ST 23/8 Teacher cuts pupil's hair, mum files police report

[PhoBIA]

The parent so atas! Tsk Tsk…

Make such a big fuss over the haircut, trying to ppl they are rich?

[MyBaby]

Seems like teacher get blamed for shaking the boy's confidence as incident happened an hour before his PSLE oral. But if the teacher had warned the boy enough times about getting his hair cut, and the boy choose not to listen, then why blame the teacher for the inappropriate timing? The boy asked for it.

jtoh:

The teacher was too extreme in my opinion. If she wanted the boy to give a good impression to the examiners (as TNP article states), she could have made sure the boy's hair was neat by the day before. And if she deemed it really necessary, wield the scissors to him then (although I don't endorse this). Why go up to the boy minutes before his Oral, ruffle his concentration and shake his confidence by giving him an amateur haircut? Strikes me that the teacher was out to 'get' him and the other boys because her instructions were ignored.

[3Boys]

Funz:

Daddy

The Principals also side with the parents...
So the teachers are always wrong...
LPPL...
No pride being teachers nowadays...

In this case really lah. The teacher went overboard. Was there any attempt made by the teacher to talk to the parents before taking this action? If having a proper haircut is so crucial the proper thing would have been to call the parents up at the very least 1 day before.

Insisting that the kids abide by the school rules is not wrong, how she went about it though, is not exactly ideal.

I have to agree that although the parent and boy in this case are absolute brats, the teacher's judgement and actions were really questionable, and ultimately counter-productive.

[jtoh]

If the teacher's intention was for the boy to leave a good impression with the PSLE invigilator (as TNP reports), presumably it's also bec she wants the boy to score well at the Oral exam. If that's the case, giving the boy an amateur haircut minutes before the exam and rattling his nerves is definitely not going to achieve either.

MyBaby:

Seems like teacher get blamed for shaking the boy's confidence as incident happened an hour before his PSLE oral. But if the teacher had warned the boy enough times about getting his hair cut, and the boy choose not to listen, then why blame the teacher for the inappropriate timing? The boy asked for it.

jtoh:

The teacher was too extreme in my opinion. If she wanted the boy to give a good impression to the examiners (as TNP article states), she could have made sure the boy's hair was neat by the day before. And if she deemed it really necessary, wield the scissors to him then (although I don't endorse this). Why go up to the boy minutes before his Oral, ruffle his concentration and shake his confidence by giving him an amateur haircut? Strikes me that the teacher was out to 'get' him and the other boys because her instructions were ignored.

[Funz]

jtoh:

If the teacher's intention was for the boy to leave a good impression with the PSLE invigilator (as TNP reports), presumably it's also bec she wants the boy to score well at the Oral exam. If that's the case, giving the boy an amateur haircut minutes before the exam and rattling his nerves is definitely not going to achieve either.

This teacher should just keep quiet if she does not want to admit she lost her cool. Her reasons only make her seem irrational.

[MyBaby]

I agree that the confidence of the boy could be adversely affected by the act of his hair being cut against his will (that is, assuming that psle is important to this kid in the first place). However, in absence of information about what had transpired between the teacher and the boy, it is not fair to blame the teacher - for all we know, prior to the exam, the teacher could have warned him of the possibility of his hair being cut by her should he turn up on the day of the exam without cutting his hair.


I think the only thing for sure we know is the hair cut cost $60!

jtoh:

If the teacher's intention was for the boy to leave a good impression with the PSLE invigilator (as TNP reports), presumably it's also bec she wants the boy to score well at the Oral exam. If that's the case, giving the boy an amateur haircut minutes before the exam and rattling his nerves is definitely not going to achieve either.

MyBaby:

Seems like teacher get blamed for shaking the boy's confidence as incident happened an hour before his PSLE oral. But if the teacher had warned the boy enough times about getting his hair cut, and the boy choose not to listen, then why blame the teacher for the inappropriate timing? The boy asked for it.
[quote=\"jtoh\"]The teacher was too extreme in my opinion. If she wanted the boy to give a good impression to the examiners (as TNP article states), she could have made sure the boy's hair was neat by the day before. And if she deemed it really necessary, wield the scissors to him then (although I don't endorse this). Why go up to the boy minutes before his Oral, ruffle his concentration and shake his confidence by giving him an amateur haircut? Strikes me that the teacher was out to 'get' him and the other boys because her instructions were ignored.

[/quote]

[jtoh]

MyBaby:

I agree that the confidence of the boy could be adversely affected by the act of his hair being cut against his will (that is, assuming that psle is important to this kid in the first place). However, in absence of information about what had transpired between the teacher and the boy, it is not fair to blame the teacher - for all we know, prior to the exam, the teacher could have warned him of the possibility of his hair being cut by her should he turn up on the day of the exam without cutting his hair.


I think the only thing for sure we know is the hair cut cost $60!

Whatever transpired between the boy and the teacher, it's still not correct for a teacher to wield scissors to a boy's hair minutes before an exam. I believe there are better ways to address the problem of non-compliance.

[kids_r_innocent]

Haiz… Yet another rash act!


Shld have waited till the exams are over, then talked with the boy or his parents. Wats a few strand of hair compared to his PSLE exams.

[MyBaby]

This incident reminded me of another that happened quite a few years back when I was teaching in a sec sch. It was in fashion for kids to dye/highlight their hair which was against school rules. So the students will dye their hair during school hols and dye black when term starts. Of course, a few will try to push their luck but will generally dye their hair black when asked to.


One day, a mum, with her daughter in tow, confronted the Vice-Principal. The mum, in between crying and scolding the VP, said that her daughter has a breast lump and she attributed this to repeated dying of hair and she blamed the school as her daughter was frequently caught for flounting the rule. In particular, she blamed the discipline mistress, who is my friend.

My friend was lucky - both P and VP supported her and rubbished the mum’s claim, pointing out that the sch won’t need to ask the girl to dye her hair black if she had not dyed it other colour in the first place.

Good news was the breast lump turned out to be a scare (not breast cancer after all) and the girl had the grace to apologise to the discipline mistress for her mother’s behaviour.

Back to this incident, I wonder what will the boy learn from this event, given his mother’s action and the school asking the teacher to apologise?

[LOLMum]

IMHO, before the teacher cut the hair, the boy already had his hair cut (5 days earlier) and looking at the picture, the fringe was above the eye brows and the side (cant really see) looked ok.


The school might have given out letter to parents about having short hair for exam but if I am the mom and I didn’t get any complaints from teacher, I would assume my son’s hair is fine, taking into consideration he had his hair cut just a few days ago.

Why didnt any of the boy’s form teachers cum subject teachers say anything about his hair being too long earlier?