To side with teacher over dd?

I taught a child who kept tipping his chair and swinging on two legs. It did slip and he split. his head open on the radiator (Hope it wasn't your DS hurdygurdy). Ask your DD which she would prefer a child standing up for a bit or a child in A&E having stitches?

Not something I'd get worked up about, but I'd want to know the facts.

It does sound a gross overreaction on the face of it. A phone call to the head if it were me or a meeting.
8 years old is very young. My DS at 8 was terrified because he'd lost his jotter and didn't want to face the teacher. When I saw her to explain she wasn't angry at all but quite surprised that he was afraid of her.

Have you posted this same problem before
Well someone has it was identical a little while back

I wouldn’t be happy if DGS1 (9) was made to stand for several hours either and can understand why mum was unhappy.
However, I do understand how hard it is for teachers these days with less parental backing than in days gone by, but feel the punishment here was slightly draconian!

We all want to think of our children and grandchildren as little angels, but of course they can’t be all the time, and when they’re naughty or disruptive they need to be appropriately disciplined.

We really aren’t doing them any favours, if we keep interfering, we have to let the teachers do their jobs.

Good grief, he's not going to die or be permanently deformed or disabled for standing up. If he ever went to a concert or a football match, he'd cope with standing up for that length of time.

I think your daughter is totally over-reacting.

Teachers are so limited in terms of what discipline they can use these days. He chose to disobey/ignore the teacher and had to face the consequences.

Your daughter should be backing the teacher, not raging at her. And having serious words with her son about respecting the teacher and doing as he's told and not disrupting the class.

(My son has a scar on his head from 20 years ago, when he ignored the teacher when he was told to stop swinging back on his chair and ended up inevitably going over backwards and cracking his head on a radiator. When he went back to school we made him go and apologise to the teacher.)

Maybe the "swinging" could be dangerous, either to himself or other pupils.
If he had been told twice to sit properly and ignored the teacher, then I agree that he should have some sort of punishment.
Standing for two hours had obviously stuck in his mind, so will be a good deterrent.

Find out exactly what happened. The young'un may have made his own version up.

Teachers hands are tied nowadays as regards any punishment being doled out as the next thing you know the parents are at the school with all kinds of threats.
One of my GGC was told off by his teacher for climbing, and the child knowing that the next telling off would mean an expulsion from school went ahead and continued to be the brat that he is and pretty well attends when he feels like it. No fear of the teachers, parents or anyone. Saying that,when I visit, he makes a bee-line to come and sit next to me on the settee, little knowing that if there was any misbehaving out of him I'd wallop him, though I have a sneaky feeling that he might realise this.

My GD is out of her mind with him, he's 10 and we reckon that if some sort of discipline isn't put into place now by the time he attends the " big " school next year he'll be a darn sight worse. He's a bright smart lad but has the makings of being a handful as he gets older.

They were all fine until they went to school !! Influence from other brats.
Mind you the rate schools are closing down on the Wirral there'll be no school to go to the way things are going and teachers leaving never to be replaced. Can you blame them ?

On the face of it, it sounds extrordinary, and a gross over reaction. However I suspect once further detail is available the offence will have been more extreme and the punishment less than as quoted.

If the description is accurate, then the parent has every cause for complaint. An afternoon's schooling is two hours or more. I would be talking to the school about it, if it was my child.

I ve read this before ?

So he probably had to stand for a max of 2 hours?

Swinging is very different from leaning and could’ve resulted in him being hurt. Still think a whole afternoon standing is a bit too much, but you really do need the facts.

He had been told twice. Sorry but when I said leaning I meant swinging. He was pretty adament it was from the end of the lunch break till hometime. I agree facts are needed

I'm sure your GS sees things very differently from the teacher, who may have had a lot of trouble with children leaning back dangerously on their chairs, have repeatedly warned them about it and felt that an example needed to be made for the children's safety.

If your DD is concerned, then a quiet word with the teacher to find out what really went on might be appropriate. However, as an ex-teacher with a teacher DiL, I think parents often over-react and it may be best just to leave it unless anything else happens.

Always ask the teacher, as long as you can do it without losing your temper. Children’s reports of what happened can be the truth, or the truth about how it affected them. An afternoon-usually 2 hours seems a long time for a punishment but perhaps he was told a few times or perhaps it was “If you can’t sit on that chair properly then you will have to stand” and he made the wrong choice.

Good point Eglantine was he really made to stand for the entire afternoon? Or maybe 10 minutes? Oh dear it’s a minefield.

I don’t think times have changed so much Scentia it’s just that maybe children are no longer frightened of their parents . I was terrified of some of my primary school teachers and if I had got into trouble ( I never did) I would have been even more terrified of my fathers reaction. I remember a boy in my primary school wetting his pants he was so frightened of the teacher and worse still being made to stand up in front of the whole school for it . This was the 1970’s for goodness sake not the dark ages.

We’re not sure the punishment was what he says either!

Umm, hate to mention it but was he allowed to go to the toilet? And was he wearing plimsolls?

I thought it was far more healthy to be standing rather than sitting all day. I do believe your DD is a little worried over nothing. Classes, I am sure, would run a lot better if teachers were allowed to teach without fear of parent backlash. I bet he was swinging on his seat and if he had been told not to he should have stopped, if my DS had come home and said that had happened 20 years ago, he would have been told off by us too, for disobeying the teacher. Oh how times have changed.

I agree with gilly, the crime doesn’t really match the punishment!

On the other hand, we can’t be completely sure what the crime was!

I wouldn’t be a teacher these days for anything!

I agree with gillybob your daughter needs to investigate this further Rebecca

We he wasn’t really lying was he ? Just not telling the whole story .

Exactly Deedaa