Teacher Staples Note To Child's Shirt

What horrible schools were you people going to that safety pinned notes to you? I am a teacher and I send notes home that need to come back to school with a signature. If it doesn't come back I email the parents or call them. Classroom management is always going to be an issue in schools.

To put in context; pre-writing, humans were capable of storing entire stories in memory. The Torah was passed on orally, as were many other religious myths. People could recite thousands of words from memory without missing a verb. After books were invented, we lost this capacity. Humans adapt to the environment, and develop the skills needed to fit into that environment. The modern world is a different play-pen from Plato's and Aristotle's. We are required to look in our mirrors every 10 seconds or less, we need to be constantly scanning the scene for deals. We have a million lights coming at us from every angle. Our memories suck and we can't stay focused. We do it to ourselves, we do, and that's why it really hurts.

It's worth noting that the ability to stay focused on a singular task has diminished since the technological age. Kids today are incapable of staying focused on boring instructions. One researcher said, going from the technological jungle that constitutes most of their loves, to the barren waste-land of technology that is the traditional class-room, is a major challenge for kids. The average adult in our society has an intruding thought every 15 seconds. Kids, probably have them more frequently. ADD isn't a disorder, it's the new human.

When did we start expecting 7 year olds to act like adults. Does childhood end after kindergarten now?

The thing that bothers me the most about this story isnt the fact that she stapled something to the boy (athough, its a little weird...seriously couldnt find a safety pin?) its the comments! Im seeing the mother called a bad parent and the boy called a brat or worse.

For talking out of turn...in second grade....really? Then my entire second grade class was filled with brats with terrible parents I guess. We talked a lot...I assume its the same all over the place. I remember the teacher making us move to a different spot the first time, and out to the hall the second. and you know what? We *gasp* passed notes so we wouldnt get caught talking too! I live in a small town, and I can tell you with certainty that none of us turned out to be criminals. I wonder if this teacher has tried being more interesting...

Also, as far as the mother being a bad parent, yes, perhaps shes blowing this out of proportion (perhaps not. How does one remove a staple from a shirt without ruining the shirt? How much touching is required for a teacher to do such a thing? Did she place half of the stapler down the boys shirt in order to staple the paper there?) Growing up, I recieved the occasional note from school. Not once did my mom call the teacher back over a note, although they did talk at confrences. Why would you call over a note, especially for one that says talking out of turn? I personally would read it, talk to my kid, and unless it specifically said to get in touch with the teacher, toss it in the garbage.

And how does anyone know that she didnt talk to him about his dicipline issues at school? What the hell is she supposed to do, follow him to school and hold his hand all day so he doesnt speak until spoken to?

Also, Leahl, if teacher cant handle the stresses of being a teacher, they should quit. In my state there are plenty of people searching for a teaching job who can't find one (a few former classmates included). As an undergraduate, I briefly considered education as a major, and changed my mind quick after the job shadowing! In the 2nd grade class I watched the kids ran around the room out of control (supposed to be measuring things with cm cubes) while the teacher played farmville. At one point, another teacher came in and asked her to send her some seeds or something. Stop expecting so much from the teachers, maybe we should expect more from the people teaching our children, especially since they are warned all throughout college that the hours were very long and that the pay was not good, and that some parents can be terrible. Teaching is not an easy job and you shouldnt expect it to be.

So, if teacher's aren't allowed to hit the kids any more or embarrass them into proper behavior, then just how are they supposed to discipline them? When I was in school, if you got caught chewing gum, the teacher didn't make you throw it away, you had to wear it on your nose for the rest of class. Only took one time of that for all gum chewing in class to stop.