There should be extra training for teachers

[morcar]

One of my boys who is 4 loves to wear boots into school which is no problem. Until his laces come undone which is where I think all teachers should have a day of extra training.

His teacher cant be arsed to tie his laces to just does one big knot which takes me or the wife around 10 to 15 mins to undo.

What really gets me is that today he wanted to go to the toilet but wanted his boots off (he likes to get naked when going strange i know)

Anyway i was there trying to get his boots on when he has an accident and of course he was embaressed and started to cry his little heart out.

I have talked to the school about this over 6 times now and they still refusing to listen to reason.

Next up will be a letter to the Welsh Assembely to see if they can do anything about it because lord knows i have tried.

 

[roy_bates]

surely you could talk to the teacher in person regarding your child?or dont teachers like to interact with children.

failing that,couldent you just buy boots with velcro straps.it makes life alot easer on you

 

[morcar]

surely you could talk to the teacher in person regarding your child?or dont teachers like to interact with children.

failing that,couldent you just buy boots with velcro straps.it makes life alot easer on you

Tried talking to the teacher and they just nod like sheep.

Plus why should I buy boots with velco when he wants laces.

I am teaching him to do them up but as we all know it takes time.

 

[roy_bates]

sorry about that,you are right but if the teacher concerned wont listen and cant/wont help your child,what do you do?

i would speak to the teacher and ask him/her nicely to tie up my childs boots for them,surely there not that ignorant?


damn i would even ask if they know how to tie a knot,lol.
if not id show them how.

 

[Paul_s]

Not having a go here but I see on a daily basis what it's like in classrooms and the teachers have a hard enough job coping with 30 other kids; so shoelaces will not be at the front of their mind I'm afraid!

 

[r0jaws]

It is a bit of a blurred line for what is acceptable or not. I remember being called in to the school one day when my youngest was 4 because during the day he had a dodgy tummy. The problem occurred because the teachers weren't allowed to help him sort himself out and clean him up, so being only 4 he got into a right mess.
It was heart breaking to see him stood covered in mess, with all his clothes wrecked and crying his heart out with humiliation and frustration.
I know it's not a nice thing to have to sort out but I was absolutely shocked and more than a little upset that he had been left to fend for himself.
The school is an excellent one in many other ways, so I was surprised at this particular incident more than anything.

I have often wondered why we are forced to send our children to school at such a young age, they are so tiny and often not able to completely fend for themselves in many ways. Other countries don't start schooling until the kids are older and it doesn't seem to affect them at all.

 

[thecellartroll]

Its a sad fact of life that, as with every other job, there are many lazy, inconsiderate, lazy and incompetent teachers. Through work I have met many teachers and some are fantastic, with a real passion for embracing the opportunity to enrich childhoods. Others really couldn't give a toss and actively seem to hate children.

Any teacher who doesn't bother to tie a kids shoes properly I would think falls into the lazy category. Does this teacher wear slip-ons by any chance? Maybe they never bothered to learn how to tie laces themselves. And yes, by 4 kids should be learning how to do it themselves, but of course a hell of a lot of them haven't mastered it yet at 4!

I'm not a parent, but if I was I wouldn't shy away from telling your kid not to worry that the teacher is too silly to be able to tie laces. Not a bad thing to learn that adults don't know everything, and that some adults don't know anything!

When I was 4, my dad got a bit of square wood, drilled two holes in and threaded a lace through. I learned to tie the bow on that and moved to the shoes when I'd got it to a fine art. Now lacing up a shoe from scratch - have you noticed that in shoe shops they can't do that :nuts:

 

[BrooksterMax]

I'm not a parent but these stories from you all make me a little sad about how hard it is to be a parent and put in trust in others to look after them.

 

[morcar]

Not having a go here but I see on a daily basis what it's like in classrooms and the teachers have a hard enough job coping with 30 other kids; so shoelaces will not be at the front of their mind I'm afraid!

Problem i have is there is 4 other assistant teachers with in the class with them so they have the time to do laces up. Only takes a 1 min

---------- Post added at 21:17 ---------- Previous post was at 21:16 ----------

I'm not a parent but these stories from you all make me a little sad about how hard it is to be a parent and put in trust in others to look after them.

I have seen some stuff which i did not like from teachers and dinner ladys (if you can call them that)

All has been reported and not much done after. I am really considering trying to get on the board for the school as they have to have at least 1 perent on it. Just to see if i can make a difference.

 

[Jazzmarazz]

I can somewhat relate to this. I remember very well that when I was learning to tie my own shoes, I would have to ask Julie the playground attendant to tie mine. She would become outwardly angry at me and mumble under breath things along the lines of "Why can't parents teach you this all ready? or "It's taken you too long to learn for yourself.""
When she reached for my foot, she would jerk it nearly out from under me and tie them painfully tight. I hated her and can probably only remember this age-old tale becuase of some trauma she incurred.
My point is that all teachers up until Uni suck, whether they tie shoes or not. I agree that teacher who deal with young children should be competent enough to help one. It's not like they have been made to teach children against their own will; it was a choice that came with these burdens.

I am also aware of a newly-graduated teacher who now teaches full time in my hometown where I attended elementary school. She was quoted on facebook to having put Kahlua in her coffee each morning before work. I have no idea where I will send my children when I have some, but then again, I survived and am very pleased with my accomplishments. Maybe schools are simply supposed to suck, for the good of children? lol

 

[Harrison]

As you may know my wife is a Deputy Head in a Primary School. If you knew how much they have to do on a daily basis, you would quickly realise why they don't have time to do everything perfectly. Obviously she has a bigger workload as part of the management team, but all teachers normally have a lot to juggle and have to be considering and thinking about a lot of different things at once.

In the classroom, the class sizes are starting to getting larger again because the schools can't afford to reduce class sizes by employing more teachers; instead making more redundant and restructuring classes to make them larger.

I could say a lot about teaching, but the point I've trying to make is that teachers really don't have a lot of free time to do things like tie shoe laces. I know it seems a very simple thing to do when looking at it as a parent, but if all the children in a class needed their shoes tied it could take 30 minutes!

Obviously if the class has a lot of TA's assigned to it then I definitely would think they would have the time to help the children with things like shoes and coats. I don't have any experience of seeing how R and year 1 classes are run because my wife's school doesn't start until year 3. However I think in some ways it must be much harder than older children, trying to keep 20-30 5 year old children entertained and interested for a whole day can't be an easy task, especially when their levels of learning must be at greatly different stages.

There is also the issue of child protection. back in the 70's when I was in primary school it really didn't exist and if a child messed themselves the teachers and other staff would strip them down, clean them up and raid lost property for some clothes. These days by law they can't touch the children and do that. Mad, especially for such young children. And if you see so much as a bruise paper work has to be filled in and people contacted. protecting the children is a good thing, but not when it gets that restricted and retentive. There has to be some common sense IMO.

 

[tokyoracer]

I think alot of the blame can be pointed at this new culture where elders are put in vulnerable positions to fingerpointing and wild claims. It's all so wrong, my grandmother often tells me about her teaching experience and she was nothing short of a legend where she worked. Where-as back then most teachers resorted to violence and labeling, my nan would get the class involved and sort disputes over with words so they all get the picture of right and wrong and also learn violence gets you nowhere.
So sad that when they got older they didn't see other teachers like her. Even today (despite their young age back then of the kids she taught) they still stop her in the street to tell her how good she was! Amazing...

 

[Paul_s]

Problem i have is there is 4 other assistant teachers with in the class with them so they have the time to do laces up. Only takes a 1 min

Yeah, true if there are four assistant teachers!

Going of what Harrison was saying maybe they don't want the responsibility of tieing shoe laces because if they did and your child had an accident by them coming loose or what not they'd be liable!
Sounds mad I know, but this is the current culture May not be the case but it wouldn't surprise me!

 

[User1301]

I'm a bit 50/50 on this one. On the one hand - yes, I don't think it's unreasonable for a teacher / assistant etc to help tie laces. If they're spending time puting a knot in it - they can tie them properly, which would only take another 2 seconds max, but I'm not clear on whether it's their responsibility to do so or they do so almost as a favour (you wouldn't expect them to button or zip your kids cardigan / shirt / jumper for instance) - BUT again - if they are doing it - then they should do it properly.

From personal experience of my own daughter when she was younger, I would have made sure that if she wasn't able to tie her laces at school properly (because she was just learning) I waould have insisted that she have straps or velcro shoe / boot ties and would have let her have laces when she was with us and could practice without the added pressure of school.

John

 

[cosmicfrog]

get ya levels of management sorted first if ya going complain, dought the Welsh Assembely would do ought

teacher, head, board of goveners, local counciler, MP

though some fine words have been writen above, in a class of 30+ small ppl which ones should be more special than the rest ???

makes me laff on news the other day about old ppl in hosptal where the care workers should be compassionate as well as an academic knowlage of what to do oh:

 

[Belxjander]

I can only imagine... but I have been an Assistant Language Teacher in Japan and the boot is about to be on the other foot in about 5 years time,

As for the time I was an Assistant or English Teacher, student contact at any time
needed to be seriously limited to avoid anything being taken the wrong way.
And my own impression of schools for when I was a child, seriously "ugh".

I would have a hard time in both situations since I would find it hard to do nothing
for the child that messed themselves yet at the same time, do I "be nice" and do
the shoe laces for everyone?

It was always beneficial to have the parents present during the youngest classes
since I would just offer generally and let the parents take over for anything
that was "sensitive" and focus more towards what the children were in fact learning.