"Model teacher" berates 1st grader and rips up homework

[Rachel333]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/nyregion/success-academy-teacher-rips-up-student-paper.html?_r=0

What do you all think of this? I thought it was horrible and can't believe people are actually defending this teacher.

One of the most recent comments on this article:

Quote

Good! We need strict teachers! Enforce rules, establish discipline, demand perfection. Those early life lessons will benefit and carry the students further in life than any math course.

Looking at related articles like this one -- http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/nyregion/at-a-success-academy-charter-school-singling-out-pupils-who-have-got-to-go.html -- the school sounds like a pretty toxic place even if it does produce successful students.

[louisa05]

Does it produce successful students or successful test-takers? 

Based on the NYT article, my bet is on the latter. 

[Mercer]

I'm all for teachers having high standards, but belittling, shaming, and frightening students is not the appropriate way to help them learn. Teachers need to be patient and supportive in helping students to achieve, not adversarial trying to bully them into it.

I'm also disturbed that the "calm-down chair" is being used as a punishment. Areas where children can go to calm down should be used as a resource to teach emotional self-regulation, not as a method to embarrass a student who is not in any way out of control.

[Firiel]

What the actual fuck?

I think someone needs to go to the calm down chair, and it isn't the kid...

I was a test prep tutor for a while, and I would often (calmly) encourage students through repetition.  Like, "[insert feedback]. Try one more time... really focus this time."  Sometimes, students get bored and lose focus and are missing the question because they are thinking about their girlfriend or basketball game.  Sometimes, though, the student would get flustered.  The second I noticed a student getting flustered, I backed the hell off.  Because a flustered student certainly isn't going to be thinking properly.   When a student was flustered, I'd move on and give them some positive feedback... maybe even tell them to take a short break.  I can't even imagine laying into them when they were in that state... and these were 16-18 year olds, not 6-7 year olds.

[Jingerbread]

Rarely do I want to really punch a teacher.  And take rolled-up newspapers to the people defending her.  This video brings out the mom-bear in me wanting to protect the children subject t that abuse.

[lawlifelgbt]

I had a 2nd grade teacher who was quite mean to me, and I hated. My work was great, because I was quite advanced at the time. But, I didn't fit in, didn't play with the other kids, and didn't always pick up on what was going on in the classroom/what we were going to do next. That teacher relentlessly picked on me for "not picking up on cues" (social, the classroom routine, and so on). I mean, it wasn't my fault I didn't have friends, and read at a higher level than the others (she also picked at my constant reading and wouldn't bend the library rule that you had to be in 4th/5th grade to check out the more advanced books, for me- I was reading at a level that broke the test for what grade level you were reading at at the time).

ETA: My mom insisted I invite her to my high school graduation. I did because she was the one paying for the party, but I remembered what she had done 11 years prior, and hated having her there.

ETA2: Kids remember and are affected by abusive teachers. I get now that she probably wanted me to fit in, but it really dampened my will to try to meet others, and speak up for myself. I can't imagine academic-related abuse being too different in those effects.

[WhiteRun]

I don't care who you are or how great your track record is, what that teacher did was inappropriate.
Theres a huge difference between a tough love teacher and going overboard over a simple mistake, this proves nothing other than a bad tempered teacher can get away with her attitude if her school defends her. 

On 12/02/2016 at 4:14 AM, Rachel333 said:

  Quote

Good! We need strict teachers! Enforce rules, establish discipline, demand perfection. Those early life lessons will benefit and carry the students further in life than any math course.

I had a french teacher who would have screaming outbursts. She would rant, rave and belittle you for a solid 10 minutes for getting something mixed up. It got so bad, I ended up having panic attacks in class when she raised her voice. And mind you, I was 13 at the time so I can't imagine what 1st graders must feel when their teacher gets angry. 
This isnt learning early life lessons and they won't benefit anyone because eventually your kid will end up with severe anxiety about going to school if this is how their teacher treats them.
There's tough love and their verbal abuse. If you have to debate what a teacher is saying to their kids then you have the latter, not the former. 

[Toothfairy]

Let's just say this is normal at Success academy. I hate that charter school with a passion. The kids don't learn all they care about is being good test takers. Eva is an asshole. If your kid has special needs, o well go to another school. 

[Fundie Bunny]

Holy shit, that's What my english teacher used to do to us when we were 9 or 8. If the vocabulary wasn't perfectly written and aligned, she would rip the page off and you would have to repeat it. I remeber once I asked before an exam when was going to be the next one (we had one every few days) Apparently, she had said it earlier, and said that just for asking, I was making both exams that day. Poor little 8 year old me didn't even say a thing. This is the things I remeber more vividly, but that woman was fucked up.

[meda]

21 hours ago, Toothfairy said:

Let's just say this is normal at Success academy. I hate that charter school with a passion. The kids don't learn all they care about is being good test takers. Eva is an asshole. If your kid has special needs, o well go to another school. 

Pretty much. Plus, lets remember that the students in Eva's schools are all poor, and mostly black and brown.  We have a long and ugly history in American education of using these tactics on poor and minority kids in the name of "achievement" or "teaching values" or "assimilation"...whatever the year's buzz-word might be.  This is just the latest version of education "reform", largely championed by wealthy whites who want to 1) cash in on all the money sloshing around in education, and 2) Feel all warm and fuzzy about "fixing" education and helping people that they don't really see as people.  That shit would not have flown in a good urban public school or any suburban white district. I represent teachers in public schools. If one of my members did this, the district be demanding the teacher's head on a platter.

[sawasdee]

This was nothing more nor less than bullying. That it was a teacher, and not a student, is irrelevant. Bullies should be suspended, and invited to consider their behaviour. Period.

This was nothing more nor less than bullying. That it was a teacher, and not a student, is irrelevant. Bullies should be suspended, and invited to consider their behaviour. Period.

[ShepherdontheRock]

That's nobody's kind of model teacher.

And I'm so horrified that we are so focused on making schools into test-score factories that we forget the humanity of these children.

And horrified for any kids with a learning disability or any kind of difference at all.

[AliceInFundyland]

Teacher Horror Story: My 5th grade teacher told one of my classmates, "if I had a nickel for every time you picked your nose I'd be rich." She also turned his entire desk (which was a disaster) upside-down in front of all of us.

She yelled at me when my father wrote a letter of protest on my reading calendar instead of just initialing that I had read the required weekly amount. (Young Alice was reading probably twice that in a day) Not a nice lady.

 

[Season of life...]

Thanks to a sadistic 5th grade teacher I can't do math in front of anyone. My brain blanks out in fear and my heart pounds. This shit stays with you and can impact you for the rest of your life.

Poor baby--I hope from here on she has supportive teachers who have patience.

[Sera's Arrow]

This is the sort of teacher who could potentially create a life-long aversion to learning in her students which will not be a benefit to them for the long term.

[Jana814]

Saw the video so horrible what this woman did. The kid is 6. It's wrong for a teacher to do this at any age but I thinks it's even worse for a younger child. 

[Toothfairy]

On Friday, February 19, 2016 at 1:23 PM, meda said:

Pretty much. Plus, lets remember that the students in Eva's schools are all poor, and mostly black and brown.  We have a long and ugly history in American education of using these tactics on poor and minority kids in the name of "achievement" or "teaching values" or "assimilation"...whatever the year's buzz-word might be.  This is just the latest version of education "reform", largely championed by wealthy whites who want to 1) cash in on all the money sloshing around in education, and 2) Feel all warm and fuzzy about "fixing" education and helping people that they don't really see as people.  That shit would not have flown in a good urban public school or any suburban white district. I represent teachers in public schools. If one of my members did this, the district be demanding the teacher's head on a platter.

Thank you for saying this. The majority of success academy students are black and Hispanic. Very low income and poor. I thought HSA was good. Just by all the hype. They have good test scores and I thought good classes and teachers. Wasn't until my daughter enrolled did I see their true colors. They hate special needs kids (adhd,selective mute,learning disabilities) or kids who need extra help. Test prep starts early. That's all they care about. From Aug til June. The school day is long. Then kids who can't keep up they completely ignore and want to get rid of. 

 

The teacher turnover rate is very high. Then after four grade they actually said kids won't do well after four grade. Which is why they don't accept kids past 4th grade. That school totally fucked my daughter up. 

 

Eva is making half a million a year off this. Sad. Unfortunately she only cares about money. It's going to be interesting to see the class of 2018 high school class. How many need remedial courses. School is more than testing. 

[FundieFarmer]

I think the worst educators don't realize the impact they have. They truly can last a lifetime- positive or negative. Many of us have them, unfortunately, and I would hazard a guess that this is one of those negative experiences that will last.

[Jana814]

Just now, FundieFarmer said:

I think the worst educators don't realize the impact they have. They truly can last a lifetime- positive or negative. Many of us have them, unfortunately, and I would hazard a guess that this is one of those negative experiences that will last.

I have to agree with this. My elementary school gym teacher was an asshole. I was 5 & he yelled at me because I didn't do something right.  He was the reason I hated gym class for the rest of my time in school. 

[ShepherdontheRock]

I remember when I got inconsistent grades (A one week, D the next) in science in 6th grade, my teacher basically told me I wasn't trying enough, and basically tried to throw me under the bus to my own parents, giving me a folio of "awful" work to take home. I never showed it to my parents until my dad asked me about it, and then he explained that it wasn't the work he even wanted to see in the first place. Turns out a major contributing factor behind my inconsistent grades was the fact that I became very depressed and anxious in 6th grade, but was undiagnosed until 7th grade and didn't have the strength or maturity yet to deal with having a mental illness...

She was a real crazy bitch that one. She did ask me to basically teach the class when it was clear I understood something and she didn't want to go over it for the 10th time to the rest of the class, but another day she threatened to send me to the office for looking at her wrong.

Apparently when my parents tried to meet with her, my mom hated her so much that she didn't ever want to talk with her again, my dad, was, thankfully, not so easily intimidated. He later told me he realized she was a bitch, and that a large number of parents/students in my grade had issues with her, one even getting the principal involved.

Thank god that bitch is retired and can't terrorize further generations of poor children. Unfortunately, she made it tougher for an already shy and socially awkward child to advocate for herself.

[MrsYoungie]

I'm stuck trying to make sense of the lesson in the video.  Counting "1 2" is incorrect?  She wants them to say "1 and a slip"? or something?  Any teachers understand the problem?

[polecat]

17 hours ago, FundieFarmer said:

I think the worst educators don't realize the impact they have. They truly can last a lifetime- positive or negative. Many of us have them, unfortunately, and I would hazard a guess that this is one of those negative experiences that will last.

I had a 4th teacher who once did an in-class spelling bee. I was a good speller. The word was "hearty." I asked him to use it in a sentence, and he said, "Your spelling word is hearty." So I spelled it "h-e-a-r-t-y." He proceeded to berate me in front of the whole class and claimed I deliberately misspelled it for attention. Because the word he'd wanted me to spell was "hardy." In actuality, he wasn't a terrible teacher (he was a pretty good teacher overall), but that one event was humiliating enough that I never put myself out there in front of a class again for fear that I'd again be wrong. So I never raised my hand, I never answered any questions, and I never contributed if I could help it. I was an adult long out of school before I felt confident enough to speak in front of other people. 

[Gemini]

This topic really grates my nerves. I had a very happy child who loved every minute of school (This kid would seriously try to pretend that she was fine after throwing up all night because she didn't want to miss a day) Then soon after moving up in to year 4 (UK  ages 8/9) things went down hill fast! The teacher had a major obsession with penmanship which, due to a case of meningitis in her early years damaging her fine motor skills, my daughter really struggled with. Things came to a head when her teacher ripped all the 'correct' math work out of her book, whilst screaming at her that she was lazy. My child went from a confident, bubbly child to an emotional wreak in less than a month. It was devastating to watch!
What made it worse was that he admitted to me that he had done it, then when I went to the Principle he denied it. Fortunately the education board took on my concerns and lent very heavily on the school to apologize. It took 5 months but we eventually got it!

Needless to say we withdrew her from the school immediately after the incident. I then home schooled for a while until she felt that she was ready to start looking for a new school. It took a while but we eventually did and she is the happy girl she once was  scruffy handwriting and all! 

[CryCheeble]

I've been lurking FJ for some time now - this is the thread which got me to register.

I thought Eva Moskowitz' name sounded familiar.  She's been in the news before, and engages in bullying tactics herself - brings out the big guns, too.

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2015/10/success_academies_eva_moskowitz_published_a_student_s_disciplinary_record.html

The child in that video sounds nervous right off the bat and the teacher already sounds irritated.  The kid was probably terrified of making a mistake, and as these things go, made a mistake.  Then that fear was harshly reinforced.  Poor kid, as others have said, that stuff does stay with you.

My brother had an abusive teacher in Kindergarten.  He was terrified of her.  He has some trouble with his hypothalamus, it doesn't always regulate his temperature properly, so he sometimes has spike, runaway fevers - these events were more common when he was a child.  One of the first of these, when he was just a toddler, basically wiped out his speech despite my parents and medical staff responding quickly.  You'd never know it now, but he's worked hard with a lot of speech therapy to recover from that.  His speech was still fairly significantly impaired when he was in Kindergarten, so the teacher nicknamed him "Stupid".  She berated him for every little mistake he made.  She made him clean the classroom's bathroom if other children made a mess of it (often misaimed urine), yelling at him the entire time and blaming him for it, whether he'd used the restroom or not.  She made a 5 year old clean other children's urine.  And I just have no words for using "Stupid" in place of a child's name.

This experience affected his love of school and learning, and his ability to trust and respect his teachers.  She robbed him of something precious, as all such teachers do.

[lawlifelgbt]

I also had another, later bad teacher experience. In this case, I don't think he was TRYING to be bad, but results matter more. He taught 6th grade gym.

Not only were we running the mile nearly every week (and this was before my mom's mandatory gym time forced me into shape, so I was slow and mocked- in fact, working out regularly made running more physically comfortable but did nothing to decrease my mile time), and other really strenuous stuff that made us stinky and self-conscious for the rest of the day since it was a midday class and there weren't proper showers or time to freshen up, he knew I was terrible at gym. And he singled me out for it once. The class was playing some sort of activity game indoors, with groups competing to, IDK, win and get out of the next mile run or something? Anyway, to get points everyone had to complete the activity. But, he said to my group "Well, the other groups need to all get it, but" (looks right at me) "lawlife's group only needs to TRY them." I was paired with kids with a variety of skills, so they all knew he meant the rule change for me. And the other groups were mostly within hearing range, and some of the guys in my group immediately laughed about this and told others. I was so embarrassed, and hated gym for ages, until a college class where we could try different activities, no groups made at random and no competition.

I mean, arguably he meant well, but wouldn't it have been better to quietly watch and award points for trying without announcing it, or even just let me lose? Having my group mad at me would have been better than the whole class knowing I was so bad at gym and making fun of me.

I still hate you, Mr. F.