So here’s an interesting tidbit, some kids used a cellphone to video one of their teachers loosing it during morning exercises brought on by one students refusal to stand for the national anthem. The kid who took the video was suspended, the teacher got no punishment and they school district is planning on banning cell phones to prevent further exposure of in-school hijinx.
For the record, I really don’t like administrators running high schools like little dictatorships. Banning cell phones is pretty unlikely unless you’re going to start searching for them like weapons. They’re pretty small these days. I think it’s terrible that schools are now run like prisons due to the minority of bad students that administrators are not qualified or willing to deal with in the proper ways.
That being said, these kids are obviously punks who were provoking the teacher. The teacher obviously has no idea how to handle difficult teenagers, and has conceded to taking a classroom management class. Teenage boys are a fucking pain in the ass. I know, I was one. And I got away with as much as I could. But these guys are clearly pushing it and need discipline of some sort, and should have been separated from one another.
From what I could see in the video, the kid didn’t have the chair violently yanked out from beneath him or anything nasty. Looks like the kid was half expecting it and had shifted his weight. The teacher wasn’t trying to dump him on his ass or anything.
Not to be all “You kids have it easy these days” or anything, but this video reminded me pretty much of my whole teenage and or elementary school years. We were constantly being yelled at. In elementary school, our PE teacher punched a kid in the chest knocking the wind out of him and sending him to the ground. He got 3 days of paid leave. In another incident, my 4th grade teacher hated when kids leaned in their chairs and had a habit of kicking them out from under the kids. One day she did it to a girl who’s face went into her desk, chipped her tooth and gave her a concussion. I think that teacher got a week off.
My junior year I decided I would no longer recite the Pledge of Allegiance. My senior year I would no longer stand up for it. Thankfully my teachers were pretty chill with it. The first one asked me to at least stand up but not speak the words, and my other teacher agreed with my reasoning and basically didn’t make any of us stand or say it in the morning. I have never felt a strong sense of national identity and always felt like I was a citizen of the world. I didn’t want to pledge allegiance to just one “Republic” or it’s flag whatever the hell that meant. I read “Mine Kampf” when I was in 6th grade and The Pledge of Allegiance rang of fascism to me. The National Anthem I have less trouble with, but I would still feel wrong being compelled into some false patriotism each morning.
But I digress.
Bottom line: Don’t loose it in front of kids, that means they own you. Keep your cool and send them to the VP or Principal for discipline and get on with your day. Let the kids who aren’t punks get their learn on if at all possible in today’s schools.