Quote:
Originally Posted by annesingleton
I completely disagree with you, how do you know that by your behaviour in the position of authority as a teacher you are not having a devastating effect on peoples lives?
It is not a storm in a milkshake. Like I keep saying, I fully understand the frustration of the teacher - this was perhaps the trigger point to a long string of stuff - but the adult professional cannot behave in such a manner.
Think about the long history of child abuse cases - the most recent in the news being the Victoria Climbie case, the Baby P case and even more recently the sexual exploitation cases in Rochdale where professionals have turned a blind eye. What is the answer? You turn a blind eye to everything or you investigate everything - I would prefer the latter in order to safeguard our children and young people.
So to me, if a teacher (or any other professional in a position of trust) behaves in an unacceptable manner for whatever reason, the case should be investigated in order to protect the vast majority of young people in our society. And also as I've said before the professional adult knows their remit and should abide by what is expected of them. If you work with young people from birth to eighteen years your main priority should be to protect them and achieve best outcomes. If this means someone throwing a milkshake at you then perhaps you should look at what led to that happening and perhaps change your own behaviour accordingly whilst addressing the unacceptable behaviour of the young person which must have been apparent previously. Perhaps my comments seem hard but I stand by them, having been in my profession for nearly thirty years. I have every sympathy for the teacher, and perhaps the systems and culture of the school should be investigated, it could be that in this case the staff may not have been adequately protected or trained to deal with disruptive pupils.
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Teachers have been in a position of authority for a couple of hundred years, can't recall a single instance of a criminal citing a teacher to blame, or of a single person saying that a teacher devastated their life.
You cannot equate the serious case reviews of Baby P and Victoria Climbie, (they were combined multiple failures of parenting, healthcare professionals, the police and god awful communication between departments), with a teacher who through poor training or instinctiveness holds a pupils hands down.
The teacher/pupil relationship should work both ways, with mutual respect, unfortunately some kids just ain't interested. They are more up to speed with what teachers can and cannot do thanks to the internet and social media, and being kids they push, push, push to the edge. Teachers cannot adapt to a typical teenagers behaviour because your typical teenager changes their behaviour constantly.