It makes a good amount of sense as an argument, if that's the goal you are going for. From what I can tell the argument is basically that by allowing trans-girls into girls sports, you are discriminating against the cisgender athletes by forcing them to compete against unfairly advantaged students.
More or less your case goes:
- transgender girls have an advantage over cisgender girls in sports
- therefore allowing them to compete against cisgender girls discriminates against cisgender girls
- therefore transgender girls should not be allowed to compete in girl's sports
Except that it doesn't, because there's no evidence that a transgender girl has an advantage in sports. Without that prior, the whole argument falls apart.
Also it opens a can of worms since it seems to me you can make a fair argument that separate mens and womens sports are a violation.
I think the opposite. The fact that women's and men's sports are separate is what makes your case work. Women's sports exist so that women can compete too. The entire logic of their argument rests on saying that letting transgender women into women's sports violates this idea. (the obvious underlying bigotry here being that transgender women aren't women)
And yeah, you could instead conclude that the underlying logic of women's sports is discriminatory but that's not gonna ever fly imo. Given laws on discrimination against women and/or the fact that people don't actually want to eliminate women's sports, they are not gonna declare women's sports unconstitutional or something.
In terms of school sports, it doesn't matter a damn if transgender girls have an advantage and transgender boys have a disadvantage, because it's basically all just for fun anyway. Or should be.
Given the existence of athletic scholarships, I suspect this argument won't fly. Proving harm shouldn't be that hard if you can establish an advantage is my guess.
Athletic scholarships are dumb. Schools are not sports teams.
It makes a good amount of sense as an argument, if that's the goal you are going for. From what I can tell the argument is basically that by allowing trans-girls into girls sports, you are discriminating against the cisgender athletes by forcing them to compete against unfairly advantaged students.
More or less your case goes:
- transgender girls have an advantage over cisgender girls in sports
- therefore allowing them to compete against cisgender girls discriminates against cisgender girls
- therefore transgender girls should not be allowed to compete in girl's sports
Except that it doesn't, because there's no evidence that a transgender girl has an advantage in sports. Without that prior, the whole argument falls apart.
Also it opens a can of worms since it seems to me you can make a fair argument that separate mens and womens sports are a violation.
I think the opposite. The fact that women's and men's sports are separate is what makes your case work. Women's sports exist so that women can compete too. The entire logic of their argument rests on saying that letting transgender women into women's sports violates this idea. (the obvious underlying bigotry here being that transgender women aren't women)
Given laws on discrimination against women and/or the fact that people don't actually want to eliminate women's sports, they are not gonna declare women's sports unconstitutional or something.
Oh, I don't think anyone's going to make the argument (except to force a change in the law), but I think it's there if you cite Brown. And certainly, if you look at prestige, etc. there's a strong case that they're treated unequally. It's a quandary because it's obvious that without that you'd have no women playing at all.
It makes a good amount of sense as an argument, if that's the goal you are going for. From what I can tell the argument is basically that by allowing trans-girls into girls sports, you are discriminating against the cisgender athletes by forcing them to compete against unfairly advantaged students.
More or less your case goes:
- transgender girls have an advantage over cisgender girls in sports
- therefore allowing them to compete against cisgender girls discriminates against cisgender girls
- therefore transgender girls should not be allowed to compete in girl's sports
Except that it doesn't, because there's no evidence that a transgender girl has an advantage in sports. Without that prior, the whole argument falls apart.
Also it opens a can of worms since it seems to me you can make a fair argument that separate mens and womens sports are a violation.
I think the opposite. The fact that women's and men's sports are separate is what makes your case work. Women's sports exist so that women can compete too. The entire logic of their argument rests on saying that letting transgender women into women's sports violates this idea. (the obvious underlying bigotry here being that transgender women aren't women)
Given laws on discrimination against women and/or the fact that people don't actually want to eliminate women's sports, they are not gonna declare women's sports unconstitutional or something.
Oh, I don't think anyone's going to make the argument (except to force a change in the law), but I think it's there if you cite Brown. And certainly, if you look at prestige, etc. there's a strong case that they're treated unequally. It's a quandary because it's obvious that without that you'd have no women playing at all.
Granted, this is a bit of a digression.
I don't think it's there at all because you can easily demonstrate material harm from not having women's sports.
It makes a good amount of sense as an argument, if that's the goal you are going for. From what I can tell the argument is basically that by allowing trans-girls into girls sports, you are discriminating against the cisgender athletes by forcing them to compete against unfairly advantaged students.
More or less your case goes:
- transgender girls have an advantage over cisgender girls in sports
- therefore allowing them to compete against cisgender girls discriminates against cisgender girls
- therefore transgender girls should not be allowed to compete in girl's sports
Except that it doesn't, because there's no evidence that a transgender girl has an advantage in sports. Without that prior, the whole argument falls apart.
Also it opens a can of worms since it seems to me you can make a fair argument that separate mens and womens sports are a violation.
I think the opposite. The fact that women's and men's sports are separate is what makes your case work. Women's sports exist so that women can compete too. The entire logic of their argument rests on saying that letting transgender women into women's sports violates this idea. (the obvious underlying bigotry here being that transgender women aren't women)
Given laws on discrimination against women and/or the fact that people don't actually want to eliminate women's sports, they are not gonna declare women's sports unconstitutional or something.
Oh, I don't think anyone's going to make the argument (except to force a change in the law), but I think it's there if you cite Brown. And certainly, if you look at prestige, etc. there's a strong case that they're treated unequally. It's a quandary because it's obvious that without that you'd have no women playing at all.
Granted, this is a bit of a digression.
I don't think it's there at all because you can easily demonstrate material harm from not having women's sports.
Does the law state that exception? It doesn't seem like it.
Are there any laws or federal guidelines about transgender high school athletes? I'm failing at google.
Also has the legality or gender separation in high school sports ever been challenged? It's possible that whatever argument was used to justify separating men and women sports could be successfully used by bigoted organizations to further their agenda.
It makes a good amount of sense as an argument, if that's the goal you are going for. From what I can tell the argument is basically that by allowing trans-girls into girls sports, you are discriminating against the cisgender athletes by forcing them to compete against unfairly advantaged students.
More or less your case goes:
- transgender girls have an advantage over cisgender girls in sports
- therefore allowing them to compete against cisgender girls discriminates against cisgender girls
- therefore transgender girls should not be allowed to compete in girl's sports
Except that it doesn't, because there's no evidence that a transgender girl has an advantage in sports. Without that prior, the whole argument falls apart.
That assumes they can't convince the court of that. I would not be so sure. As a legal strategy, it makes sense and has a shot at working.
It has a "shot" because people are told lies about transgender individuals. It makes "sense" because popular media has created a false image of women's sports.
Are there any laws or federal guidelines about transgender high school athletes? I'm failing at google.
Also has the legality or gender separation in high school sports ever been challenged? It's possible that whatever argument was used to justify separating men and women sports could be successfully used by bigoted organizations to further their agenda.
Federal, no, since the Trump admin repealed the Obama admin's guidance.
The incident took place in April, when the student identified in the suit as “J.T.” came to school with a new haircut. School officials sent the teenager to the school office where he was presented with two options: accept an in-school suspension for a violation of the dress code or fill in the line with a permanent black marker. “The haircut did not depict anything violent, gang-related, obscene or otherwise offensive or inappropriate in any manner. J.T. did not believe the haircut violated any school policy,” according to the lawsuit. The suit said the parents were not contacted and the ultimatum put the student “under great duress” because he had not been in trouble before and didn’t want the suspension to affect his standing on the track team.
The suit said the student found the punishment “highly offensive” and felt “extremely degraded” by the process, causing him to suffer from anxiety and depression following the incident.
Unsurprisingly, the family is currently suing the school.
I can't imagine the thought process for an admin that thinks it is ok to do something like this. Racism sure but to think there wouldn't be any repercussions for doing this to a kid is wild.
I can't imagine the thought process for an admin that thinks it is ok to do something like this. Racism sure but to think there wouldn't be any repercussions for doing this to a kid is wild.
I can't imagine the thought process for an admin that thinks it is ok to do something like this. Racism sure but to think there wouldn't be any repercussions for doing this to a kid is wild.
Their defense was that they gave him a choice.
I'm sure you agree but that ain't much of a defense. I still don't understand the kind of brain worms you have to have to think that marking a kid with permanent ink would be acceptable.
Most schools have a no hat rule. In fact, I would guarantee a school this caught up over a line in hair has a no hat rule.
From an email our principal sent out last week, it sounds like we have finally rescinded this dumb rule. Huzzah! My understanding was that the biggest sticking point was how do you handle hijabs under the old policy of no head coverings at all. And they knew they couldn't ban those so ended up rescinding the whole policy. I'll get more detail next week though in our pre-school year meetings.
Hoods are still banned though because they obscure faces on security cameras.
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Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
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MrMisterJesus dying on the cross in pain? Morally better than us. One has to go "all in".Registered Userregular
The school has changed its policy re: acceptable haircuts, which is good, because it was racist
Hopefully this suit leads other principals to make similar changes
The school has changed its policy re: acceptable haircuts, which is good, because it was racist
Hopefully this suit leads other principals to make similar changes
I kind of hope the family is still pursuing the lawsuit? Both because I don't really think the administration of that school has changed fundamentally and because I'm not convinced them changing the policy and no other consequences would actually affect change on other schools.
I can't imagine the thought process for an admin that thinks it is ok to do something like this. Racism sure but to think there wouldn't be any repercussions for doing this to a kid is wild.
I spent my last couple of years in high school in a small private school and in my senior year, I had a teacher stop in the middle of class to call me out for not having shaved for a day and then kicked me out of class to go shave. We are not talking bedraggled beard here, just a bit more than 5 o'clock shadow and she didn't even see it until I was at her desk. Somehow she thought it was less disruptive and inappropriate to do that in the middle of class then just ignore it because yeah, dudes grow facial hair. Big surprise!
It's not just a racism thing. Employees in US schools can be unbelievably anal about the rules, particularly if it makes them feel like they're really in charge. There's a lot of them that just live for that shit.
I can't imagine the thought process for an admin that thinks it is ok to do something like this. Racism sure but to think there wouldn't be any repercussions for doing this to a kid is wild.
I spent my last couple of years in high school in a small private school and in my senior year, I had a teacher stop in the middle of class to call me out for not having shaved for a day and then kicked me out of class to go shave. We are not talking bedraggled beard here, just a bit more than 5 o'clock shadow and she didn't even see it until I was at her desk. Somehow she thought it was less disruptive and inappropriate to do that in the middle of class then just ignore it because yeah, dudes grow facial hair. Big surprise!
It's not just a racism thing. Employees in US schools can be unbelievably anal about the rules, particularly if it makes them feel like they're really in charge. There's a lot of them that just live for that shit.
Whereas I ignore all but the most egregious dress code violations because fuck that noise. Are you promoting hate? No? Could I take a photo of you without committing a felony? No? Great. Let's learn math.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I can't imagine the thought process for an admin that thinks it is ok to do something like this. Racism sure but to think there wouldn't be any repercussions for doing this to a kid is wild.
I spent my last couple of years in high school in a small private school and in my senior year, I had a teacher stop in the middle of class to call me out for not having shaved for a day and then kicked me out of class to go shave. We are not talking bedraggled beard here, just a bit more than 5 o'clock shadow and she didn't even see it until I was at her desk. Somehow she thought it was less disruptive and inappropriate to do that in the middle of class then just ignore it because yeah, dudes grow facial hair. Big surprise!
It's not just a racism thing. Employees in US schools can be unbelievably anal about the rules, particularly if it makes them feel like they're really in charge. There's a lot of them that just live for that shit.
I spent a year in a US junior high school when I was younger (my father was on sabbatical from his university at the time). Looking back on it, the US schools are incredibly different from Norwegian schools, and usually detrimentally so, although I didn't have the maturity and insight to realise so at the time.
Two things I want to mention specifically:
I then and now liked to read for fun. (If we read a book and wrote a half-page book report we got a reward in English class; an ice cream coupon. I exhausted the supply.) I was not allowed to read during lunch breaks for any reason. And no explanation beyond "because". I assume it was to prevent us from doing homework, but I wasn't doing that, but spirit of the rules are irrelevant over letter of the rules, apparently.
For a couple of months we had a trainee teacher in social studies. He was trying to teach us geography, which at the time was continents. The trainee listed "Australia" as a continent. I asked if he meant "Oceania". He said no, the continent is Australia; there's no Oceania. I pointed out that the textbook he had handed out listed Oceania but not Australia. Then he sent me to the hall. I have rarely been so angry and humiliated in my life. (The actual teacher was present, and was aware of the incident, but did nothing in my presence. Dunno if he talked to the trainee afterwards.)
I had a student teacher in high school once who was attempting to teach a grammar lesson (in a composition class, but eh, it was more for her than for us). She did not understand the difference between active and passive verbs, and didn't grasp that forms of "to be" can be active. I did my best to correct her respectfully (because English grammar is confusing enough without somebody teaching it wrong); she was confused.
She did stay professional and polite, though, apart from not knowing the material.
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
In America, we learn the name of the Continent is Australia, and the region is Oceania (although not as many people learn about Oceania)
In America, we learn the name of the Continent is Australia, and the region is Oceania (although not as many people learn about Oceania)
It seems to be one of those things like "a tomato is technically a fruit but most people call it a vegetable" where for all practical purposes the people who deal with it on a daily basis are like "who gives a shit, that will be $1.99 - cash or credit?"
The more important thing in this particular anecdote is that even without external knowledge, the teacher was giving a verbal definition different from the written definition they had provided, and when asked to clarify responded in the worst way possible.
Yes, as a teacher you don't want to dive into a 10 minute digression on the history of geological theory and nomenclature (especially given that tectonic plate theory if you're going down the "continental plates" route wasn't widely accepted in the US until the 1970s) because that's going to fuck up your lesson plan in front of your boss. But a response "Australia and Oceania are sometimes used interchangeably depending on the context, see me after class if you want to discuss further" is farrrrr better than sending them to the hall.
A common teacher failing is that teachers believe that students won't "respect their authority" if they don't act like they have a stick up to their asses. And then the classroom will fall into chaos because they fear being the pushover teacher.
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Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
edited August 2019
After years in education as a paraeducator and emergency substitute teacher, I'm currently in college to get my teaching certificate so I can teach history at the high-school level.
One day we had a seminar with a bunch of guest teachers from local schools.
One of the teachers told us we all had to start super stern & mean, and then slowly descend over the school year.
And fuck that noise.
I have gotten far better results from kids when I was positive, approachable/inviting, and personable. It's easier to build a rapport and then use that relationship to encourage better behavior than to try to be a drill sergeant on day one.
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
After years in education as a paraeducator and emergency substitute teacher, I'm currently in college to get my teaching certificate so I can teach history at the high-school level.
One day we had a seminar with a bunch of guest teachers from local schools.
One of the teachers told us we all had to start super stern & mean, and then slowly descend over the school year.
And fuck that noise.
I have gotten far better results from kids when I was positive, approachable/inviting, and personable. It's easier to build a rapport and then use that relationship to encourage better behavior than to try to be a drill sergeant on day one.
This is one of the best things about being a school librarian, I don't give students grades so I can have almost nothing but positive interactions with students and try to give them a place to feel that they are wanted.
I can't imagine the thought process for an admin that thinks it is ok to do something like this. Racism sure but to think there wouldn't be any repercussions for doing this to a kid is wild.
I spent my last couple of years in high school in a small private school and in my senior year, I had a teacher stop in the middle of class to call me out for not having shaved for a day and then kicked me out of class to go shave. We are not talking bedraggled beard here, just a bit more than 5 o'clock shadow and she didn't even see it until I was at her desk. Somehow she thought it was less disruptive and inappropriate to do that in the middle of class then just ignore it because yeah, dudes grow facial hair. Big surprise!
It's not just a racism thing. Employees in US schools can be unbelievably anal about the rules, particularly if it makes them feel like they're really in charge. There's a lot of them that just live for that shit.
Whereas I ignore all but the most egregious dress code violations because fuck that noise. Are you promoting hate? No? Could I take a photo of you without committing a felony? No? Great. Let's learn math.
This is me. But there are definitely teachers I work with who are desperately concerned about whether students are wearing the correct socks. Soooooo yeah.
In America, we learn the name of the Continent is Australia, and the region is Oceania (although not as many people learn about Oceania)
It seems to be one of those things like "a tomato is technically a fruit but most people call it a vegetable" where for all practical purposes the people who deal with it on a daily basis are like "who gives a shit, that will be $1.99 - cash or credit?"
The more important thing in this particular anecdote is that even without external knowledge, the teacher was giving a verbal definition different from the written definition they had provided, and when asked to clarify responded in the worst way possible.
Yes, as a teacher you don't want to dive into a 10 minute digression on the history of geological theory and nomenclature (especially given that tectonic plate theory if you're going down the "continental plates" route wasn't widely accepted in the US until the 1970s) because that's going to fuck up your lesson plan in front of your boss. But a response "Australia and Oceania are sometimes used interchangeably depending on the context, see me after class if you want to discuss further" is farrrrr better than sending them to the hall.
This is the point I was trying to make; the trainee teacher handled the situation in the worst way. The question of what a continent is, and what they're called, is largely irrelevant here.
If it was a community college I would have said it was an adjunct who had the book forced upon them and was rebelling against the department head have the gall to tell them how to teach the class.
But kicking out a student because they could show the textbook said something else is still a dick move, especially at the junior high level.
In America, we learn the name of the Continent is Australia, and the region is Oceania (although not as many people learn about Oceania)
/me whispers "America is a continent too"
Yes, with a quick verbal "boom." You take a man's peko, you deny him his dab, all that is left is to rise up and tear down the walls of Jericho with a ".....not!" -TexiKen
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
Fun fact for those who haven't gone through the steps to be a certified teacher, most Student Teachers know absolutely nothing about classroom management when they start so that story about the Student Teacher not doing a good job is not surprising to me at all. The supervising teacher should definitely talk to them after the lesson to fill them in on the proper way though because that was turbo dumb, but not nearly the worst things I've seen and heard from Student Teachers.
Universities have to put teachers in training through so many state/federally mandated courses that there isn't much time to teach them how to actually handle classes.
Fun fact for those who haven't gone through the steps to be a certified teacher, most Student Teachers know absolutely nothing about classroom management when they start so that story about the Student Teacher not doing a good job is not surprising to me at all. The supervising teacher should definitely talk to them after the lesson to fill them in on the proper way though because that was turbo dumb, but not nearly the worst things I've seen and heard from Student Teachers.
Universities have to put teachers in training through so many state/federally mandated courses that there isn't much time to teach them how to actually handle classes.
This is fucking terrifying the first time you teach a lesson on your own btw.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
Fun fact for those who haven't gone through the steps to be a certified teacher, most Student Teachers know absolutely nothing about classroom management when they start so that story about the Student Teacher not doing a good job is not surprising to me at all. The supervising teacher should definitely talk to them after the lesson to fill them in on the proper way though because that was turbo dumb, but not nearly the worst things I've seen and heard from Student Teachers.
Universities have to put teachers in training through so many state/federally mandated courses that there isn't much time to teach them how to actually handle classes.
This is fucking terrifying the first time you teach a lesson on your own btw.
Now imagine this but stepping into a kindergarten class for the first time as a teacher and having had zero elementary level teaching classes because you didn't need to take them as a secondary librarian but your certification is K-12 so you gotta student teach in an elementary for a quarter.
Fucking terrifying. I very nearly accidentally told them the tooth fairy wasn't real when teaching the difference between Fiction and Non-Fiction but I managed to make the most amazing save in my entire life and avoided it.
The big secret among anybody getting into education: They don't teach classroom management. You learn through trial by fire, and you tend to stick with what worked for you, even if those habits tend to be bad on the long run.
Teaching children to swim was a ton of fun. It probably helped that I was like 15 and teaching 8 year olds, but it never seemed terrifying, and them accidentally dying in the middle of class is a legit potential concern there. I mean it's remote since I'm right there and know how to save a drowning kid, but the fact I just kinda dove into it without a second thought probably said something about my skillset that I just totally fuckin ignored.
The big secret among anybody getting into education: They don't teach classroom management. You learn through trial by fire, and you tend to stick with what worked for you, even if those habits tend to be bad on the long run.
Best advice for classroom management when addressing a class was from a teacher who told a pupil "I don't expect respect from you straight away, it's a two way street and I have to earn it as much as you will earn mine. However, I know you have been brought up to understand basic manners. I expect everyone here to show some basic manners."
Show honesty when dealing with authority. Explain why and what the expectation you want is clear through and through.
How do you deal with kids who love causing chaos, and for whom removal from the classroom is a reward? I had a few of those as classmates; it was a fun time.
How do you deal with kids who love causing chaos, and for whom removal from the classroom is a reward? I had a few of those as classmates; it was a fun time.
Try to figure out the thing underlying the problematic behavior.
Sometimes it's things like they don't know shit and are embarrassed, or that's the only they know of to get any kind of attention and everybody wants attention even if it's negative. Sometimes it's past trauma and that's an entirely different situation you (or more likely the social worker you refer them to if you're lucky enough to have one in the building) get to handle.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
How do you deal with kids who love causing chaos, and for whom removal from the classroom is a reward? I had a few of those as classmates; it was a fun time.
Try to figure out the thing underlying the problematic behavior.
Sometimes it's things like they don't know shit and are embarrassed, or that's the only they know of to get any kind of attention and everybody wants attention even if it's negative. Sometimes it's past trauma and that's an entirely different situation you (or more likely the social worker you refer them to if you're lucky enough to have one in the building) get to handle.
My wife basically never sends kids out for this reason, never projects anger. You're still going to get kids that act out but denying them the fuel they need to amplify being a shithead is a pretty basic step one.
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I think the opposite. The fact that women's and men's sports are separate is what makes your case work. Women's sports exist so that women can compete too. The entire logic of their argument rests on saying that letting transgender women into women's sports violates this idea. (the obvious underlying bigotry here being that transgender women aren't women)
And yeah, you could instead conclude that the underlying logic of women's sports is discriminatory but that's not gonna ever fly imo. Given laws on discrimination against women and/or the fact that people don't actually want to eliminate women's sports, they are not gonna declare women's sports unconstitutional or something.
Athletic scholarships are dumb. Schools are not sports teams.
Oh, I don't think anyone's going to make the argument (except to force a change in the law), but I think it's there if you cite Brown. And certainly, if you look at prestige, etc. there's a strong case that they're treated unequally. It's a quandary because it's obvious that without that you'd have no women playing at all.
Granted, this is a bit of a digression.
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I don't think it's there at all because you can easily demonstrate material harm from not having women's sports.
Does the law state that exception? It doesn't seem like it.
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Also has the legality or gender separation in high school sports ever been challenged? It's possible that whatever argument was used to justify separating men and women sports could be successfully used by bigoted organizations to further their agenda.
Can you take the preaching down like 4 notches?
Federal, no, since the Trump admin repealed the Obama admin's guidance.
Unsurprisingly, the family is currently suing the school.
Their defense was that they gave him a choice.
I'm sure you agree but that ain't much of a defense. I still don't understand the kind of brain worms you have to have to think that marking a kid with permanent ink would be acceptable.
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From an email our principal sent out last week, it sounds like we have finally rescinded this dumb rule. Huzzah! My understanding was that the biggest sticking point was how do you handle hijabs under the old policy of no head coverings at all. And they knew they couldn't ban those so ended up rescinding the whole policy. I'll get more detail next week though in our pre-school year meetings.
Hoods are still banned though because they obscure faces on security cameras.
Hopefully this suit leads other principals to make similar changes
I kind of hope the family is still pursuing the lawsuit? Both because I don't really think the administration of that school has changed fundamentally and because I'm not convinced them changing the policy and no other consequences would actually affect change on other schools.
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I spent my last couple of years in high school in a small private school and in my senior year, I had a teacher stop in the middle of class to call me out for not having shaved for a day and then kicked me out of class to go shave. We are not talking bedraggled beard here, just a bit more than 5 o'clock shadow and she didn't even see it until I was at her desk. Somehow she thought it was less disruptive and inappropriate to do that in the middle of class then just ignore it because yeah, dudes grow facial hair. Big surprise!
It's not just a racism thing. Employees in US schools can be unbelievably anal about the rules, particularly if it makes them feel like they're really in charge. There's a lot of them that just live for that shit.
Whereas I ignore all but the most egregious dress code violations because fuck that noise. Are you promoting hate? No? Could I take a photo of you without committing a felony? No? Great. Let's learn math.
Though I gotta say, "fill in your haircut with sharpie or else" is some next level shit.
I spent a year in a US junior high school when I was younger (my father was on sabbatical from his university at the time). Looking back on it, the US schools are incredibly different from Norwegian schools, and usually detrimentally so, although I didn't have the maturity and insight to realise so at the time.
Two things I want to mention specifically:
I then and now liked to read for fun. (If we read a book and wrote a half-page book report we got a reward in English class; an ice cream coupon. I exhausted the supply.) I was not allowed to read during lunch breaks for any reason. And no explanation beyond "because". I assume it was to prevent us from doing homework, but I wasn't doing that, but spirit of the rules are irrelevant over letter of the rules, apparently.
For a couple of months we had a trainee teacher in social studies. He was trying to teach us geography, which at the time was continents. The trainee listed "Australia" as a continent. I asked if he meant "Oceania". He said no, the continent is Australia; there's no Oceania. I pointed out that the textbook he had handed out listed Oceania but not Australia. Then he sent me to the hall. I have rarely been so angry and humiliated in my life. (The actual teacher was present, and was aware of the incident, but did nothing in my presence. Dunno if he talked to the trainee afterwards.)
She did stay professional and polite, though, apart from not knowing the material.
The more important thing in this particular anecdote is that even without external knowledge, the teacher was giving a verbal definition different from the written definition they had provided, and when asked to clarify responded in the worst way possible.
Yes, as a teacher you don't want to dive into a 10 minute digression on the history of geological theory and nomenclature (especially given that tectonic plate theory if you're going down the "continental plates" route wasn't widely accepted in the US until the 1970s) because that's going to fuck up your lesson plan in front of your boss. But a response "Australia and Oceania are sometimes used interchangeably depending on the context, see me after class if you want to discuss further" is farrrrr better than sending them to the hall.
One day we had a seminar with a bunch of guest teachers from local schools.
One of the teachers told us we all had to start super stern & mean, and then slowly descend over the school year.
And fuck that noise.
I have gotten far better results from kids when I was positive, approachable/inviting, and personable. It's easier to build a rapport and then use that relationship to encourage better behavior than to try to be a drill sergeant on day one.
This is one of the best things about being a school librarian, I don't give students grades so I can have almost nothing but positive interactions with students and try to give them a place to feel that they are wanted.
This is me. But there are definitely teachers I work with who are desperately concerned about whether students are wearing the correct socks. Soooooo yeah.
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This is the point I was trying to make; the trainee teacher handled the situation in the worst way. The question of what a continent is, and what they're called, is largely irrelevant here.
But kicking out a student because they could show the textbook said something else is still a dick move, especially at the junior high level.
/me whispers "America is a continent too"
Universities have to put teachers in training through so many state/federally mandated courses that there isn't much time to teach them how to actually handle classes.
This is fucking terrifying the first time you teach a lesson on your own btw.
Now imagine this but stepping into a kindergarten class for the first time as a teacher and having had zero elementary level teaching classes because you didn't need to take them as a secondary librarian but your certification is K-12 so you gotta student teach in an elementary for a quarter.
Fucking terrifying. I very nearly accidentally told them the tooth fairy wasn't real when teaching the difference between Fiction and Non-Fiction but I managed to make the most amazing save in my entire life and avoided it.
Edit: fuck this wasn't the job thread...
Best advice for classroom management when addressing a class was from a teacher who told a pupil "I don't expect respect from you straight away, it's a two way street and I have to earn it as much as you will earn mine. However, I know you have been brought up to understand basic manners. I expect everyone here to show some basic manners."
Show honesty when dealing with authority. Explain why and what the expectation you want is clear through and through.
Try to figure out the thing underlying the problematic behavior.
Sometimes it's things like they don't know shit and are embarrassed, or that's the only they know of to get any kind of attention and everybody wants attention even if it's negative. Sometimes it's past trauma and that's an entirely different situation you (or more likely the social worker you refer them to if you're lucky enough to have one in the building) get to handle.
My wife basically never sends kids out for this reason, never projects anger. You're still going to get kids that act out but denying them the fuel they need to amplify being a shithead is a pretty basic step one.
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