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Classroom Discipline Chatboard

swearing

by Sandy

Oct 19, 2012

I have high school seniors and juniors who won't stop swearing in front of me, usually during homework time. Any stimple suggestions for a quick and effective consequence?

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Sara On 10/19/12, Sandy wrote: > I have high school seniors and juniors who won't stop > swearing in front of me, usually during homework time. Any > stimple suggestions for a quick and effective consequence?

Swearing has become a very casual thing in our society- though you and I may well not have jumped on that bandwagon. The 'f word...See MoreOn 10/19/12, Sandy wrote: > I have high school seniors and juniors who won't stop > swearing in front of me, usually during homework time. Any > stimple suggestions for a quick and effective consequence?

Swearing has become a very casual thing in our society- though you and I may well not have jumped on that bandwagon. The 'f word' was considered a violent obscenity years ago - it was only said by very, very crude people or very, very angry people. Now it's a joke word - you can hear it everywhere as people walk down the street talking on their cell phones. The language on television has relaxed and Howard Stern broke all kinds of barriers on his radio show.

To the kids, these swear words aren't swear words but to you and me they are and to their future employers they might well be. I'm still surprised when a colleague (!) comes into the faculty room and casually mentions at the f-ing traffic on the way in to school...

How are the kids to know?

Tell them. Our kids here think it's perfectly polite to say 'what is all this crap?' - when did crap become a word for polite discourse?? In our district we have little children saying 'darn you' to teachers.

Tell your students but nicely. I have a 'talk' with them that goes like this. "I've been sitting here since September and you know that I don't mind if you talk during homework time. At all. But talking is one thing and dropping the f-bomb is another (they get that phrase - f bomb) How you speak between yourselves is one thing but I'm sitting here trying to do my work while you're dropping the f-bomb left and right.

It's not cool. We all have our ways of speaking privately but this is a public, not a private, place. I'm not sure where all you want to end up working but very few work places are places where you can go around dropping the f-bomb and all the other very colorful phrases and words that you use.

If you think that I'm deaf, I'm happy to say that I'm not though I am older than you are but not old enough to be going deaf. So let's save our strong words for either stronger occasions - nothing happening in here is so surprising that it deserves to be sworn about - or save it for your private conversations which you can't have in a public space like this. "

You don't have to be angry about it - that's why we're here - to teach them what's proper and not proper because they're not learning it at home or anywhere else.

After the 'talk', if they slip, I give them a look and they always apologize - swear words are so embedded in their speech and in their thinking that they don't think, they just say them. Rome wasn't built in a day and we can't erase these words from their speech in a day but I nicely but seriously remind them every time they slip and with each week, they remember more and slip less until we do achieve a four-letter word free environment.

Oct 24, 2012

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Leah Great suggestions, Sara! It is often true that when you set a high bar in a non- demanding way, most students will honor your requests

Dec 20, 2012

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Debbie On 10/24/12, Sara wrote: > On 10/19/12, Sandy wrote: >> I have high school seniors and juniors who won't stop >> swearing in front of me, usually during homework time. Any >> stimple suggestions for a quick and effective consequence? > > Swearing has become a very casual thing in our society- though > you and I may wel...See MoreOn 10/24/12, Sara wrote: > On 10/19/12, Sandy wrote: >> I have high school seniors and juniors who won't stop >> swearing in front of me, usually during homework time. Any >> stimple suggestions for a quick and effective consequence? > > Swearing has become a very casual thing in our society- though > you and I may well not have jumped on that bandwagon. The 'f > word' was considered a violent obscenity years ago - it was > only said by very, very crude people or very, very angry > people. Now it's a joke word - you can hear it everywhere as > people walk down the street talking on their cell phones. The > language on television has relaxed and Howard Stern broke all > kinds of barriers on his radio show. > > To the kids, these swear words aren't swear words but to you > and me they are and to their future employers they might well > be. I'm still surprised when a colleague (!) comes into the > faculty room and casually mentions at the f-ing traffic on the > way in to school... > > How are the kids to know? > > Tell them. Our kids here think it's perfectly polite to > say 'what is all this crap?' - when did crap become a word for > polite discourse?? In our district we have little children > saying 'darn you' to teachers. > > Tell your students but nicely. I have a 'talk' with them that > goes like this. "I've been sitting here since September and > you know that I don't mind if you talk during homework time. > At all. But talking is one thing and dropping the f-bomb is > another (they get that phrase - f bomb) How you speak between > yourselves is one thing but I'm sitting here trying to do my > work while you're dropping the f-bomb left and right. > > It's not cool. We all have our ways of speaking privately but > this is a public, not a private, place. I'm not sure where all > you want to end up working but very few work places are places > where you can go around dropping the f-bomb and all the other > very colorful phrases and words that you use. > > If you think that I'm deaf, I'm happy to say that I'm not > though I am older than you are but not old enough to be going > deaf. So let's save our strong words for either stronger > occasions - nothing happening in here is so surprising that it > deserves to be sworn about - or save it for your private > conversations which you can't have in a public space like > this. " > > > You don't have to be angry about it - that's why we're here - > to teach them what's proper and not proper because they're not > learning it at home or anywhere else. > > After the 'talk', if they slip, I give them a look and they > always apologize - swear words are so embedded in their speech > and in their thinking that they don't think, they just say > them. Rome wasn't built in a day and we can't erase these > words from their speech in a day but I nicely but seriously > remind them every time they slip and with each week, they > remember more and slip less until we do achieve a four-letter > word free environment. This is an old post but well worth referring to. I tell my middle schoolers that we all talk different ways in different situations. I use myself as the example: "I talk differently to my friends that I would our principal. I say some things a certain way to my friends that I would never say to my principal. I'm sure that there are words that you would never use with your mother/father/grandmother/grandfather, etc. that is why there are certain words or ways to talk in the classroom. It's OK to say "yo, whz up" to your friends but not your teacher."

Many students are not taught this at home so they have to be taught this by us!

Dec 26, 2012

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