US educator calls on parents to discipline kids at home

In a clip that had over 70,700 views and 650 comments as of Wednesday, Teresa Kaye Newman, a music educator, responding to a viewer’s comment that traditional disciplinary methods no longer work, said “parents refuse to tell their kids ‘no’ at home.”

“Traditional methods of handling students just do not work anymore” and “only cause issues” because parents themselves have issues with applying those methods at home, she said.

“When we talk about traditional methods of handling students and kids, we’re not talking about something traumatic or abusive or even groundbreaking. We’re talking about simply setting boundaries and holding boundaries as the adult in the room.”

Newman said parents expect teachers to turn their children into some model citizen, but it’s not entirely the teachers’ job.

She said parents would tend to think that the children are too young to understand stuff. But if a child does not treat their parents, or workers in a shop or strangers on the street with respect, it’s because their parents have not taught them how.

A student uses a cell phone in a classroom. Illustration photo by Pexels

The topic of kids’ education has been hotly debated in Vietnam as well in light of recent incidents of students misbehaving at school.

In November last year a two-minute video clip on social media showed a teacher at a middle school in Tuyen Quang Province being locked inside a classroom with dozens of students forcing her into a corner and screaming and throwing objects at her.

In another five-minute clip, a group of students could be heard cursing and stuffing trash into her bag. When she walks towards the classroom door, the students throw footwear at her.

In a third video, the teacher could be seen retaliating, brandishing her shoes and chasing students around the classroom.

The teacher later received a warning for “insufficient educational conduct” as did the school’s principal, who was also transferred to another school. The students involved were suspended for a week.

The event sparked discussions on how students are educated at home and in school.

“This is what happens when parents don’t act as parents but as ‘friends’,” a reader commented on VnExpress International.

Another said: “Sack the teacher if she is incapable of doing her job. What those children did was a blatant disregard for the system and order.”

In September last year around 50,000 teachers rallied in Seoul, South Korea, to demand better protection following the death of a young teacher apparently by suicide in July.

They complained about mistreatment by parents and students, such as accusations of child abuse for merely disciplining their wards, Reuters reported.