Dear editor,
Common sense has been observed, with a court dismissing an appeal by a school to deny a sacked teacher $60,000 in compensation, after being unfairly dismissed for yelling at a group of unruly students (‘Teacher sacked for yelling at kids vindicated, will keep $60k payout’, The Advertiser, August 27).
A teacher’s voice can be used to show students a range of feelings and emotions: empathy, humour, displeasure, authority, appreciation, inspiration, etc., depending on the intonation used.
Successfully categorising yelling as serious misconduct and asserting that it should not occur would have been detrimental to the thousands of classroom practitioners who are developing the behaviour of the students in their care each day.
Misbehaviour needs to be corrected at a young age, and most schools follow the three-step approach: remind, warn and apply – which includes a range of appropriate consequences applied when required.
By not addressing inappropriate behaviour exhibited by students during lessons, the important learning and instruction of students and teachers is compromised.
One only has to examine juvenile crime and the high rate of recidivism to see that the strategies currently being used are not working, and that urgent change is required.
Ian Macgowan, Ceduna
