Teacher makes 7-year-old hit himself [on head with drum mallets]

mercurynews ^ | 05-04-2007 | staff writer

[bedolido]

note: tune head before attending class

[edcoil]

Our schools seem to have become filled with pedophiles, and idiots as teachers.

[chaos_5]

State officials say the 36-year-old teacher intended the head-banging as a lesson to Justin Barricklow about hitting the drums too hard.

I see his point, I think the school over reacted.

[stayathomemom]

Is this going to have any impact on soccer coaches?

[bedolido]

I think I saw this while watching the movie “Drumline”... maybe the teacher was a fan.

[chaos_5]

Don't think the anti-soccer crowed out there isn't trying to ban soccer because the sport could injure the children's brains etc..

[KJC1]

Ummm...big deal. There was no mention of injury to the child. Now, if the teacher had asked him to bash his head in with a hammer, then I could see the problem, but this? Ridiculous.

[basil]

Good grief! Once, when I was about in the third grade, I decided I wanted to learn to play the drums. My music teacher (in school) had me and the rest of the kids do the same thing.

He was trying to get us to quit hitting the drum too hard. The whole point was to illustrate what happens when you bang too hard with the drumsticks. IOW, he wanted us to learn to hit the drum no harder than we would hit our head.

I thought it was a great illustration and although I never really got very good at playing the drums, this one little exercise certainly improved what little technique I had.

The thought of my daddy suing the school over this sends me into hysterical laughing.

BTW--whis was in the 40's.

[driftdiver]

I dont see the issue. Doesn’t seem as if the teacher was brutalizing the kid.

[r9etb]

I'd need more information to make a judgement on this ... but off-hand, it does sound like a vast over-reaction.

If it was couched in terms of "hit the drum about as hard as you'd want to hit your own head," then it's actually an excellent teaching method.

If it was more like, "hit your head hard to see how the drums feel..." then he'd be out of line.

[Duke Nukum]

Is this going to have any impact on soccer coaches?

Maybe soccer coaches will be the only ones who will be allowed to teach music class?

[wideawake]

I'll await the flames, but I will point out that elementary school teaching attracts people who: (1) are lazy and want to get overpaid to do almost nothing or (2) have an unhealthy fixation on kids.

Full disclosure: both my parents are educators and are disgusted with 90% of their "professional" colleagues.

[LibWhacker]

They look deadly.

[I still care]

I’m with you, I don’t see the big deal on this.

I’ve done stuff like this in class myself, if you put the pressure on yourself you are more able to check pressure or such.

I remember I had a child standing next to me who kept turning the wrong way. I put my hand on the side of his shoulder and LIGHTLY guided him to stand in the right place. He started yelling, you hurt me, you hurt me!

Needless to say I’ve never touched a student since, but I think there may be certain opportunities lost because of that.

And I remember several times in classes when we were told to touch ourselves in ways so we could measure things (I teach science). Any class where you deal with mechanical things this may happen.

[Duke Nukum]

Don't think the anti-soccer crowed out there isn't trying to ban soccer because the sport could injure the children's brains etc..

Both public schools and universities demonstrably injure children's brains and nobody is trying to shut them down.

Dain bramage is probably the main reason a sport as boring as soccer is being heavily promoted on us. I mean, seriously, who can watch a whole game w/o suffering some loss of function. Soccer is sort of like a stroke that's played on a field. It never matters who wins because anyone paying attention loses.

[Sopater]

I think the school over reacted.

The kid didn't have to hit himself hard enough to give himself a headache. That was the point. The teacher was trying to get him to hit the drum softer.

Besides, who hasn't tapped themself on the head with a soft mallet?

[massgopguy]

Tea Boxes. BAH! My Slingerlands laugh at them. And the teacher is wrong. You can’t hit a drum too hard.

[dinoparty]

I agree that a few are lazy, and a very few have an “unhealthy fixation on kids”, however, most just love children in a healthy way. Is that a crime?

[txroadkill]

For crying out loud....my band director got to hit me on the butt with a wood paddle, I would have given anything to have had the option to hit myself on the head with anything.

This was a teaching technique, obviously this kids parents weren't in band.

[GSWarrior]

Good thing he wasn’t playing the tuba.