A dilemma of sorts.

I'm really sorry for being lazy, but I'm deathly ill right now, and I want to go to bed soon.

Below is an e-mail I just wrote to my mentor teacher Wendy (I'm currently on prac at the moment). Faran's mother is also part of the staff at this school; Faran's family is originally from Pakistan. I've only seen him four times in the last few weeks - I only teach English once a week on prac. The public-private scale was something I used to demonstrate to the kids about levels of privacy and familiarity.

And, as a side note, today's lesson was about "political correctness."

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Hi Wendy,

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea, but I thought I should check with you first, considering the situation between us and Faran's mother.

I was thinking about writing a letter of concern to Faran's mother, attaching a brief version of events from today's lesson. I think I told you this, but Faran wanted to know where 'gang-bang' would fit on the public-private domain scale.

I thought about what you said, about Faran always attempting to push your buttons, but this went beyond that. Coupled with what Faran told his mother, he's setting himself up for a life as a chauvinistic bully. From what I can gather from his personality and our interactions, women are not only sexual objects, but beings to be experimented with. His lack of care and PC also shows that he deliberately pushes our buttons to prove himself in the eyes of his classmates - that he what he does is actually okay to do.

To be a little bit more precise about the things I chatted to him about you - he was surprised that I was so young compared to you. He wanted me to keep teaching (this was last week, mind) because he sincerely thought that you were not competent as a teacher. I put him in his place by saying that you have been teaching for a lot longer than I have, and that your method of teaching was what you did best. He also wanted to know why you didn't retire because you were "half-deaf". I said that it was because you loved teaching.

If I were to write to Faran's mother, I would say that though he is a typical teenaged boy, obsessed with sex, power etc, someone needs to teach him how to keep those thoughts to himself, especially in a classroom situation. It should not be our job to discipline him on something that he believes is normal. It wastes our time as teachers to parent him in a classroom situation - and it is also not appropriate for us to do so. Undermining our authority in the classroom also affects the way his classmate treats us; it is now not just us as teachers that have a problem, but the students as well. If the students begin to believe that it is normal to undermine a teacher's authority, they will continue to do so with other figures of authority - including their own parents.

No doubt his mother will be offended by what I'm suggesting, but I want her to be aware of what is happening. Already the boys that surround Faran are copying his behaviour, even though it is to a much lesser extent. At least the kids in Jill's year eight class are simply copying the reaction to innuendo, without realising what it actually means. The difference is that Faran knows exactly what he is talking about. And it's just not on.

Perhaps just e-mailing you is enough for a rant - but what are we to do?

 

Bloody Pakis...

 

Give 'im a spanking, it worked for centuries, so why change it?

OT: *Sigh* kids these days. If I'd do something like that, I'd be sent home where my dad would beat the snot outta me. The happiest years of my life, that. And due to lack of discipline those kids even lose strength, according to a study published in the paper. I dread to think what the world will look like in 15 years.

 

I used to have to choose the belt I was disciplined with, the trick was they were all the same belt! That being said my parents would then sit with me and explain why they had to discipline me and why it may hurt me physically it hurts them emotionally because they feel they have failed me. I turned out a bit of alright. I think. Maybe...

 

Good health and good night, then.

And good work fighting the good fight.

 

Where "gang bang" fits on the public-private domain is a legitimate question, and I would address it in the manner that follows:

• Acknowledge that "gang bang" is not a politically correct topic and that it should be relegated to private conversations. Also remind the class that the classroom is more a public forum than a private one and that bringing up similar subjects for the mere shock value of it is inappropriate and will be punished by very specific means. Alternatively, remind the class that the classroom is an educational forum and that subjects that are brought up to distract due to their shock value as opposed to educate will be punished by very specific means. I don't know what punishments are at your disposal but they should be specific and the misbehavior that warrants them should also be very specific.

I agree that as educators you should not be expected to play a parent's role in the classroom, but the classroom is your domain and discipline becomes your responsibility. Deal with it how you see fit, but be sure to send feedback home to the parents so that they might supplement their children's upbringing with whatever consequences they deem appropriate.
Bear in mind that my insight into Faran is limited to what has been presented here, but I'd say it is a bit extreme to suggest that Faran is limited to the role of a chauvinistic bully. He is a teenager and teenagers as well as adults go through a series of phases as their personalities settle. Whether or not Faran is doomed to a life of bigotry does not impact the adults' responsibility to discipline his behavior.

 

I don't really understand the issue here. You'll have to elaborate on what makes Faran such a bad kid.

 

Or you could teach him firsthand what a gang bang is all about. Come on Piper get your jubblies out!

 

Faran continues to make sexually innappropriate comments about the girls in the classroom, including me as a teacher.

In his mutterings while I was trying to think of what to say to him, he continued to "wonder out loud" if it was a private forum if nobody had access to the tape, if the girl was going to tell, if everyone in the group were mates or strangers. In his mind, a gang-bang would be an act of non-consent with the girl. Hence the issue.

I already had a discussion with the class about extreme colloquialism being used in the classroom (we had a lesson about turning colloquialisms into formal language), and that in my classroom, such colloquialisms don't have their place.

The beef is that he seems to think making sexually innappropriate comments is normal and makes him popular. Granted, it's the case with his friends, but it's the issue of undermining my authority in his attempt to embarrass me.

If a child in primary school decided to throw a tantrum to gain attention, s/he would be sent to the chaplain so that I can get on with my class. They would not have the luxury of turning the lesson to them.

However, a child in high school would be disiplined in detention, lecturing, and letters home to his parents. I have no time to give a lecture to one child when there are other students to teach. A single period of English class is not the time to teach a single student manners and PC.

The problem is, Faran's mother doesn't see anything wrong. So to him, it's okay to continue making these comments to female teachers. And it's not.

Edit:

davis: the subsequent short-and-sharp demand from me didn't address the issue of his comment, but the fact that his comment had once again interrupted his class, and that the interruption had once again kept his class in by another minute, and that I was bloody sick and tired of putting up with his crap in my class. I don't care if he doesn't want to be there - but if he isn't going to participate, he is not to prevent others from not participating either. If he wants attention, make it positive - don't go searching for negative attention for the sake of getting attention.

And also, letters home to his mother doesn't work - his mother is actually one of the teaching staff in the school, so always redirects her concerns to the head of deparment, who doesn't actually teach him. So the situation becomes inflated and watered down by the time they reach me and my mentor. I have actually no idea if the father is there - being Muslim, his father would have shown him to respect women as beautiful creatures to be protected, not objects to destroy.

 

Refuse to teach him on grounds of a hostile work environment. Get him removed from the class, and good luck to him. I used to have people like that in my class in school, and while I understood that it was probably immaturity and/or stupidity, and that they had as much right to learn as I did, I also realized that I had as much right to learn as they did, and that it wasn't fair that I was losing out simply based on the luck of the draw that I got stuck in a class with some idiot whose mother hadn't taught him manners. Move him back a year or to some remedial class; anywhere where he's not acting the dick, taking time away from students and teachers, and offending and abusing people, especially since he's both disrupting other students and is receiving positive reinforcement by obtaining the attention he's driving for, thereby hindering the development of himself and others.

 

When I used to teach in England, one of the other teacher's child used to act up in school. She asked me to take any matters about her son to the head of the department as opposed to her which I could understand being that it is not only embarrassing for her but she has her own job to do. Treat the child no differently just because he is a teacher's child, go through the proper channels. If it doesn't work out then the best thing to do is send me a picture of your jubblies so I can accurately get into his frame of mind.

 

See how they can turn out?

 

Punish him. It's that simple. Make an example of him to his friends. His friends think gangbangs are cool? Get a bunch of ex-cons to re-live prison in your classroom!

 

Yeah man, that'll solve the problem of wasting other students' and teachers' time!

 

Damn straight. If they saw The King's Speech, they wouldn't have any reference to Helena Bonham Carter; they'd have a Helluva Boning in their Farter.

 

Yeah, these sound like real sensitive kids!

 

You're...not really listening to what I say?
That was meant to be a joke. Jokes tend to make people laugh. Are you real? Am I here or just a brain in a jar, kept alive by a nutritive solution, meanwhile my coping mechanism is to simulate having a real body sitting in front of a computer typing, typing, typing away...what a life I live, as a brain in a jar.

 

I'm a robot with no sense of humour! I argue, I point out fallacies, and I insult!

 

So I am a brain in a jar...but then, this might all be a simulation of a post human society trying to make a reasonable facsimile of how humans behaved!

 

Nah, you're an insane schizophrenic who thinks that she's a brain in a jar that thinks it's a guy in front of a computer who thinks that he's a different brain in a jar that thinks it's a different guy in front of the same computer!