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Some teachers have biases, for whatever reason, against certain individual students or certain groups of students. I've mentioned in the past that many teachers have biases against high or low achieving students. I've had many teachers who had biases against boys. I am sure that teachers with biases against girls must exist too. Teachers often lie to get somebody that they don't like in trouble. And, sometimes teachers may not be lying at all, but just may make mistakes. And then there are teachers who think it's their primary job to teach that life isn't fair.
You always talk about teachers with biases. Are you aware of your biases against educators that shows up in thread after thread? Everybody ought to examine their biases.
History was my favorite subject at school and I read it extensively (this was before the days of the internet when kids did read a lot). I remember one test where I got 100%. The teacher called me to his desk at the front and asked me five extra questions. I got all five right and my 100% was confirmed.
Reminds me of a math assignment from 3rd grade that had something to do with calendar dates. The bonus question was, what day of the week will 4th of July fall on this year. This was in 1988. I remembered that it fell on Saturday the previous year (1987), and that 1988 was a leap year, so it wound be a Monday in 1988. However, Sunday was the answer the teacher was looking for, her reasoning that it was a Saturday in 1987, and that every year, each date advances 1 day of the week. I then pointed out to her that 1988 is a leap year, and that each date advances 2 days in a leap year. She looked at her calendar, and found out that I was right. However, she refused to give me credit for it, claiming that there was absolutely no way I could have known that each date advances 2 days in a leap year, and that I obviously made a random guess. I was the only person in the class who correctly answered Monday. Many students chose Sunday (remembering it was Saturday in 1987, but not knowing the dates advance 2 days in a leap year), but most students took random guesses (surprising that nobody randomly guessed Monday). Teachers really do not like students who are smarter than they are.
It appears she's in a middle school building. The topic was desks, not classifications.
But not every middle school has the same type of desks. I don't recall any significant differences in the desks between elementary, middle, and high school.
You always talk about teachers with biases. Are you aware of your biases against educators that shows up in thread after thread? Everybody ought to examine their biases.
Yes, I am aware. We all have our biases. People on this forum need to hear about my experiences in order to balance out the blatant pro-teacher bias on this forum.
But not every middle school has the same type of desks. I don't recall any significant differences in the desks between elementary, middle, and high school.
For crying out loud what's this fixation on desks? The teacher thought the OP's daughter helped someone cheat. No matter what kind of desks they use, or whether they were sitting on the floor!
You know, even in a setting where students are at desks pretty close together, it's hard to see over to the next desk without a little help.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katarina Witt
This kid is in 6th grade in a middle school, not an elementary school. For Student "A" to cheat off Student "B", B would have to leave her test paper (if it was a test) on the very edge of her desk so A could see the answers.
You asked a question, I answered. Then you moved the goalposts to a different question about desks. Then someone else answered those. And so on.
For crying out loud what's this fixation on desks? The teacher thought the OP's daughter helped someone cheat. No matter what kind of desks they use, or whether they were sitting on the floor!
Other posters keep referring to elementary school desks and middle school desks. As if all elementary schools have one type of desk and as if all middle schools have another type of desk. In reality, different schools have different types of desks, and it has nothing to do with elementary vs middle school.
Well Mr. educator it seems there are only three possibilities.
My son is a liar.
You are a liar.
You are in error.
There's a fourth and very common possibility, which is that the kid has a different definition of "cheating" than the teacher - or, indeed, the school - does. She may not have considered it a moral problem that she was leaving her paper visible for others to copy off of, so long as she wasn't the one doing the copying, and wasn't actively passing answers.
Given the OP's willingness to throw down on some random teacher he don't know from Adam on the basis of things like "doesn't have as nice of handwriting as the other teacher," I wouldn't be terribly surprised if his angel is learning to play him a bit, and doesn't want to be the one caught in the crossfire of him temper.
Quote:
Originally Posted by North Beach Person
Likely because some of his students are criminals. Every single year of my career (30+) I had students who were on probation, home arrest with an ankle bracelet, on intensive supervision (which means the PO comes to the school), or were in school as part of their sentence.
Strangely enough, there were more students the above pertained to in the middle/upper middle class school than at the ghetto ones.
I don't think that's strange at all - the families with money to hire a lawyer are more likely to get their kid probation and/or to be released into their custody rather than that of the state.
What would I do? I'd calmly ask the teacher what happened. If my 6th grade child told me that she didn't even know the first name of a child sitting close enough to her to cheat off her, I'd question the veracity of the story immediately.
We often had the expectation that if a student was cheating off us, and there was any way at all we could have been helping, we'd get a 0. We were expected to keep our papers covered in such a way that others couldn't cheat off of us.
A child is asked if they did something against the rules. A child who did break the rules has a reason to lie, i.e to avoid punishment. A child who did not has no reason to lie. But you cannot determine which one is lying and which is not just by asking the question.
Meanwhile, the teacher has no reason to lie. Dealing with the parents, principal and disciplinary committee, filling out the paperwork, endless emails, etc. is all impetus for a teacher to look the other way (as many do). They literally have no benefit to lying about a pupil what so ever and in fact have reason to avoid writing students up in the first place.
If it was a students word against a teachers for something the teacher has a reason to lie about than it would be a different story, which is exactly why it is not bias.
This belief that the teacher is always right and the child will always lie is what bothers me. Because I too had some teachers who held high performance against me. Not all. Never said that. Some were very good and some outstanding. Mr F. Tremendous history teacher; made you love the subject. Ms L. 12th grade English. Took Shakespeare and Chaucer from dread to delight. There were others too. But on the flipside there was Mrs I. Hated boys. Boys would be kept in from recess for anything. Often punishment was her bending your fingers back until you were on your knees in pain and then whacking your palm with a ruler. Or Mrs A. Equal opportunity hater. Her tactic was to grab kids in a Spock pinch and drag you out of your desk to yell at you and then shove you back into it. She kept that up until one kid, S T, just turned around and slugged her. He got a week's suspension, but she didn't grab kids anymore.
Or the English teacher like Mrs W. Had it in for me for some reason and was determined to ruin my grade. Several times stopped teaching to berate me for whatever random thing she could think of. Nothing to do with anything I did; once for who my parents were (which made no sense because they weren't). Didn't matter what grade I got, she marked it down to C or D. Even took my tests to the principal to show him my work compared to the grade. She refused to change my report card, but retaliated even worse the rest of the year.
And there was the PE teacher who encouraged a group of boys to beat the c*&^ out of me during PE one day. Do you know what it's like to have several guys hold you while another slams your head into the gym wall, all the while the teacher who should protect you was studying the lettering on a basketball?
My experience it is often the better students who suffer this.
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