exhaustedmum:

Just curious, is this a role play or a real life case? The video looks like a role play to me.


No matter what stream (express or normal), what school, what race, what religion, what family background, kids must be taught to be respectful to parents & grandparents, teachers & principal, elderlies & even to their maid. This is the type of society we want our kids to grow up in. There is no excuse for a kid to behave in this manner to the teacher. What the kid in the video did was definitely wrong & punishment followed by counseling should be meted out. Just my 2 cents worth.

KSP:

Hope his parents will do something about his behavior.

sushi88:

pirate:

This is easier said than done. Respect cannot be \"taught\". It must first be earned and seen to be earned. Children will readily pick up the behavior of all those around him, especially the behavior of \"authority figures\".

The only thing that can be taught is the reason why one has to be respectful.

There is, for example, little point in trying to teach a child to be respectful to his/her parents if the parents themselves are not respectful to their parents, including parents-in-law. It is not possible to teach a child to be respectful to the maid if the parents themselves are not respectful to the maid.

Much of what had gone wrong with this particular student went wrong long before he enrolled in this particular secondary school. He is after all only in sec 1, and it is only January. I would be looking at his time in primary school to discover the reason for his lack of respect for his teachers. Somehow, he did not get the message that teachers are worthy of respect. I am not saying that his primary school was necessarily at fault. There could also be family reasons.

:hi5: I agree.

Something must have gone wrong somewhere in his earlier formative years to think it is ok to speak to teachers in this manner. But all is not lost. After all, he is only Sec 1, there is still a lot of room for improvement in his maturing process. In fact, he may look back and think very fondly of this teacher who did not hammer him hard when he has misbehaved and regard this as his best teacher in his school life. He will learn if he reflects well and with guidance from parents and the school in tandem.

pirate:

exhaustedmum:

No matter what stream (express or normal), what school, what race, what religion, what family background, kids must be taught to be respectful to parents & grandparents, teachers & principal, elderlies & even to their maid. This is the type of society we want our kids to grow up in. There is no excuse for a kid to behave in this manner to the teacher. What the kid in the video did was definitely wrong & punishment followed by counseling should be meted out. Just my 2 cents worth.

This is easier said than done. Respect cannot be \"taught\". It must first be earned and seen to be earned. Children will readily pick up the behavior of all those around him, especially the behavior of \"authority figures\".

The only thing that can be taught is the reason why one has to be respectful.

There is, for example, little point in trying to teach a child to be respectful to his/her parents if the parents themselves are not respectful to their parents, including parents-in-law. It is not possible to teach a child to be respectful to the maid if the parents themselves are not respectful to the maid.

Much of what had gone wrong with this particular student went wrong long before he enrolled in this particular secondary school. He is after all only in sec 1, and it is only January. I would be looking at his time in primary school to discover the reason for his lack of respect for his teachers. Somehow, he did not get the message that teachers are worthy of respect. I am not saying that his primary school was necessarily at fault. There could also be family reasons.

exhaustedmum:

No matter what stream (express or normal), what school, what race, what religion, what family background, kids must be taught to be respectful to parents & grandparents, teachers & principal, elderlies & even to their maid. This is the type of society we want our kids to grow up in. There is no excuse for a kid to behave in this manner to the teacher. What the kid in the video did was definitely wrong & punishment followed by counseling should be meted out. Just my 2 cents worth.

rains:

'Guts' and 'defiance' are two quite different things and the boy is being defiant. To the other kids in the video, he has guts, which fuelled him into being more defiant.

rains:

'Guts' and 'defiance' are two quite different things and the boy is being defiant. To the other kids in the video, he has guts, which fuelled him into being more defiant.

ammonite:

I believe 人之初性本善. Reading the transcript, it seems the boy did make an effort in the beginning but lost it later. Anger management is something that even some adults need help with (including myself). We are not privy to how he came to be so, but condemning him does not improve anything. Whether or not he has special needs, a trained professional is needed to step in.


When I see such children, I am reminded of 孙无空 in the Journey to the West 2009 drama series. Bright, stubborn, and angry with the gods for making a fool of him but at the same time, capable of greatness and wisdom once enlightened. A trained professional told me that behind an angry child is often a frightened child. And it make sense. When cornered, one either succumb to fear and weakness or fear turn to anger. Another wise mother also reminded me that anger can become habitual.

We don't know if it is family influences (or of what nature) or if it was due to previous negative experiences with authority figures (at home or in school), but breaking such a cycle takes sustained effort and not just finger pointing and condemning.

atrecord:

Well said that this looks like a troubled child that needs professional help.


The question is to what extent can such people be tolerated in class. By tolerating and worse, accommodating him, it will waste others' time, and in the extreme case, the others will see that it is not wrong and accepted to behave as such. Before long, this can become a contagious disease and many more will turn rebellious like him.

Imagine what will happen if we have a small society of people like him, especially when they grow up.

Unless the parents will find ways to bring him back to the right path by helping him (make sure got time and $$ to do so, as it's not going to be easy), the onus is on the Govt to set up special facilities to help such kids, whom i would classify as partially with special needs too.

If this will not work, just put him in boys' home and whack and wake him up.

rains:

ammonite:

[quote=\"rains\"]Really, if the boy is scared of the principal, he is still not a gone case. I know of lower primary kids who have no regards for the p and vp. Those then are gone case.

How can a child who is not even 10 ever be a gone case?

rains:

I feel that some children's awareness of right and wrong is so low they need the whole world to tell them they are wrong. I do believe that if the video had not gone viral and invited negative comments condemning the boy, the boy would not have been convinced that he was in the wrong.

If he had special needs, they ought to have surfaced in his 6 years primary education. The fact that he is in spectra tells us that he does not have major disorder that requires medical intervention or professional help. I have no doubt tho that the school could have placed him under counselling if that helps at all (actually it doesn't).

Other than children who have special needs and low iq, I feel that our society must acknowledge that there are spoilt, defiant and violent children that schools are not equipped for and who take advantage of a system that keeps making allowances for them.

rains:

concern2:

Clarification: I added 'parent' in bracket if I am talking to my child. If addressing the student, it would be 'teacher'.

No prob! Let me try to imitate the boy's mannerism:

\"Yes! I talk to my teacher like this! Cannot ah? Is this the way you talk to your student?\"

I think janet nailed it - the boy felt shiok that he was playing hero.

therat:

ngl2010:

[quote=\"rains\"]
Obviously not the intelligent breed la.

The school is not an anger management school. It's a prep school for ite so I don't see how the school can correct his behaviour. Oh wait, they can recommend to the parents to change his brain.

I think generally, parents on this forum do not have a lot of contact with children who go to such schools. These children are usually from the foundation classes or who repeated psle. To them, incidents like this are not rare. I am quite sure they would have classmates who defied teachers in primary schools too. To them, it's likely to be a free show and a break from the 'boring' lessons. It amuses them rather than a teaching moment.

Perhaps this can indeed be a teaching moment - that when you behave like this, the world outside school actually thinks it's unacceptable or 'wrong' and the people on the internet don't like what you do. Hey, this is a good resource for teachers!

Not intelligent is not an excuse to be rude.

rains:

ammonite:

[quote=\"rains\"]Really, if the boy is scared of the principal, he is still not a gone case. I know of lower primary kids who have no regards for the p and vp. Those then are gone case.

How can a child who is not even 10 ever be a gone case?

phtthp:

janet_lee88:

this is not drama man...in fact, this is a good case study for teachers-to-be in NIE...what should they do if such incidents happen...especially if the teacher is new.

not just a case study for NIE trainee(s).

but a real life interview question ...

Example

For people who want to become teacher(s) in Secondary school -
the first thing the panel of interviewer(s) at NIE ask interviewee(s) is :-

\"How do you handle this type of student(s) ?
because this is going to be a very likely scenario in your classroom everyday -
if we decide to post you to a Secondary school, like this to teach.
Because not every applicant into MOE to be a teacher -
is going to be posted to teach in a Secondary school, with Express stream.
Some of you may be posted to Normal Academic, or Normal Technical stream to teach.

Imagine this daily scenario (Monday to Friday) ...
You are going to walk into a class, face a class of more than 20 pupils.
You have prepared your lesson plan very well, for that day.
But Some students are defiant, rude, some not interested in academic studies. They come from all sorts of family background.
Some from broken family, some whose father in jail, or their mother undergoing some drug rehabilitation centre.

In fact, some students are more interested in discussing amongst themselves -
which is the latest most hip, handphone model in town ?
what kind of high tech features they have ?

(that's why you see many kids playing ipad, during the class lesson)

So, how you going to handle classroom management ?
all it take (out of a class of more than 20 students) is for one student to be defiant, walk around the class, distract the class, hold up the class -
your curriculum lesson for that day ... is going to be disrupted.

(then, the panel of interviewers wait patiently for ... interviewee's answer)

ngl2010:

rains:

[quote=\"sushi88\"]It is quite hard to tell from the video alone what \"breed\" the boy belongs to. Both options are possibilities. The school would have to ascertain that and take the necessary actions to correct his behaviour.


What is however crystal clear is that his actions were deemed obnoxiously rude to a patient teacher and everyone in the class should know that is not right and not follow his poor example. Some smiles on the students when he was rude was quite disturbing to watch.... some found it funny?

Obviously not the intelligent breed la.

The school is not an anger management school. It's a prep school for ite so I don't see how the school can correct his behaviour. Oh wait, they can recommend to the parents to change his brain.

I think generally, parents on this forum do not have a lot of contact with children who go to such schools. These children are usually from the foundation classes or who repeated psle. To them, incidents like this are not rare. I am quite sure they would have classmates who defied teachers in primary schools too. To them, it's likely to be a free show and a break from the 'boring' lessons. It amuses them rather than a teaching moment.

Perhaps this can indeed be a teaching moment - that when you behave like this, the world outside school actually thinks it's unacceptable or 'wrong' and the people on the internet don't like what you do. Hey, this is a good resource for teachers!