Job Discussion Forums

[basiltherat]

Over the years in this business I have been fortunate on several occasions to witness some pretty awful classroom behaviour on the part of teachers, either just by chance or while sitting in and observing. I recall 2 incidents in particular which I thought were pretty gross:

1. In Indonesia 20 odd years ago, a teacher who consistently rubbed his crotch while drilling (mmmm) a class of female high school students.

2. Again in Indonesia. A guy who I was observing with the aim of employing him was asked what the meaning of constitution was by one of his advanced students. He replied "How the f*** should I know ? Now get on and finish that reading exercise while I finish reading Newsweek !" Obviously he didnt get a job.

Does anyone have any other gross experiences ? Just interested.
basil

[Eijse]

...

[ls650]

When I saw the subject title, I thought "Gosh, maybe they mean things like me making silly fart jokes in class..."

Your stories have me beat.

[denise]

Can we expand this to include bad behavior in the staff room?

How about a teacher and a DoS having a hissyfit/fight? The same teacher hitting, kicking, shoving random pieces of office equipment in a temper tantrum?

This teacher was rumored to have been attempting to score with the students, and the DoS apparently wanted to get into the pants of anything that moved, but I never actually witnessed any such practices. I did have to work my way out of a couple of uncomfortable dinner invitations from the DoS, though.

d

[cimarch]

I was called in to help translate an e-mail from a guy who was applying for a job. Seems he'd asked whether the school had a uniform or not. Thinking he meant for the teachers they gave him the usual reply, suits for full-timers, smart casual etc. for part-timers. The e-mail they couldn't figure out was his reply. It was full of questions about the GIRL'S uniforms (at a Primary school!). I won't go into it but it was pretty disgusting, he even asked for sample photos...

One teacher we had was amazed that they wanted her to do anything in class, "Don't they have Chinese people for that?". She sat in a corner and smoked for the whole lesson, refusing to do anything else. They still kept her on for a week. (sigh)

Another teacher must have been channeling some 1950's English comedian, anytime he was asked a question by a student he pulled back the corners of his eyes, stuck out his front teeth and repeated the question in that 'oh so funny' Chinese voice they all seemed to do (Me so solly and so on). Scared the bejeaysus out of the kids.

The guy who though he had a God-given right to touch anything female because he was "only being friendly".

And then there was Freak Boy. Clocked up more parent complaints in one afternoon than anyone else. Came and applied for the job looking smart and business-like. I saw him go in and thought, "oh-oh, he's after my job". Arrived for his first class. Hung over. With about 6 facial piercings he hadn't had in on the interview day (dunno what they thought the holes were for). And pink spiked hair.

Note that these were in three seperate schools while I was working freelance, can you imagine them all together? And I've only been here a year and a half...

[khmerhit]

I'm trying to forget ...

OK-just one. Bart the Tart, now serving time for child molestation in Cambodia (doubtless a bogus or trumped-up conviction, but they got the right man if you see what I mean): he was said to have lost the plot during a lesson and veered off into writing weird stuff on the whiteboard about his various predilections. The kids told their parents, who told the school managers. Unfortunately for Cambodia, there was such a shortage of FTs in the mid 90s that Bart the Tart soon found another job. He was working for a childrens NGO when he got arrested.

thats enuff--i really am trying to forget.

Unless you want to hear about the quiet DoS who had an eye for the boys, who didnt escape a thrashing or two from a colleague of mine, or the directors of the Australian Centre for Education who regularly held gay orgies at the beach and were protected by the Australian Ambassador, John Holloway, himself up on pedophile charges and now a consultant to the Cambodian govt., or the the time...

you see what I mean. i'd rather forget it.

[foster]

During my internship, my supervising teacher would sit at the back of the class and 'dig for gold'. My student would see it, start laughing, which made me mad and I gave then heck. When he left the room, they apologized to me for laughing and told me WHY they were laughing.

He also used to rub himself up against the desks of students (male/female) and had his hands in his pockets A LOT.

My social studies teacher in High School didn't change his shirt for 5 weeks....we counted.

[Roger]

Actually, I have never met any such monster types of teachers throughout my life, certainly not of late.
But I do remember my teachers had various characteristics.
One was extremely popular with us for his maths elssons in which he staged competitions between us. I have to add that he deserved special respect - he was blind! And he taught us physics too.
But one year after I left that school, I heard he was being investigated for lewd acts and language...
Another teacher of mine was a rather stern disciplinarian. Once she remarked that kids with congenital problems such as my myopia should be legally barred from having children because they often end up becoming a burden to society!
But I can't say she treated us in any way unfairly.

[scot47]

"Once she remarked that kids with congenital problems such as my myopia should be legally barred from having children because they often end up becoming a burden to society!"

Eugenics. What is wrong with that ? It has gone out of fashion but was at one time widely accepted. There are lots of countries where couples have to have genetic tests before they can marry.

[guest of Japan]

Hmmm. It may be a little offensive to the idea of equal rights.

[yaramaz]

Rights schmights! We can't very well go on having a bunch of near-sighted kids running around, bumping into things! Civilization as we know it would collapse.

'ang on! I'm myopic! I'll nip out back and shoot myself then! Righty-oh!

[lozwich]

After having read your posts (through my very thick glasses, nose pressed to the computer screen) I feel lucky to have only suffered a spot of sexual harrassment by someone who thinks its ok because we live in a developing nation that doesn't prosecute for such things..

[biffinbridge]

People who've worked in EFL a while,(the industry euphemistically called a profession), will no doubt have seen loads of bad behaviour from colleagues throughout their sentences,(careers).But sleeping with adult students and guzzling booze,both of which I used to do as a newbie before I got married to a former student,pale into insignificance when compared to the behaviour I witnessed from colleagues in the Middle East.I'm not talking about 'in classroom behaviour' but stuff outside.Professional bullying and snitching were the norm and so commonplace that people didn't even raise their eyebrows anymore.Colleagues were 'dobbed in' for leaving work 5 minutes early or allegedly hogging cars in that ridiculous thing called a 'car pool'.Grown men on good salaries were so tight they'd steal tea bags and bog paper from the company canteen and toilets.Sackings were random and often baseless, based on someone's personal and not professional view of a person... etc etc.This to me constitutes truly bad behaviour.I've noticed that there seems to be an anti-booze element on Dave's but people have to realize that your private life is exactly that and that some schools positively encourage their teachers to fraternize with their adult students.Some schools even have conversation,(drinking),clubs,which happen outside school hours.Teachers have dated students in almost every school I've ever worked in and if they're adults so what?Good luck to 'em that's what I say. Maybe it's time that all schools vetted their teachers more.Outside the Gulf and public schools who checks references?Who checks criminal records for things such as sexual deviancy?For god's sake, a CELTA doesn't even qualify you to teach young learners.We work in an industry that thinks you're over the hill by 35.So what can you expect?Most 20 to 30 year olds don't live like nuns and priests,(unless they work for the Peace Corps),do they?At a guess,I say that those who can't keep their hands off students would probably be like that wherever they worked,it's just the way some people are,which in no way makes it right.

[dmb]

Biff, I disagree about there being an anti booze element on Dave's. I regulary have a beer while reading and posting. There are some who have chosen not to drink. That doesn't make them anti booze.