had stuff in the pile. If a kid was too overwhelmed by the idea of singing, the teacher would work out an alternative.
The teacher did have other options. He could have given detention, resulting in his loss of all of his before and after school planning, and lunch period, to supervise the detention. Instead, he decided his creative punishment was a better fit for the crime.
It was not a big deal. It got the student's attention and deterred them from doing it again.
Best of all, the parents were happy. They were not paying replace things like text books, band instruments and other high dollar items.
Until this year. Ten days into school, and a parent decides that rather than talking to the teacher, or the principal, he'd go straight to the legal department.
The teacher was officially told he could not use essay writing, poem memorization or singing to punish the kids ... or else he loses his job ...
The teacher has no recourse if kids leave their belongings all over his room, treating the classroom like it is their bedroom. He is expected to pick up after them. Nothing else.
The principal isn't happy either. The only option his middle school teachers have for punishment now is to send the kids to the office. This is far from ideal as the goal is to enable the teachers to solve minor discipline problems themselves. Now, in addition to everything else, the principal will be tasked with handing out punishments, or not punishing at all.
Anyone else bothered by this one?
Have we really become a society where making kids write an essay as punishment is the equivalent of spanking or caning or flogging?
Or has this gone too far?
*FUNNY FOOTNOTE* (I love this teacher)* The student whose parents raised a stink? She came to school Tuesday and told the other students that she got her parents to fix the problem. The students walk into the classroom ready to challenge the teacher on the rule.
The teacher apologized. "Admitted" that for the past three years, he has been administering an illegal punishment. That he met with the legal department who explained to him what he was doing did not follow district guidelines. The students are all smiles until he let them them know that now he is going to punish them within school guidelines. First offense for leaving your belongings outside of your locker is detention. Second offense is a longer detention. Third offense may include detention but could also be a suspension.
I'm thinking all of the students would rather be singing now!
~*~*~
