I’ve Been Watching My Kid’s Teacher on Zoom, and I’m Horrified | Hacker News Reader

I’ve Been Watching My Kid’s Teacher on Zoom, and I’m Horrified

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19 pointsevo_924 comments

Maybe what's going on here is that parents are seeing, for the first time, how human and imperfect teachers can really be. Especially in the early grades. I say this with utmost respect for the teaching profession, some teachers are not good enough for 1st grade. This kind of bullying, complaining, and blaming is absolutely not appropriate for any teacher, and especially one that is supposed to be modeling behavior for 1st graders. If she's spending her Saturday grading, well that sucks, but railing about it to the children is not the way to deal with it. What a disgrace.

First-graders should not, under any circumstances, have homework assignments that need to be graded. Furthermore, berating children as described borders on abuse. This teacher has absolutely no idea what they are doing and should be fired.

Teachers are people. You may find that hiring perfect persons to teach first grade is difficult. The children will be fine.

If the people you want to raise are people who are passive aggressive whiners who complain behind their bosses backs to their underlings while dodging responsibility then yes, the children will be fine.

What?

Uh, no. These kids are being taught that their needs are basically unimportant compared to the teacher's needs, that their feelings are unimportant compared to the teacher's feelings, that they are a burden on their teacher's time and energy, and that they shouldn't even ask questions when they don't understand something.

There are several educators in my immediate family, and several friends as well. I guarantee you every single one of them would be HORRIFIED by this amount of selfishness and lack of self-control this teacher is demonstrating.

This teacher needs to be, if not fired, put on leave and recommended a mental health evaluation. In their current state they are unable to satisfactorily educate and/or care for small children.

I suspect you don't have kids.

Transcendentalism to American religious conservative organizations like this teacher is a part of is pretty much all about disassociating from all feeling in order to improve and become a more productive human.

Of course, on our side, transcendentalism is about understanding feelings&emotions, where they come from, and the process of healing from emotional pain inflicted during childhood in order to prevent passing our pain on to other people in order to become a more productive human.

When we respond point and laugh at emotional disassociation, the other side is only going to get enraged because emotional disassociation is "the truth" towards some form of improvement. We need to better articulate why disassociating from emotions isn't better because simply pointing out that the child's emotional needs aren't being met doesn't mean anything when emotional disassociation is truth to these people raised in these institutions.

(just to be entirely clear, I agree with you wholeheartedly, big picture we just need to understand where the person you're replying to might be coming from in order to articulate an argument that has some meaning to the other individual)

I feel like we're speaking different languages here.

I appreciate your guarantees, but I think we're getting really riled up over one parent's anecdotal report about a teacher in an unusual and stressful situation. After generating this much attention I'm certain the thoroughly embarrassed teacher will be more careful. The children will be fine.

The article sounds par for the course in grade school. I'm in my 30's now so my memories aren't so fresh but I do wonder what utopian school the writer went to, if this really is unfamiliar.

It does sound like, in the interest of making progress rather than perpetuating our own pains, that this teacher could use some support. Sounds like someone who wants to do well but is getting frayed by the difficult situation. Could a substitute take a couple periods here and there to give time for grading? Could there be some curriculum flexibility given the extra administrative? I don't know the answer but the nice thing is that it's a non-public school so they may have some autonomy to help.

I'm in my thirties as well and I don't recall a teacher being strict with me until fourth grade. And I certainly didn't have homework that would have taken any time at all to "grade" at that point.

Grades help track progress.

> She is very strict in correcting what I see as normal 6-year-old behavior.

I'm sorry, what exactly did they from Catholic school?

I think that's unwarranted and actually quite offensive. Of course there have been many incidents of hurtful and abusive behaviour by some individuals in a position of trust in some Catholic schools. There are also many, many gentle, loving and supportive people working in Catholic institutions around the world. Please take your lazy prejudices elsewhere.

Can I keep my lazy prejudices about problems with Catholic school after having attended several, and then seeing a variety of non-parochial schools first hand (through my work in schools) and second hand through my spouse (who is an educator) and my kids?

Also, parent comment said "strict", you said "gentle, loving and supportive". It's possible to be both. Maybe you need to look at your own lazy prejudices.

When someone is identified with an institution, any criticism of the institution is taken as a direct attack on their identity and so they must defend with the same righteous indignance that they would from someone assassinating their character.

I disagree. I believe criticisms of the Catholic church and it's educational system are absolutely warranted. The Catholic Church is responsible for hundreds of years of criminal, systemic violence and abuse all over the glove. The church is currently shielding over $2 Billion dollars to limit abuse payout. They aren't denying the abuse. They are just trying not to be held accountable for it.

That includes the abusers, the people who cover for those abusers, and the church goers themselves who refuse to do anything about the systemic sexual, physical and mental abuse. Those gentle, loving and supportive people you speak of are enablers of a dysfunctional system. If they cared at all about the people in those systems, they'd do something to discover and prevent abuse. They don't.

The kind of mistreatment described in the video is par for the course in most American Catholic schools. I attended public school from kindergarten up to 4th. I transferred to a Catholic school in the 5th grade and felt like I'd been assigned to a mental institution. The verbal abuse was constant. The physical abuse was random, sudden and could come from anyone at any time. I, along with class mates, was regularly offered wine by the priests. I didn't learn of cases of actually sexual abuse until I was older and my class mates could talk about what happened.

We didn't know any better and our parents couldn't believe what was reported. When some event did reach a level that required community intervention, it was dealt with quietly and forgotten immediately.

When you factor in that they exist to teach decidedly unscientific, authoritarian thinking, the Catholic Church is a dangerous, abusive organization that has no interest in changing.

Rather than be offended, why don't you spend your time reforming the church so it becomes a better institution?

This isn't a case of a few bad apples. The entire system is made of bad apples. This is a bad apple tree that makes more bad apples.

I didn't think acknowledging that Catholic schools have a reputation as "strict" was offensive. Their reputation as high quality schools is often attributed in part to stronger discipline.

Offensive? If the point of a catholic school isn't to be more strict, adhering to religious rules and such then what is?

If you care about your kids’ education, home school them.

This is not feasible for most parents.

We tried; it didn't work. Reason being that there are anti-pattern behaviors built into the parent/child relationship. It's very challenging for both the child and the parent to shift from a kind/loving/on-your-team relationship to a mentoring/structured/pay-attention relationship that is more in line with teaching.

Some people can do it. We could not.

This is disgusting. I’d record every one of these sessions, take them to the school, and make it clear that either the problem is addressed or they’ll be defending that teaching philosophy to the press.

My dad is a college professor. Two of my closest friends are teachers. They never had any qualms about dealing with goof-offs, and they always handled situations firmly but respectfully. Threatening to tear up a test isn’t class discipline, it’s a loss of composure that suggests deeper personal problems.

We get the future generations we deserve. Raise them to believe mistreatment is normal, and, well, you reap what you sow.

Since when is a little discipline disgusting?

Being strict doesn't harm kids it equips them for success in the future.

Raise them to be lazy and undisciplined, and, well you reap what you sow.

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