After reading this little article I'm forced to wonder....how were the survey respondents selected? Did the TFT pick and choose the responses that would paint the most bleak picture possible to justify their requests/demands for better pay and new school buildings. I'm sooooo confused.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070330/NEWS04/703300347
The survey was conducted voluntarily by the Union. All teachers received one and had the option to fill it out. Obviously those teachers that have dealt with these situations, including yours truly, were more apt to fill it out. It was not a pick and choose type thing, but nice backhanded attempt to bash TFT and the teachers again.
In the past I have had the opportunity to look at the questions sent out by Ms. Lawrence to her members. They tend to be leading and the check the box responses are biased. I have been told by a number of teachers that they don't complete it because it is obviously intended to lead you to a conclusion and they won't participate in the charade.
If there was a sample selected to survey, I would agree that selection criteria would be an issue.
You certainly can not draw any statistically valid conclusions from this sort of sampling unless you know how the survey was conducted.
From reading the Blade article, I got the impression that the union leadership cherry picked what they wanted released.
I challenge the union to release all the questions and the survey methods and let us see if it meets certain standards for fairness in questions and statistically valid sampling methods!
Any teachers out there have the questionnaire and want to share it with us?
A Crock!!!
Although Ignazio Messina strikes me as a propagandist for the TPS, he did address one of the issues that Twila Page has been publicly commenting on for several Board meetings, namely that there are too many suspensions in the TPS.
We need to expressly return physical authority to teachers in their classrooms, and in fact anywhere on school grounds.
LONDON (Reuters) - New laws giving teachers the right to restrain unruly pupils have come into force.
The legal powers, which came into effect in England and Wales on Sunday, have, for the first time, given schools the statutory power to discipline pupils for inappropriate behaviour or disregarding instructions.
The measures, contained in the Education and Inspection Act 2006, are designed to stamp out the "you can't tell me what to do" culture among pupils.
Until now, teachers had been allowed to restrain pupils under common law, with the same authority as parents.
But the new powers explicitly state that teachers have the right to physically restrain pupils, use "reasonable force" to break up fights when a youngster or teacher risks being injured and remove disorderly pupils from classrooms.
The powers also extend to when pupils are off school premises -- travelling on public transport or in shopping centres, for example.
Education Secretary Alan Johnson has insisted the greater powers are vital to stamp out bad behaviour and violence.
Teachers often fear any physical contact with pupils could be subject to legal action from parents, and the new laws aim to end confusion over school staff's power to discipline pupils.
The National Union of Teachers, which has campaigned for the right for teachers to restrain pupils to be put into statute, welcomed the move.
Teachers will also have the right to confiscate items such as mobile phones and ipods.
How did the situation dissolve into a situation that teachers cannot maintain decorum in their classrooms?
As an aside, I have been told (once the information was volunteered, I rechecked with 6 other teachers), that the school administrations do not want to accept unruly children into the office from the classroom.
So what is a teacher to do? That policy needs to be changed right away. When students act up, class can't go on. If you nip it in the bud right there - there shouldn't be too many instances where it escalates to violence.
I remember my 6th grade teacher kept her "paddle" which was afectionatly named "the hurricane", hanging on the wall next to her desk. It had holes in it so the swing wasn't disipated by the paddle itself. and beleive it or not she was a great teacher and it was a great class. Just having that paddle hanging there, plus a few horror stories kept us in line.
Too bad it can't go back that way.
If everyone got the chance to fill it out then it would appear the response rate was very low.
If you want us to believe it was a good survey, post a copy for our review. I'm happy to retract anything I said if I'm off base! But you can't expect us to believe it was a good survey unless we see it - all of it!
... I'm almost speechless. THIS, from the UK? Gadzooks! And here I was, thinking that Britain was only fit for wiping my arse, guv'nor.
Do you think that can catch on here? Or, are parents far more enamored of treating our school systems as litigation lotteries, so they can score good settlements when a teacher smacks one of their "little darlings"?