25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them (12 page)

Prudent teachers have a hands-off policy that is always in effect unless the teacher has to touch children to help them. Teachers, particularly male teachers, may underestimate their strength and inadvertently bruise or otherwise damage children if they grab them. Clever teachers find innovative ways, such as hug coupons, to communicate to their students that they care about them. Young students want to be touched and hugged by their teachers but the risks associated with making physical contact with students is more than most teachers want to assume. Touch if you must, but handle with care.

SCENARIO 2.9
Pupil Plucking

I knew this teacher did not like me. Even as a child, I felt the bad vibes. I sat in the back and I started stretching from one side to another in an effort to see the board. She finally asked, “What is the matter?” I answered, “I can’t see.” She came over to me and plucked a few strands of hair from my temple and as she pulled she said, “Well, get over here!”

This teacher preferred to use physical aggression and hostility rather than professionalism to address a student’s problem. Plucking hair from the student’s head is a bodily trespass that reeks of disrespect and dislike. The student was probably right about the teacher disliking her. Good teachers would seek a simple solution that would preserve the momentum of the lesson. They would simply try to accommodate students that need assistance seeing the board.

Scenario 2.10
Sweet Smile of Sorrow

My second-grade teacher, Ms. J. will forever live in my memory. In 1965–1966 spankings were not only allowed but, in retrospect, must have been encouraged. Ms. J. was an expert. Everyday she lined children up in the front of the classroom for every possible infraction there may have been. Perhaps a student’s eyes did not follow her as she paced the floor or the student did more homework than necessary (obviously not paying attention when she said “odd” only). I lived in fear because I did not want to be like my friend D., who received at least one spanking a day and sometimes three or more. D. always smiled as we saw and heard the paddle hit his buttocks. I knew I’d never smile, but would cry from humiliation. To prevent the situation of possible humiliation, I was sick regularly. My stomach hurt, my head hurt, I had a fever (at least the bulb did), and anything else that would give me a day off. I missed the maximum number of days allowed before my mother guessed there was a problem. After talking to the principal, she was told the teacher had personal problems.

This is a sorrowful example of how a teacher’s pathology contaminated her classroom. No matter how well a school district tries to screen applicants, privacy laws and the confidentiality of medical conditions increase the odds that some teachers with mental disorders will be hired. Unfortunately, monitoring what goes on in a classroom may be viewed as spying on the teacher. This perception should not be a deterrent. Administrators should be on the alert for excessive physical discipline; it usually precedes physical abuse. In fact, it would be prudent to establish a policy similar to the one at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJ
Medical School, 2007) that maintains a commitment to preventing student abuse through education, by setting standards of mistreatment that will not be tolerated, by giving examples of inappropriate, unacceptable behavior, and by supporting victims by responding with corrective action. Effective administrators visit classrooms often and listen to students’ complaints. The teacher in this scenario could not get away with spanking large numbers of children for ridiculous “infractions,” such as letting your eyes wander, if an administrator visited the class frequently.

It would seem that in the absence of an administrator, neighboring teachers should be aware of the teacher’s misconduct and alert the administration. Teachers must be advocates for children; they have a moral and legal obligation to report suspected abuse, even if a coworker is the perpetrator.

Mistake

3

Purposeful Alienation

SCENARIO 3.1
Scapegoat Scandal

I was supposed to bring markers to class for a group project and I forgot them. When my teacher asked me where they were, I told her I had forgotten them at home. She immediately went to the front of the class and got everyone’s attention and said, “OK, class, S. forgot something so little as markers, therefore, since she forgot the markers, we can’t do our fun project—Now we know we can’t depend on S. anymore to remember anything of importance!” The whole class was mad at me for forgetting the markers, and the teacher seemed to encourage them to alienate me.

To expect a child to provide the materials necessary for a lesson is a heavy burden of responsibility to place on a child. Children have a shorter attention span than adults and may, understandably, forget something important. The teacher bears the ultimate responsibility for the smooth execution of a lesson. An important part of teacher preparation is to anticipate the unexpected and have alternate plans and necessary materials included in the lesson planning. The teacher further exacerbated the problem with a public reprimand, which usually invites hostility or encourages withdrawal. Effective teachers know that soft, private reprimands are usually more effective. The teacher could have minimized the child’s agony by privately suggesting a second chance and by providing some helpful hints on how to remember to bring the markers next time. Sensitive teachers would have produced the needed markers and told the class that S. accidentally forgot the markers but has promised to bring them the next time.

Mistake

4

Public Ridicule

SCENARIO 4.1
Confession ≠ Contrition

When I was in junior high, I received a progress report with negative comments and a failing grade. I was asked to have my mother sign the form and return it. I did not want to get in trouble so I signed my mother’s name. I thought I was in the clear until about a week later, the report came in the mail. I was grounded for two months and had to get up in class and tell them why what I had done was so wrong. The two months would have been nothing but I had to live with the torment of my classmates teasing me. They all constantly asked me if I had forged my report cards, absentee notes, tardy notes, whatever needed to be signed.

Forced public confession sows the seeds of hypocrisy in very fertile ground. By forcing the student to stand up and tell the class what she did and why it was wrong, the teacher was encouraging hypocrisy. It was a false act. Obviously, the student did not think it was very wrong; she did it. The public confession also damaged the student’s credibility with her classmates. The torment she reaped far exceeded her crime.

There was no obvious benefit to having the student confess to the class; certainly there was no genuine contrition or any rectification of the problem. The astute teacher would instinctively know that the forgery is a private matter that should be settled with the child and her parents. McFee (1918) was a historical voice of reason, as evidenced by the following quote from her book, “Many a bad boy or girl has been reformed by a kind talk from the teacher in private, for such talks are rarely forgotten” (p. 26). A private talk would have been more effective in this case and may have sparked sincere repentance.

SCENARIO 4.2
Don’t Bother to Raise Your Hand

When I would raise my hand to answer, my teachers would never call on me. When I would get in trouble for talking, Mr. F. would make me sit in a desk right in front of the class. I felt so dumb. I hated the fact that the teachers always would put the smart students on everything. They forgot about the rest of us.

I had a professor who said, “The best way to extinguish good behavior is to fail to recognize it.” This bit of advice is rooted in Behavioral Learning Theory (Skinner, 1950), which suggests that failure to reinforce a behavior decreases the likelihood that it will occur again. The teacher’s failure to call on a student who raises her hand to answer almost guarantees that the child will eventually stop raising her hand. Failing to recognize a child could lead to alienation and hostility or rebellion. The child may decide that she will never answer a question in this class as an expression of her frustration.