General Chat

As a qualified teacher I am sure that you recognise that things have changed in recent years.

In a classroom environment, as I am sure you are aware, it can be very intimidating in certain, if not most (for the teacher) circumstances.

It can appear rude - bit like Lauren 'Am I bovvered'?
And no, it's not the most, or worst they can do. I know it's a case of not showing fear sometimes.
I had one 14 year old tell me I was 'safe' at school, but what about at home?
As I walked away, I thanked him. He asked 'What for.'
I replied 'For letting me know where to send the police if anything happens around my house'
He said 'you don't know where I live'
'No' I said - 'Just off to the office to find out'.....

That boy sought me out every lesson we were in together.
He had a learning disability that had been ignored. (finance-and he was apparently 'rough' and a bully)
Every lesson we shared, I gave him a copy of the lesson plan I had done for the Downs Syndrome girl I was looking after. They helped each other. He learnt that everyone (including himself) was worth caring about, and that Downs Syndrome children weren't to be bullied.
Mind you with 30+ children in a class, for the teacher, caring, or even noticing one, is difficult.

If that is the most teenagers do then great - my experience is that they do far more than that

All sharp gesticulating hands around the mouth and rolling eyes (I think) :-D

basically, a lot of unnecessary!!

I sort of noticed it, but obviously the brain noticed more than my consciousness noticed, hence the face noticed by my grand daughter and the apology.
I (and my sister) have a problem in that our mouths say one thing, but our faces show what we really think. We cannot lie.

What is the teenage gesticulation?

A specific incident that happens a lot - believe me, as a LSA, I've seen teachers show little respect, but for some reason, expect respect.

My grand daughter now has little respect for that teacher, and both her mum and I stress how difficult a teacher's job is.
Wade in feet first - end up in the muck.

This grand daughter (now 13) was talking to me the other day, and was giving the 'teenage gesticulation' they do.
I was watching her as I listened, when she suddenly said 'sorry granny'
I asked 'what for', she said 'this' - gesticulating like she had been doing.
Apparently, my face had shown disapproval!! 'No problem' was my reply. 'Do you do all that at school, when you're talking to a teacher?'
'Some of them' was her reply.
'You mean the ones who don't show disapproval?' I asked
'Yes - the useless ones' she replied.
She loves to learn, she wants to learn - and obviously can read people quite well, and dislikes teachers who can't control - because she knows that ruins her education.

Surely that is a very specific incident.

But those who watched the programme would presume that was the 'general' view.
I support teachers, but sometimes it's very difficult.
My grand daughter, when she was 12, had to do a project with another classmate. She (as were the rest of the class) was discussing what they were going to do, with her partner, when the teacher told her to 'Stop chatting up the boys and get on with her work'.
The boy she was chatting to was the classmate she was doing the project with. A boy she had known since primary school, a mate, a pal, not a 'boyfriend' or potential boyfriend. My grand daughter was not only horrified at this presumption, she immediately sussed out the teacher wasn't up to much.
The teacher had instantly sexualised their relationship, through pure ignorance.
Why didn't she ask what they were talking about first? Why did she assume it was a 'chatting up' session?
No doubt my grand daughter would be classed as the 'wrong' one - how dare she have male friends that she can work with on an intellectual level!! :-|

When my grand daughter told me what had happened, I thought about it from both sides (I went to uni as a mature student, and came across quite a few Bed students), and have been a LSA in both primary and Secondary schools, and tried to explain it away as a stressed teacher - but the teacher should not have reacted in such a stereotypical/lazy way.
Treat everyone like sh*t, you'll get it back!!

Nope I base it on what I hear from today's children day in day out - believe me, the kids depicted in that programme were like angels compared to the majority of schools I have experienced over the past 12 months.

.......so we base all our opinions of today's children on the comment of one?
The majority of these 'reality' programmes (apart from being cheap TV) are skewed to a particular view.
Remember 'Benefits Street'?
Remember how Derby Road in Southampton wasn't willing to be another victim of a biased 'reality' format ('Immigration Street')?

"If it wasn't for the social life and friends I wouldn't bother with school"

A child has just said this on the television programme about Chinese teachers going into an English school.

It says it all really.

Oh how we have got it so wrong!