Monday, November 05, 2012

Vanessa Greening and Jeremy Vine

A quiet word from the Head should have sorted out this nonsense, but instead Vanessa Greening received an assault conviction and her school will now 'carry out an investigation' before deciding what to do with her.
I don't mind admitting that I did exactly the same thing a dozen times.
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2012/11/03/tipton-teacher-hit-boy-in-class/

Do we hear her Union speaking out in her defense, as they would do if she didn't know anything about her subject, couldn't be bothered to try and control the kids, or never came in to work?

Also, well done to Jeremy Vine last week for highlighting the madness of teachers marking their own pupils' coursework when they are themselves judged on how good the marks are.
More on this in http://www.amazon.co.uk/Education-Downfall-Frank-Chalk-ebook/dp/B0051BID7U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352101907&sr=8-1










5 comments:

Boy on a bike said...

My Maths teacher was fond of hurling wooden dusters at your head if you offended him in some way. As he was an excellent all-round sportsman, you needed to be very alert and to have sharp reflexes to get out of the way. He didn't bruise too many foreheads - usually the sound of the duster smashing into the backwall at 100mph was enough to smarten every one up.

Someone was stupid enough to laugh at him once when he missed - he followed up by picking up a desk from the front row and hurling that at the offender. That ruined his whole day (the kid who wore the desk, not the teacher).

When that teacher retired after over 40 years of service (at the same school), the school organised a dinner in each state for old boys to honour him. Hundreds turned out, including me. They don't make them like him any more.

Marc said...

Maybe this is Maths ... but I had a maths teacher who was slightly fogiving, he sent the chalk first, followed by the duster. He also handed out workbooks from his chair to various parts of the classroom with un-nerving accuracy!
Of course that was a private school and 20 years ago, I must look for my scars.

Defence Brief said...

According to the report you linked to, the teacher had previously been reprimanded over her conduct.

If, after 30 years of teaching, she loses her temper and lashes out at children then I dread to think what she must have been like at the start of her career. I'm confident that if a pupil lost his temper and hit a teacher around the head you'd be calling for his expulsion or at least suspension, especially if it were not the child's first offence. Teachers should be setting a much better example.

Boy on a Bike, throwing objects at children is neither big nor clever. You may have loved your teacher, but he was still committing a criminal offence every time he threw that duster at somebody.

Boy on a bike said...

Back then, it wasn't viewed as an offence. It was viewed as discipline.

Curmudgeon said...

Over the last thirty years our "leaders" have taken the rights from teachers to punish children who are unruly in class.