Name and shame
A number of people have - rightly or wrongly - focussed their ire on teachers who failed to help and in some cases made things worse.

Step forward Mr Carrington-Porter, you useless fucking hippy.

What adult in their right mind would, when I finally snapped, announce to the class, "You've made The Light in Chains cry. I hope you're proud of yourselves." That was his first and last acknowledgement that anything was going on.

They were 11-year-olds. OF COURSE THEY WERE FUCKING PROUD OF IT. And they didn't know until you told them.

From the younger b3tans' posts it would appear that you can still become a teacher while totally flunking the "maintain control of the classroom" section. Still makes me angry three decades later.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 21 May 2009, 7:49, 5 replies)

I had a teacher last night once
Lovely lady, completely unable to maintain classroom control. She got an easy ride in the top sets but the bottom set, not surprisingly, ate her alive. She didn't last long.
( jim_bob can herd cats., Thu 21 May 2009, 8:50, closed)

An easy ride

( WormuIus, Thu 21 May 2009, 9:18, closed)

yeah, in my
HONDA ACCORD
( WormuIus, Thu 21 May 2009, 9:18, closed)

In some ways,
you're absolutely right: it is obviously an essential skill of any teacher to be able to maintain order in his or her classroom.

But then to what extent can you blame the kids? Does there come a point where a group of these foul progeny become a gestalt mass so inherently objectionable that it is beyond the call of duty for any one teacher to be expected to control them? There are many stories about teachers resigning - particularly in schools in dodgy London boroughs - because their job has transformed from pedagogy to crowd control.

I take your point though: said Mr Carrington-Potter's response was just about the most twattish thing he could have done.
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 21 May 2009, 9:18, closed)

This^^ with added..
Why don't they teach assertiveness training or something at teacher training college? (PGCE in the UK) It'd save a lot of misery if they did.

I always got so pissed off that the teachers that dealt with Sparklet always took it an allegation of bullying as a personal criticism, "There's no bullying here, I wouldn't have allowed it"

Failing that, firing a pistol into the ceiling, like the supply teacher in The Simpsons would do it..
(Beer Elf Thought this was like a campfire, anyhow, on, Thu 21 May 2009, 10:02, closed)