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Is it acceptable for teachers to shame their pupils into good behaviour?

A life lived in fear is a life half lived.

Parenting (216) Children (252) Education (92) Schooling (2)

By Rept0n1x via Wikimedia Commons

The new school year here in England is barely two weeks old and already there are stories of four year old children being made to feel shame in an attempt by their teachers to get them to behave well. Is this acceptable? Should such young children be labelled as naughty and told they are stupid if they do not behave well? Do you think that this is an effective way to encourage the kind of behaviour the teacher wants?

#Children
#Education
#Schooling
#Parenting

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Top Answers

I find it very upsetting, that such young children are being effectively bullied by the person who is supposed to be taking care of them. I think creating a culture of shame like this is counter productive and causes more discipline problems long term than it solves.

by VerityG

This kind of behaviour is not acceptable. A couple of years ago my son had a relief teacher who shamed him in front of the entire class by making him hold up his drawing, while she called it "scribble". He is now 8 and absolutely loathes drawing pictures :(

by thriftyfrugalfun

What a horrible thing to do to him. Imagine if Picasso's teachers had done that to him, the world would be a different place.

by Sarah Bell

I worked in a school where the Grade 1 teacher completely 'lost it' during an art lesson, and tore up a kid's painting, saying it wasn't what he was supposed to do and told him to start again.

by amanda

Some kids have poor behavioural examples at home so are simply copying what they know. And their parents don't care enough to teach them properly.

Though I don't agree with the naughty/stupid labelling - due to going through school with an undiagnosed form of autism, failing just about everything was enough for me to call myself stupid. Kids don't need this label from teachers as well.

by amanda

Never. This isn't fair at all on the kids. If the teachers can't handle them, they should look at better class management practices or perhaps rethink their suitability for the role. If this happened in my school, I'd be pulling my kids out to homeschool them.

by Sarah Bell

This is exactly what I did!

by thriftyfrugalfun

Good on you. Kids are so vulnerable it's just not fair.

by Sarah Bell

No not at too young an age.

by jonaja

It's an extremely ineffective way to create peace in a classroom. If it was effective then we wouldn't see the same kids in trouble year after year. This sort of thing makes so feel so glad that we unschool the kids, and it was actually one of the main reasons we chose to. My eldest daughter had the most awful teacher ever, and we pulled her out and never sent her back.

by meggf

Not at all! It damages their self belief , makes them resentful and destroys their self confidence. Those who do this to students are not worthy of holding the position of teacher.

by Sandy Ludinski

Never.

by lizzi

I think this is wrong. There must be a better way to discipline students. Give clear directions and consequences not shaming.

by Gia

This question is for the school psychologists. Challenging behavior sometimes requires assessment beyond the classroom. Ultimately, the child must have good examples to model, and should also be instructed.

by kirk3

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