Standing up when parents / teachers walk in?

Pupils in my class always stood up to greet me at the beginning of the lesson and said "good morning/afternoon" as appropriate. When taking the register I always greeted each child with an individual "good morning/afternoon" as I said their name. I liked that it got the lesson off on the right foot. (No pun intended.)

Me too, ga

I know we had to stand up at Grammar School if the Headmistress came into the room - I can hear the scrape of chair legs now! Don't remember whether it applied to other teachers though.

But standing up when a parent enters the room!! How ridiculous would that be when Mum's in and out of the kitchen where the kids are doing their homework?

i've worked in schools where pupils stand when an adult enters the room. very pleasant and respectful. sometimes it disrupts work, if they have to stand for every adult who enters.

i've had a lot of fun with registers. one of my groups used to answer with different things daily - a french word, the name of a car, a country, the foulest language they knew, a film star, another teacher's name, a one word story...

Teachers! Yes! I remember that! The only time I stood for a parent was when I attended a coroners inquest, when my father was the coroner!
It was-- all stand for her majesties coroner!
So I did.
I told him, that was not going to be a normal occurrence! He agreed!
(and so did my mother

Yes I remember that we had to stand up, but I think it was only if the headmistress came into the room and we then had to say ... "Good morning/ afternoom Mrs Hamilton "

granbunny, how can you have a one word story? I am curious.

Parallel universe dave, parallel universe. In secondary schools mostly the teachers have their own base and the kids queue up outside their rooms.
I can't imagine learning would benefit if, in the middle of a lesson, another teacher walks in and everyone stands up and then has to be re-settled. Another pitch for a headline in the DM. Pathetic.

That's the line they went with on the Jeremy Vine programme on Radio 2 today. I must admit times and schools have changed since my/our day.

If one stops to think about why schoolkids were made to stand up when the teacher entered the room for a lesson, it makes sense. It's a way of stopping all the chat and playing and focussing attention on the teacher for the lesson. It is not about "repsect" except in so far as it is a device for grabbing attention and saying: Stop mucking around; time to concentrate" without uttering a word. It is, if you like, a punctuation.

Nowadays, as jess says, the punctuation is different because teachers stay put and kids move from room to room. Nowadays the punctuation is having to wait until the teacher is ready to let the kids enter her territory. The inherent implication is "my territory, my rules, pay attention".

JessM bagitha you are right. Pupils don't enter unless the teacher is in the room. (usually because the room is locked)

All English lessons in my last school began with silent reading, so the mantra was "In, sit, quiet, read." And mostly, they did. Lovely peaceful start to a lesson.

We had to stand at the start of every lesson anyway, to say the Hail Mary - I still remember it in French and Latin.
We only left our classrooms for specialist subjects - gym, art, cookery, needlework, science and geography. We had our own desks - no heaving heavy bags of book around the school. It must be quite bewildering for children moving from primary schools where they had their own base to a big secondary school which might even be on more than one site.
How easy the teachers at my convent grammar school had it - no discipline problems, no after-school clubs- I left in 1956 and by the time I started teaching in 1971 things were very different. They are even harder now - I have enormous respect for teachers today and get very annoyed on their behalf for the continuous flak they receive. Most people are still somewhat in awe of their doctor, but almost everyone has been to school, and those who had bad experiences often pass on their hostility to their children.

I remember in the days when I went to church that we used to stand for the Creed but kneel for other prayers. I'm still not sure why.

As an adjunct to this topic, if you're female, do you like men standing up when you come into the room and when you leave - or has that more or less died out now? And if you're male, do you feel you should stand when a woman comes in / leaves?

Yes I remember standing each time the teacher entered and we greeted him/her by name. It's all about respect. The boys raised their caps, we all held the door open for each other, we stood aside to let a teacher or adult past. My children did the same and it's done them no harm. Bring back manners and respect - it would go a long way to repair what's wrong in this country of ours......

I remember standing when the headteacher came into the room but not for other teachers. Unfortunately manners need to be taught at home and all to often they're not, so no matter what the school does it's all undermined by parents and carers. Children used to start school with the basics. Now we have to encourage them to say please and thank you. But then many parents are abdicating what we classed as our duty to teach our children. I've had children start school unable to take off/put on own coat, use a knife and fork, sit at a table to eat or worst of all in my opinion...use a toilet. In the past a school was allowed to refuse a child a place until they were toilet trained unless the child had a special need. That changed a few years ago. I isn't unheard of for children to not only start nursery but actually main school still wearing nappies.

Sorry off on a tangent lol. My point is that manners are dying out because a lot of parents don't have good manners and don't pass them on to their children.

Has the decline in manners that is spoken of happened because the people who are parents now were not taught properly by their parents? Or is it one of those vague malaises of "society". Society? What's that? I thought it was US. So it's our fault if good manners are in decline, not someone else's.

That said, I can't say I've noticed the decline myself. People seem as polite, in general terms, as they have always been. And as rude. And as indifferent.

Fashions in manners change, but the nature of politeness and consideratioon for others doesn't.

just to add the old custom of standing when introduced to someone (assuming you were sitting of course) seems to have gone along with shaking hands on first meeting (not air kissing on first introduction). I still tend to stand (even if it takes me a while to get out of the chair) and shake hands on introduction but notice that an airy 'hello' or 'hi' while remaining seated seems to be more the trend.

I'm happy to shake hands with people. I'm equally happy with an airy Hi! The important thing is that one is greeted in a positive, polite way. If someone says Hi! to you while looking into your eyes and smiling with welcome (or introductory trepidation, even), they are being polite. Why would I want to complain about that? I think we need to tolerate different people's ways of being polite and friendly. Being sticklers for rigid rules is narrow minded and missing the point — the point being to communicate one's acceptance of the other person into one's 'orbit' for whatever reason.

These days I am never introduced to anyone older than I am - but when I was younger I would stand to be introduced. I tend to just smile and say 'Hello' to my daughter's and GC's friends.

It's the essence of the greeting that counts, not the form. Maybe some people are less skilled at recognising "essences" and that's why a change in form bothers them. [goes off to ponder on this while cleans teeth]

Mmm bagitha will think while clearing out my wardrobe...

Children need to understand 'why' there are certain expectations placed upon them and are also very quick to spot discrepancies in behaviour. I would not expect my children (or pupils) to have standards that I didn't keep myself, but I do see and hear this quite often of late. Adults who swear/shout/are rude/say unkind things and then tell children that they shouldn't behave like that. I agree with baggy's comment about society being us. If respect is modelled, then usually that is understood by young people and they will adapt their own behaviour accordingly.
Having said that, I know that I sometimes let myself down in the way I behave and I'm an adult; I think children and young people ought to be allowed to grow and develop and make mistakes without incurring derogatory labels. I often hear parents (and teachers) describe particular children as 'monsters', 'nightmares' and worse.
As for greetings - again I would echo baggy who I think has it spot on.

This is quite a complicated thread to follow but I think I agree with Bagitha.

A quick answer would be to say yes I think children should stand when a teacher comes into the room, but only if they are attending Eton.

A longer answer would be that generally speaking I think respect has to be earned not demanded. If you have a school where there is hostility between teachers and pupils (with faults on both sides a lot of the time, not just with the pupils) then insisting that pupils stand when a (hated and despised maybe) teacher enters the room would do more harm than good.

My impression is that many of the posters in favour of children standing attended convents or grammar schools, a different kettle of fish to the free- for-all, no hope secondary moderns that some of us went to. I can't remember any standing in my school though I think some of the better behaved boys did desist from throwing missiles after the teacher entered the room

We always get complimented on our friendly, well behaved, respectful children when ofsted calls. "wonderful children" I think one of the inspectors said last time. Children hold open doors for adults. They mostly live on a deprived council estate.
What on earth would standing up when adults enter classrooms add to this achievement on the part of the school?