< 12345 6 7 > 318 posts, read 648,533 times 2,370 posts, read 2,278,264 times 1 posts, read 1,494 times 12,005 posts, read 6,924,839 times Originally Posted by mistyd149 There is nothing nefarious about her going through the backpacks after the kids are supposed to turn in work and folders, especially for a self-contained class, because you need to double check to make sure there are no notes for the teacher or other such items in there. Is he in an EBD self-contained room? It kind of sounds like it. There is probably one teacher and two aides. The push up and sit up until they get ill doesn't sound right, especially making them clean it up. However, one year I had a child who would throw up on purpose. I had no clue and had never encountered such so I was full of sympathy for the kid and was upset her parents wouldn't pick her up after she got sick and that they insisted that she clean up after herself. It made sense after the counselor explained what was going on.
Maybe that is what is going on with that kid. I am surprised the principal and teacher didn't address this when you asked. If it really bothers you, most districts have a person at central office who are in charge of special education for the district, you can always contact them. At least that might get you answers. However.... you do need to consider whether or not she would take action against your child if she finds out and gets mad. 13,652 posts, read 13,405,912 times This kind of punishment is abusive. There should be a special education specialist at the district office. If you can, get the support of the other parents so that you have more than one person's word about what is happening. Will any of the other teachers (I assume she is the lead and they are assistants) back you up if you do go to the district with this kind of complaint? The lunch thing is actually odd because for the most part in our schools, kids are taken to the cafeteria by the aides who supervise them.
It's part of the least restrictive environment piece of the special education. They should also be mainstreamed for physical education, art or music *if* possible. If the principal condones this, s/he is also at fault, imo. 30,759 posts, read 26,961,522 times Originally Posted by pegmomof4 What do you think of children forced to climb stairs as punishment? This has been implemented for 6th graders in Shirley, Arkansas. See an article regarding this, and a photo of the steps being used at: I'd rather be spanked...with a paddle...with blades on it. 3,442 posts, read 3,496,662 times 562 posts, read 400,603 times 768 posts, read 744,115 timesSince coporal punishment is no longer an option, hard exercise is a very good way to get a wayward students sweaty attention. Not only is the message getting across, but the physical benefit is clear. Way to go teachers and adminstrators in Shirley Arkansas! 1,344 posts, read 1,669,228 times Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum.
It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.To those who were brought up in Africa in the 70s and the 80s, ‘dealing’ with your kids usually means physical punishment. In those days, the standard penalty was to be caned with a thin, seemingly unbreakable bamboo stick, a belt, a slipper, or anything similar for delivering pain without breaking the skin. The cane brought such order to African homes that even the mere hint that a caning might be imminent was enough to make the children of the household tremble. Sometimes a child had the option of receiving the lashes on the fingers or on the palm of the hand, but sometimes the caning was more improvised and surprising, like a heavy slap to the face or to the back of the head. But caning, in whatever form, was and is too basic a kind of punishment to cover all infractions. Things really got interesting when parents got creative on their kids and had them do things like balance on one leg while stretching out their other limbs as though pretending to be a plane in flight.
To Europeans, these punishments might sound a bit violent, but thinking now about the forms they took, is it possible our parents were merely trying to keep us fit? After all, these punishments were merely endurance tests for the muscles. No pain no gain? We’re sure you can think of many more tests from your own childhood, but here are a few to start your trip down memory lane: Creative punishment #1: The frog jump Remember having to hold your ears and do the squats? This was sometimes known as the Frog Jump. It was quite popular across West Africa and is still a favourite in some homes in the Diasporas. That punishment is well thought through, because there’s no set limit to how many times you have to squat or how long you will need to squat for this time. All you knew was that you had to keep going up and down long after you felt the burn in your thigh muscles. The cane was waiting for you if you stopped. But at least with the Frog Jump, with its repetition component, mimicked something you might do in a gym (without the ear-holding).
Who came up with the starter’s block punishment? For this you had to pretend you were an athlete about to run the 100 metres, get into the on your marks position, then get set, and remain in that “get set” position until your leg muscles gave out or until the parent thought you’d trembled enough. If you didn’t grow up in an African household, try this now and see how long you last. Creative punishment #2: Touch your toes and stand still Another frozen-in-place punishment was to stand bent over and touch your toes while keeping your legs straight. Kids are flexible, so the first time you had to do this you thought, hey, this is not so bad. 10 minutes later you’re thinking you’d have preferred the momentary pain of the cane. Creative punishment #3: The invisible chair Another way parents got our muscles burning was to have us sit on an invisible chair with our backs against the wall. To make sure you felt the burn in more than just your thigh muscles, you also had to have your arms stretched out in front of you.
As with the other punishments, you never knew how long you had to remain in this position. What you did know was that a minute was a minute too long. Creative punishment #4: Kneeling on gravel Kneeling on its own is boring, but kneeling on gravel while making sure your upper legs formed a straight line with your erect torso, now that was a bit more interesting because the pain caused by sharp stones digging into your knees made remaining upright quite a challenge. But if a parent thought this still wasn’t sufficiently challenging, they had the option of asking you to also raise your hands in the air, keeping your arms straight. Creative punishment #5: Pepper in the butt Saving the craziest for last, and it’s one some of our Ghanaian visitors will be familiar with: the application of freshly sliced pepper or ginger to the buttocks. Or, for the really hardcore parents, actually squeezing pepper seeds up your butt. It’s a more extreme version of the American practice of “hotsaucing” (dabbing a naughty child’s tongue with stinging Tabasco).
I imagine anyone unfamiliar with this particular punishment might be thinking “what the heck!?” Don’t worry, this one isn’t commonly used anymore, although one couple in Belgium tried it on their 16-year-old daughter in 2005 and ended up in court (copy-past the text into Google translate). Not surprisingly, the threat of this particular punishment was enough to silence any child. One young lady I interviewed described the feeling as an intense burning sensation lasting 10 to 15 minutes. She also said it straightened her out, but she was laughing when she said that. Corporal punishment is administered less today than it was in the 70s and 80s, especially in the more westernised African homes and in the diaspora, but back then they were just a normal part of growing up, and we can have a good laugh about them now. The threat of punishment kept us on the straight and narrow, and hey, we survived them. Besides, we know we deserved some sort of punishment at least some of the time.