Teachers urged to tolerate swearing

Daily Press (Victorville CA) ^ | Sunday, August 27, 2006 | By HILLARY BORRUD / Staff Writer

[steveegg]

Sums it up crudely, but perfectly.

[sonic109]

Officially NO!..The few times I have in 10 years no one said boo to me about it ( no one was willing to even look at me during those few times )

[Popocatapetl]

Pity that they essentially are advocating child neglect.

Children who are raised in ill-disciplined homes actually respond *better* to strong discipline provided elsewhere. It gives them the strength, stability and confidence that they have been lacking.

By accommodating, rather than correcting, their bad behaviors, their teachers not only instill in them even stronger feelings of alienation and neglect, but resentment as well.

Not ironically, this fits in well with the low expectations and subtle racism and class-hatred felt by their teachers and administrators. That their students are lower-class minorities not worth the effort to help improve, so they should be made to feel comfortable in their inferior status, because that is where they should remain.

[VRWCmember]

Nice catch.

[Coldwater Creek]

You are paying in more ways that one!!!

[photodawg]

Luckily there are now letters to the editor in the Daily Press speaking out against this enlightened "new professionalism." If we think publik skools are bad now...with this type of allowance, no family that has standards & expectations will be able to send their children there.

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This new professionalism has been around for the last 20 years or so. Its one of the reasons I was glad I was able to retire last year after 32 years of trying to hold down the fort in a suburban classroom. I survived, I didn't succeed. I learned after being sued for breaking up a fight, that you had no real authority. The inmates were running the asylum. I learned how to "handle" things myself and not rely on the administration. I never told a student anything I couldn't back up, and ran the classroom with my wits and my personality. I had to keep three moves ahead of the kids just to avoid the confrontations that would inevitably result in a student "victory" in the administrative courtroom.
For four years the lawsuit hung over my head, knowing that if I got "physical" with another student it would damage the existing case. I would keep unruly students after school for a few minutes and have the following conversation. I've already got my education, if you don't want yours I could care less. If you persist in disrupting the class, I'll make a fool of you in front of everyone. You'll never break me down because you can't get to me, I get back at you every other Friday. When the wide eyed youngster would then ask "what do you mean?". I would tell him "Every other Friday is pay day. And when I take that check to the bank I think of you and smile."
Many of the kids I had that conversation with have come back to see me and said Mr. Stowell you were right about things, my education was my responsibility.
Four years after the filing of the civil suit, it went to trial. Two wasted days of testimony resulted in a 1 hour jury deliberation, and a not guilty verdict, the foreman saying they would want the same response from the teacher if it was their child involved.

[Froufrou]

Thanks. Maria, you're right. I have a concept that by loosing our etiquette we are contributing to the moral suicide of the country. And that includes swearing in the classroom. I'd like to see the pledge returned, even if they strike "under G-d."

[weegee]

...students today have less respect for authority than they did when many teachers were in school and consequently, some teachers have unrealistic expectations of their students.

Defining deviancy down.

The antiestablishment left demanded that children question authority (but they did not tolerate anyone questioning the motives of the anarchist agitators). Now they are the establishment. Reap what you sow.

[Froufrou]

Maybe we should slant the curriculum to reflect a more buddhist feel: material stuff is whack and helping your brother is fly.

[AmericanChef]

What a way to keep kids stupid. This acceptable swearing and mouthing off will CERTAINLY be acceptable to employers when/if these delinquents go looking for a job. That school should be shut down.

Scum liberals are complete and total hypocrites. They want to keep slaves, and the only way to do that is to keep new generations ignorant, stupid, and dependent. It's sickening.

[weegee]

How about reciting the citizenship oath that new citizens are supposed to pledge (even if they don't uphold it).

A few years of it might make people rethink their priorities.

---

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.


Bold - the line "so help me God" is optional, and sometimes the lines "that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform non-combatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by law" are omitted as well, if the prospective citizen can prove such commitments are in violation with his or her religion.

The Oath of Citizenship is not a federal law. Technically, any oath is legal, as long as it meets the "five principles" mandated by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1953. These principles are:

allegiance to the United States Constitution,
renunciation of allegiance to any foreign country or leader to which the immigrant has had previous allegiances to,
defense of the Constitution against enemies "foreign and domestic"
promise to serve in the United States Armed Forces when required by law (either combat or non-combat)
promise to perform civilian duties of "national importance" when required by law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_citizenship_(United_States)

[weegee]

When a student is visibly agitated, the teacher might not want to push any buttons by asking if he or she brought in homework that day.

“We need to see ourselves as teachers and adults in the classroom,” Weaver said, “but we shouldn’t see ourselves as dictators, where students see themselves as far less than the teacher.”

"Do as thou will shall be the whole of the law." - Alister Crowley ("occultist", self-centered philosophy adopted by Satanists)

[sonic109]

What a sad story . Now you should sue those who brought you to trial for 2 years of pain and suffering over NOTHING . I would , just for spite.
School administrations are totally PC now.
I had a rare serious situation with a student 2 years ago. I had to bring him down to the principal myself . After explaining the situation the principal then wanted to hear the KID"S SIDE OF THE STORY ! I told him , I'm the adult and teacher and there IS NO other side to be heard . I walked out and head sh*t about it from him for a week afterwards.

[weegee]

Teachers should never take anything a student says personally, Culberson said.

Do this include racist and sexist epithets?

Children can push peoples' buttons too.

[photodawg]

the teacher might not want to push any buttons by asking if he or she
...brought in homework that day.
...finished the test.
...had an written excuse for being absent yesterday.
...would please sit down and be quiet.
...would stop interrupting class.
...would put away the knife.
(et cetera)

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Exactly right.During my last year teaching after 32 years in a classroom, a student had a large kitchen knife fall out of her back pack in front of a number of students. A couple of them notified a teacher who informed the principle shortly before the end of the school day. The girl denied it was her knife, and the principal allowed her to go home and return to school the next day. She was in my homeroom, so when I saw her there the next morning and unaware of the Principal's decision about the incident, I walked down to the office and closed the door behind me. I told the principal that I was going home to get my pistol, and coming back to school with it on my belt and wearing it in my classes, because if students were going to be allowed to carry knives that I was compelled to defend myself and the other students. She knew I wasn't playing. She called in the police, who talked to the other students and the student with the knife was suspended and arrested for possession of a weapon. this is no exaggeration, it's exactly how the incident went down.

[weegee]

If the kids don't learn to stand down, how will they ever grow up to be teachers who will submit to the whims of unruly students?

Someone has to break their will somehow. The authority of an employer should do this? Talk about regretting a job.

[Grendel9]

"teachers need to adjust how they interact with and discipline students who misbehave, particularly students from difficult backgrounds"

This guy missed something in his Psych 101 class!
In every class there will always be one kid who
tgries to push peer image to the detriment of the teacher,
given the opportunity. The teacher has to make it clear from Day One that HE/SHE is in control of that class, not the would-be adversary.

I always opened my first day high school Jr/Sr English
classes with a few rules.
#1: Everyone in this room will at all times show respect for everyone else in this room.
#2: I don't swear at you; you don't swear at me.
Any dispute we may have will be settled in the
privacy of my office, NOT in front of our classmates.
#3: The only time raising one's voice in anger will be
acceptable is during a dramatic interpretation of
the literary selection at hand.

For 33 years those rules worked for me and I had
kiddoes from all kinds of families: the spoiled
kid from the richest family in town; the kids
from a family everyone knew was living in a car;
the boy who made the national news when he shot
and killed both his mother and father; the White
Kid whose father was in Jail, his mom was
a prostitute, and he was the leader of a member of
a black ghetto gang, selling dope over his cellphone.

And, yes, they ALL studied Shakespeare's Macbeth
together.

[HungarianGypsy]

So that explains a few years ago when I was on a bus and asked a guy to refrain from swearing in front of my children. He swore at me, then his friend said my children would hear swearing in school. Or the brats who called me a b**** for the same request. (my husband didn't tolerate that one. had a few words with these children and they went out to cry to store security).

These incidents came as surprises to me, since it was only ten or eleven years ago that I could make the same request and have a bashful young man apologize for his language.

[betsyross1776]

Wonderful , Clinton taught kids about bjs, now we will have teachers allowing our kids to learn curse words. In my house I would keep the bar of soap handy if I was a parent of a young child!

[HungarianGypsy]

Oh. BTW, something I forgot to mention in my post. Which really goes with the racial issues involving this article. The first two incidents in my post. The man who swore at me was black. The kids who swore at me were Mexican. The man apologized for his language was white.