Classroom discipline problems certainly aren’t the same for every teacher or every school. At present, I am mad at one of my sophomore boys and have emailed his mother about his unacceptable behavior. The boy, who is very immature, is quite bright. He is probably capable of A work, but consistently earns C’s and D’s. His work is generally late, incomplete, or just missing and in class he needs constantly to be the center of attention, a real attention whore. He speaks out of turn, makes humorous (?) comments, and generally draws attention to himself. One day I am sure will jump up out of his seat, and wave his arms in the air yelling…”Look at me!, Look at me!” Before this happens I will probably drop him out of Honors Chemistry into a lower level; making him someone else’s problem.
The day after I emailed his mother I got a return message apologizing for him. She knows he is bright and disruptive and does not know what to do. She made him come to me and apologize for his behavior, at which time I told him I was going to demote him out of my class soon if his grade didn’t improve. I am waiting for his quarter exam grade to put the last nail in his coffin as it were.
Perhaps I am spoiled teaching in a private school. My good friend who teaches in the Chicago Public schools tells horror stories that would make you make you cringe. He has had his car fire-bombed in the faculty parking lot, has had a gang fight in the hall spill over into his classroom while teaching, and once found two students in the hall having sex. While it has never happened to him, he claims that there 2-3 assaults a month on teachers by students in the building. He probably wouldn’t even notice a chatty sophomore in his classroom.
Recently I read an article at “news-press.com” about a 9 year old girl who was arrested in a Florida school for attacking her teacher. The girl is in a special needs school and has been diagnosed with obsessive oppositional disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia.
On the day of the incident, the student had just returned to school after serving a suspension for assaulting another teacher who declined to press charges. Two hours after arriving at school, the police were called. The girl, reportedly, threw a chair at the teacher, threatened to stab her, knocked the phone out of her hand when the teacher tried to call for help, and kicked the teacher. She also attacked the officer when he attempted to restrain her. I should be happy that my little criminal is only a pain in the ass and not violently insane.
