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One of the high schools I'm taking off my list has guards in the hall. The students there don't do their work but spend most of the time talking about sex, drugs, and violence. They get into fights too. I often wonder why kids like that even go to school in the first place.
Because we make them...not that that does any good.
This is not PC but I'd rather just let the ones who don't want to go stay home. It's pretty much impossible to teach a child who doesn't want to learn. Perhaps our efforts are better spent on the ones who do want to learn.
Everywhere I've been, there's a policy that individual teachers don't get much, if any, say over. And few schools, if any, that I've experienced, have an especially great/effective way to address students leaving the classroom unsupervised under the auspices of "using the restroom." At best, it gets used as a time waster, at worst, it becomes a liability with kids breaking rules and engaging in dangerous activities while unsupervised. It's a problem, because, as mentioned, it's often addressed insufficiently and inconsistently by administration, and teachers wind up getting scapegoated over it. Let the kids go, and you're on the hook for illicit activities that occurred while they were unsupervised. Don't let them go, and then it's administration passing the buck onto the teachers, even if the administration set up the rule to not allow them to go.
I guess that's the thing about being a teacher. I can just tell when someone really needs to go and when someone is BSing me.
I usually don't let my lunch block kids go because it's right before or after lunch.
I have to hold it from 7:30 until 1pm on "B days," so I figure they probably can too.
Our school is really strict about having a pass to be in the hallway during class. I've sent people to their lockers, only for them to return a minute later because I did not write them a pass and a teacher or admin caught them in the hallway.
Because you can they have to?
Some students have health problems you have no idea about, and to unilaterally decide that those kids should be told no, is plain old inhumane.
Yes, some kids abuse it. And no you are not omniscient, but making one kid suffer even the indignity of worrying about holding it is insane. And bad educational policy. Do you really think a student who is worried about their biological functions in your class is learning anything at that time?
Recently, at one of those back to school staff meetings, a colleague asked the principal to change our policy (we let them go when they need to but are allowed to ask them to wait until an activity, test, etc. is over) because "some kids go everyday". I blurted out, "I go everyday" and while most people snickered she said "but I go during my prep periods and lunch ". When I reminded her that they don't get prep periods she looked surprised.
Many, maybe most people, go more than once during a school day. Expecting a child to only go during lunch is unfair. Additionally, it isn't healthy and can lead to bladder infections and even contribute to kidney stone formation. Many kids who are embarrassed or told no will resort to not drinking any liquids during the school day and that is not good for them either.
Not perfectly cool with getting held accountable for behavioral issues of unsupervised students outside the classroom while pretending to be on their way to the restroom, especially if I've been told due to policy that I'm required to allow them that unsupervised time.
Schools can't have it both ways, and I'm not a hall monitor. As long as I'm off the hook for what goes on when they leave the classroom during my class time, I'm a-okay with as many restroom trips as anybody wants.
Not perfectly cool with getting held accountable for behavioral issues of unsupervised students outside the classroom while pretending to be on their way to the restroom, especially if I've been told due to policy that I'm required to allow them that unsupervised time.
Schools can't have it both ways, and I'm not a hall monitor. As long as I'm off the hook for what goes on when they leave the classroom during my class time, I'm a-okay with as many restroom trips as anybody wants.
Agreed.
But at the same rate I have no problem reminding my admins when their expectations don't mesh with reality. Sometimes we have to tell them to "let the children go" as well. Making all the kids suffer because of the behavior problems of a few is bad policy. Teachers are usually the first ones who point out bad policy.
I'm a parent, not a teacher. When my son believes he's not allowed to leave to go to the restroom, he won't go. He also won't go if a teacher tells him no. I've told him that it would be better that he goes anyway and "gets in trouble" than spends his school years being "oh, that's the boy that wet his pants in the 3rd grade" (which would now be 8th grade).
He's a big water drinker. I believe his solution has been not to drink water at school. Not healthy for kids (or teachers!).
When I was in 6th grade, our teacher told us a story about a girl in her class when she was in school who wasn't allowed to use the rest room even though she begged, and she wet her pants and went through high school known as the girl who wet her pants.
Because we make them...not that that does any good.
This is not PC but I'd rather just let the ones who don't want to go stay home. It's pretty much impossible to teach a child who doesn't want to learn. Perhaps our efforts are better spent on the ones who do want to learn.
When they get around 15 years old I think they pretty much have formed their educational identity.
What bothers me is that I can't understand why kids without any knowledge of the pre-requisites are allowed into higher level high school classes. There is no way they could have passed their previous classes.
I am fortunate to teach high school, so the game is a bit different. I honestly do not police allowing students to go use the bathroom unless it becomes clear that they are abusing my good graces by spending 20 minutes in the hall with their girlfriend or doing something illegal. Students who use the bathroom as a break often fail my class, and this has become a well-known fact in most of the school.
At the end of the day, and I say this as a teacher, in many respects our schools have become far too dictatorial. This is not me saying relax rules, simply that maybe we need to start taking a step back and considering which rules should really be prioritized. Farcically our most stringent expectations are applied to the least important aspects of the educational experience. Little Johnny can only leave class to use the bathroom four times in a semester, but he can fail three classes and still play football. It is asinine.
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