Scenes From The Battleground

End of Friday’s lesson, in my classroom

Miss Rush, the newly appointed Head of Year 9, has been assisting with one of my more challenging classes.

“How did you feel about that lesson, Andrew? There’s quite some characters in there.”

“Well I was a little upset that when I started teaching the main part of the lesson two of the students started yelling out to you that I don’t normally teach them anything. Lemuel started said that I normally make them do the questions on the board for the entire hour. Tara said that I normally just set them an exercise from the books without explaining it. Lemuel even claimed that this was the reason there was no work in his book.”

“Well I didn’t believe that. That’s why I told them to be quiet so you could get on with teaching them.”

“Well I’m afraid that did rather ruin my mood for the rest of the lesson.”

“Well you shouldn’t take it personally. They say things like that all the time when I visit their classes, they say ‘It’s not normally like this’ and complain about the teacher. But nobody listens to them”

“I had an observed lesson with that class a few weeks ago where Tara told an observer from the LEA that it was a bad lesson and Dean said that he’d learnt nothing. I’m still being hassled about that now, so yes I think that people do listen to them”

“I didn’t know about that. Well that’s something your head of department needs to look at. What I mean is that they don’t know that it’s wrong to do that sort of thing. Look, Andrew, you and I we had parents that told us what right and wrong were. These children don’t have those sorts of home lives. They don’t know what behaviour is acceptable.”

“They are in their ninth year of compulsory education. They might have picked it up by now.”

“They have to be reminded what’s appropriate because they don’t have that at home. It’s like when I came here and had my first ASDAN class. They didn’t know it was wrong to tell me to ‘fuck off’ so I had to tell them “that’s not appropriate” whenever they did that. The inportant thing is to be encouraging when they do something right. Did you see how Tara responded when I praised her work? She was all smiles. Lemuel just needs to be praised when he does his work.”

“He doesn’t usually do any work to be praised.”

“You just have to be encouraging with him. He doesn’t know what is or isn’t acceptable. Look you are obviously really good with the academic stuff. I could never do that. The important thing is that we keep trying in the lesson, keep on top of it. I’ll try and visit again next week.”

Wednesday, in a Corridor

“How’s it going with that class, Andrew?”

“Well I put a lot of time and effort into praising Lemuel. He did seem to respond slightly better than usual. However because I was spending so much time in that part of the classroom that I couldn’t spend much time dealing with Dean and he started doing football chants and throwing things and ended up being sent out of the room. I’ve moved him to the front of the class now.”

“Well I’ll come in and help for the start of your next lesson on Friday. Keep it up.”

Start of Friday’s Lesson

Miss Rush arrives with 8 students from my class she’s found in the corridor.

“Sit down everybody. Can you get on with your work please, Lemuel? Mr Old has put your folder on your table for you. Can you get your book out?”

“I don’t want to. I’ve got a headache.”

“Well just see what you can do. Stop that, Jordan! What’s the problem Dean?”

“I don’t want to sit here. I can’t see the board from here, Miss.”

“Oh. Well lets see. Hang on, Mr Old has printed out a copy of what’s on the board. Here it is.”

“I don’t want to sit here. I don’t want to do this work.”

“Well you need to hurry up and get started.”

“Huh”.

“Come on, sit down and get your book out, please, Dean.”

“I don’t have a pencil.”

“Here’s one that Mr Old has just handed me.”

“I’m cold, I don’t want to sit here.”

“Just get on with your work. I’ve made a special effort to get here to help you.”

“I don’t want to sit here.”

“Just get on with your work, Dean! ALL OF YOU, GET ON WITH YOUR WORK! I’VE COME HERE SPECIALLY TO HELP YOU IN THIS LESSON AND ALL I CAN SEE IS PEOPLE NOT DOING WHAT THEY’VE BEEN TOLD. JUST GET ON WITH YOUR WORK! I have to go now.”

Miss Rush exits abruptly, apparently not thinking about their difficult home lives.

Footnote: ASDAN is a special subject that less able pupils do when they are unlikely to pass anything that leads to a qualification. I don’t know what it is (although apparently they sometimes go skateboarding) and I don’t know what ASDAN stands for, although I have more than once heard it suggested that it stands for “Anti-Social, Delinquent, ASBO Nutters”.

At the Metropolitan School “terror” is a verb, not a noun. “To terror a teacher” means to subject a teacher to a continual stream of intimidation and abuse with the intention of causing the maximum amount of stress. The main purpose of this is to intimidate the teacher into giving up on any attempt to enforce the rules. Also it can be used to attempt to drive the teacher out of the school, or as a way for students to assert their status or authority with their peers. Consequently it is aimed largely at teachers who are new to the school, or at least new to the class, although if a class is arrogant enough it will be aimed at any teacher who expects them to behave.

Terroring begins with low level disruption. Admittedly everything at the Metropolitan school begins with low level disruption. However, if you are getting terrored then any effort to prevent the disruption or enforce the school rules will lead to escalation through the following stages:

Stage 1: Argument

This begins with “We are allowed to…” or “But you….”

For example:

• “We are allowed to drink water in class.”
• “We are allowed to sit where we like.”
• “We are allowed to keep our coats on.”
• “We are allowed to listen to music in the lesson.”
• “We are allowed to talk if we want to.”

Or:

• “But you haven’t given me a pen”
• “But you haven’t told us what to do”
• “But you can’t make me sit on my own.”
• “But you can’t make us do work if we don’t want to”.

All of which will be said in the most aggressive tone imaginable and in defiance of all the facts. The intention is to start an argument. Whether you give them the argument or not makes no difference as to what happens next.

Stage 2: Accusation

• “You give us detentions for nothing.”
• “You don’t help us.”
• “You don’t explain nothing.”
• “You gave me a warning for asking for help.”
• “You never told us what to do.”
• “You pick on boys.”
• “You pick on girls.”
• “You pick on me.”
• “You make everything complicated.”
• “You don’t explain things properly.”
• “You don’t know how the rules work.”

The accusations will be repeated by several students and any effort to point out the facts will lead to a different accusation being made.

Stage 3: The Strop

One of the ringleaders in the class will soon lose their temper. It will happen regardless of how you have responded to Stage 1 or Stage 2. Triggers can include:

• Arguing with them.
• Enforcing the rules.
• Reminding them of the rules.
• Asking them not to interrupt you when you are talking to another child.
• Setting work.
• Correcting their mistakes.
• Asking to see their work.
• Looking at their work.
• Talking to them.

Once triggered the strop, delivered at high volume, often while standing, will contain the following three elements: accusation, threat and abuse in any order.

For example:

• “You didn’t help me (accusation). I’m complaining to my parents (threat). You’re a knob (abuse).”
• “I’m going to get you fired (threat). You’re a fucking wanker (abuse). You gave me a detention for nothing (accusation).”
• “My Dad’s going to batter you (threat). You’re picking on me (accusation). You smell (abuse).”

The verbal abuse and threats will not shock the class. Many will be very entertained and be waiting for the next stage.

Stage 4: The Appeal to their Peers

In this stage the aggrieved child will seek and receive support from the rest of the class, particularly their friends. The support is automatic, they wouldn’t seek it if there was ever any doubt that it would be forthcoming. The child will ask others to support their accusation, to agree with their opinion, to express their disapproval of the teacher.

• “He’s lying. Put your hand up if you think he’s lying”
• “Everybody hates you”
• “You will all back up my story won’t you?”

Alternatively they might ask others to join in with their behaviour:

• “We should all get sent out”
• “We should all walk out”
• “What are you going to do if we all refuse to work?”

Stage 5: The Copycats and the Stressmongers

When you have done your best to deal with the ringleader (usually by getting them to leave the room, which they will do as slowly as possible, with extra abuse along the way, and comments about how they will not be punished for what they are doing as it’s all your fault) then you will be faced with two twin threats.

Stressmongers will say things to you to make the situation seem even worse:

• “You can’t control us can you, Sir?”
• “Are you having a bad day?”
• “Why are you looking unhappy?”
• “Did you know nobody’s doing any work?”
• “What are you going to do when Kelly’s Dad comes in to batter you?”
• “You got terrored.”

Copycats will wait their turn to also lose their temper in the style of the now departed ringleader. If you ask them to work they will strop. If you let them sit doing no work they will start breaking rules (eg. leaving their seat, getting their phones out, getting their lunch out). The moment you remind them of the rules they will become irate and you will be back at Stage 3. If you just ignore their rule-breaking they will start throwing things or hitting one of their friends. You now have a no win situation. If you tell Chelsea to stop throwing things at Damien then Chelsea will lose her temper. If you don’t, then Damien will lose his. Alternatively somebody else might start doing something dangerous (swinging on chair, sticking their pen in a plug socket) so you have to intervene and give somebody an excuse to lose their temper with you. There is no way to stop the copycats any more than you could have prevented any other of the steps.

So what can you do about being terrored?

I’ll tell you: you can get used to it. It’s not going away. Until schools are allowed to adopt a policy of permanent exclusion for verbal abuse of staff the feeling of power terroring a teacher gives a child will outweigh any deterrent value of any punishment. The best you can hope for is that SMT have their act together enough to act after the first time it happens. Otherwise it will probably happen every lesson and you will be told it is your fault.

Of course if it does start happening every lesson and you are on supply this is the point where you quit, and if you are a permanent member of staff this is when you start to call in sick with stress. However be aware that if any of the class ever see you again, even in the street, their first words to you will be:
“You got terrored”.

What I want to know is:

1. Why are there boys called Cain (or Kane)? I know there are fewer churchgoers these days and it would be overly optimistic to expect parents to have learnt even a basic knowledge of the Bible in school RE lessons, but surely they must know it is a by-word for “murderer”? They don’t call their daughters Jezebel (yet), so they must have some knowledge of biblical names. Actually now I think about it, I can think of one reason a parent might call their son Cain. Perhaps they had some insight into his future academic achievement and realised he wasn’t Abel.
2. Why don’t SMT take things literally? If you tell them a class won’t do any work they assume that the class doesn’t do enough work. They won’t actually accept that the entire class will just sit and do nothing. If you tell them that a child is barking they assume you are saying that he is mad, not that he is literally yelping like a dog (and in some cases walking around on all fours as he does it). My friend Jack at Woodrow Wilson School had all sorts of problems with his Year 10 reports. As part of the Woodrow Wilson tradition of making things difficult, Key Stage 4 reports had to be signed by the students. He warned SMT that his class (which was one that wouldn’t do any work in the literal sense) would scribble on and destroy the reports. They told him to hand them out anyway and report any problems to them. He did so, and they were all scribbled on or destroyed. He ended up having to rewrite them all.
3. Why are school desks big enough for two children to sit at? Putting two children right next to each other is just going to stop them working and encourage them to chat and copy. We know this well enough to have individual desks for exams. So who decided that copying and chatting was fine in classrooms?
4. Why was PT (Physical Training) renamed as PE (Physical Education)? I can understand why those delivering the lessons might have wanted the change. No doubt there is greater status in being an “educator” or “teacher” rather than a “trainer” or “coach”. But how come nobody in charge of the curriculum said “but you aren’t educating them, you’re making them run around a field”?
5. How is that students aren’t embarrassed by making particularly stupid statements? I don’t mean on academic subjects, I understand why they want to be seen as academically weak, they might get beaten up if they were known to be learning. What I don’t understand is how a child who is standing up can say “I am sitting down”, or how any child can say “I’m not talking”, or worst of all how a child told not to answer back can say “I’m not answering back”.
6. What do RE teachers do?

Answers to my questions welcome.