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NOTES ON SCANDALS
Attitudes to student-teacher relationships have hardened over the past 15 years. Experts argue that even
consensual sexual affairs where both parties are over 18 could still constitute harassment in a relationship
where there is such a disparity in power.
1995 National Association of Teachers of Further and Higher Education calls affairs between staff and
students ill-advised and unprofessional. Earlier, Association of University Teachers say staff-student relations
raise conflict of interest, tutors should declare the affair and cease teaching the student.
1999 Ex-chief inspector of schools Chris Woodhead, left, reveals he had relationship with former pupil 11
years his junior in the 1970s. He says affairs between teachers and sixth-formers could be "educative on both
sides"; public outcry ensues.
2002 Canadian-born Amy Gehring, 26, admits kissing and cuddling three schoolboys, aged 14-16, at New
Year's Eve party. Gehring, right, tells police she can't remember if she had full sex because she was drunk.
Court acquits her of indecent assault. Canada bars her from teaching for 10 years.
2003 Sexual Offences Act 2003 prohibits sexual contact between adults and children under 18 in schools and
colleges. Up until now, teachers were not committing an offence if the pupil involved was aged over 16.
2005 Legislation bites. Three women teachers in court in three months. Shelley White, 25, receives a year's
community rehabilitation order for kissing a boy of 15. Married music teacher Laura-Anne Brownlee, 26,
escapes jail for "hugging and kissing" 15-year-old. Loses her job. Samantha Grixti, 30, is given three months,
suspended, for kissing boy of 16.
Julia Stuart
The pupils are hormonal, the teachers may only be a few years older. No wonder the line gets crossed.
The new film Notes on a Scandal tells the story of an affair. Teacher Steve McCormack says the cases
that come to court are just the tip of the iceberg
Sunday, 28 January 2007
Chemistry isn't confined to the science labs at school. The sexual variety is in the air in every classroom and
down every corridor. How could it be otherwise, given the proximity, day in day out, of hundreds of teenagers,
each one a hormone volcano ready to erupt, and their teachers, many still in their early twenties?
So the tale of a woman teacher falling for, and then falling into bed with, a pupil at her London school, should
not be dismissed as far-fetched. The story told in Zo Heller's novel Notes on a Scandal, the film of which is
released on Friday, might depict the extreme and relatively rare end of the spectrum. But there are cases like
this, and less serious liaisons are commonplace.
With about 200,000 teachers working with millions of teenagers in thousands of schools, the law of averages
alone suggests that, every so often, there'll be an attraction that goes beyond a mutual desire to deepen
understanding of simultaneous equations.
For two years up to 2004, I taught in mixed comprehensives, and since then I have worked as a supply
teacher in London. I've seen numerous examples of school situations becoming sexually charged, fuelled by
recognised the potential damage to the boy and yet no one took it further. The boy himself ended the affair
and has since left for university. It is thought his parents have since found out, but that as the liaison had
ended, they decided not to pursue matters further. So the teacher stayed in her job at the same school.
Research suggests this sort of scenario is more common than the odd high-profile case that makes it to court
would suggest. Dr Pat Sikes, education lecturer at Sheffield University, has studied interviews between
teachers and pupils over a 25-year period and estimates as many as 1,500 sexual relationships could be
taking place every year. That would be one in every two or three schools. Controversially Sikes has written a
paper arguing it is wrong always to cast students as victims when they are often the instigators of
relationships. "Expressions of sexuality are a major currency in everyday school life exchanges. And nowhere
more so than in the seductive nature and erotic charge that's often a characteristic of good teaching that
provokes an exciting response."
Teaching unions usually get involved at the messy end of these affairs. A spokeswoman at the National Union
of Teachers confirmed that, during the affair, teachers can lose their grip on reality. "They think they can get
away with it," she says. "They don't realise how damaging what they're doing can be." She is adamant that
there should never be a blurring of the line, however close the ages are between teacher and pupil. "Teachers
know what the law is, and know they'll be endangering their career and getting a criminal record."
'WE JUST CLICKED'
Mark and Lucy Peters met when he was teaching English at a large comprehensive. They have been married
for 18 years
Mark: I guess I was about 31 when I first became aware of Lucy. Although I wasn't her teacher we'd bump into
each other in the corridors and found ourselves in groups together on school trips. At the time I was living with
her form teacher.
When Lucy was 17 we started seeing each other. I'd stopped seeing my girlfriend and Lucy had also split up
from her first boyfriend. We were at a dinner with friends when I realised how much I fancied her. She always
seemed older than her years.
The first two years together felt very illicit and then I ended the relationship. We had five years apart. Then she
rang and said she was off to New Zealand. We met that day and I asked her to marry me. Three months later
we did. Our daughter was born just over a year later.
It was a very passionate relationship from the outset and we were obviously right because it has endured.
Lucy: We had always clicked from when I was 15. It was never saucy or dirty, we just had common interests hiking and climbing. I had no idea at first that he liked me.
We both broke off from serious relationships at the same time and chatted about it in the school corridor. We
fixed up to go round to dinner with two of his friends but it didn't cross my mind that anything would happen.
After dinner we went back to his flat for coffee and he kissed me. I remember going home half ecstatic and
half startled.
After a couple of years we split up. Over the next five years we chatted periodically, but it was over. I hadn't
spoken to Mark for two years but an impulse made me ring him. We met that day and he asked me to marry
him. It was so unexpected, I said yes.
She was a supply teacher. She had cropped dark hair, porcelain skin, and a mouth like Sophia Loren. She
dressed very sexily and I'm sure she was aware of the effect she was having. The boys would fight to get a
seat in the front row.
The rumour was she'd sleep with you if you asked. This was an inner-city school and the kids were brash,
forward and quite rough. I was inexperienced, insecure and shy, but raging hormones got the better of me.
I'd give her a wink, make it obvious I was looking at her legs and whisper as I passed that she was driving me
nuts. One day after class I followed her into the lab. I made an awkward attempt to chat and then blurted out
that she was gorgeous. She smiled, but I couldn't read the signs and left feeling about two inches tall.
One afternoon she was being a bit playful and I grabbed her clumsily from behind and kissed her neck. Kids
were milling around so she stopped me but I could see I was in with a chance.
A couple of days later I saw her outside the gym where I used to train alone at lunchtime. I ushered her in,
closed the door and pulled down the latch. I went straight for it and kissed her. I couldn't believe she was
letting me. She told me to stop because it was too public and rushed but we met later in a pub and I felt so
grown up when we drove off in her car. That was the first time I had sex. It was awesome.
I fell rapidly in love. As soon as I told her she pulled back and ended it. The emotional pain was something
new and overwhelming, but I got over it. The experience should be on the curriculum for all boys. Maybe it did
me some harm but, if so, it was far outweighed by the boost it gave to my confidence.
Case studies: Alice Douglas
A Case Study: A Beginning Teacher Deals with Students Misbehaviour at the Technical Senior High School
(STM) in Indonesia
April 12, 2008 by yulirahmawati
On my first day, I came to one class electricity stream, they were just smiling in silence. Suddenly, they threw
a lizard at me to frighten me. My face turned pale, but I had to be calm even though was very afraid. I told
them that I was not afraid with that lizard. I started my lesson by introducing myself, but they did not listen to
me. They only talked to each other. I was angry but stayed silent. At that time, I did not know what I should do.
Then, I decided to ignore their action. I just taught materials beyond the chemistry curriculum. I had to finish
my teaching material. I did not care whether they understand or not. I just wanted to get out of that class. Until
I finished my lesson, they still talked to each other. It was my worst time as a new teacher.
Introduction
The story above is one of my exiciting experiences when I was a beginning teacher at STM. Senior Technical
High School (STM) is an occupational high school, which trains students (mostly male- skills necessary) to
become mechanics and electricians. Many STM school had reputation as not-so-good schools due to many
problems such as students low academic achievements and misbehaviors. Some of STM students are drug
dependents. They were also involved in brawling with students from other schools, which often led them to
injury and had problems with the police.
I had experiences as a beginning teacher to teach at STM for two years. The exciting experiences such as
they threw a lizard that tremendously frightened me at the first time, shape me to be a reflective and creative
teacher. I had to face the class, which was very noisy. They did not sit on their chairs. They ran around like
kindergarten students and threw ball papers at each other. Furthermore, they were bored, sleepy, and
unable to concentrate when I taught because they used drugs. Sometimes I found stones in their bag. They
make use of stones to fight with other students. However, those experiences taught me many meaningful
reflective teaching. Because, then I did some improvement in teaching strategies and personal approach with
my students. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to investigate the teacher competences to deal with
students misbehaviour as a case study at STM, especially for the beginning teacher. It also informs the
environment (Wong and Wong, 1998 as cited in Ackerman, 2006, p.39).Because they used to receive the
punishments, which did not influence them anymore, positive reinforcements will be more effective. According
to Acerman (2006, p.40), effective teachers employ more positive reinforcements than negative ones.
b. Teaching Strategies
Teaching strategy is one important factor to create statisfactory learning environment for the students. A
research of student satisfaction and retention found that instructional effectiveness was the top predictors of
overall student statisfaction (Polinsky, 2003 as cited in Seidman, 2005 p. 45). Students statisfaction relates to
their motivation to study. However, as a beginning teacher, I did a mistake which was I just taught my students
with speech method. They are bored with the material. They told me that they did not like chemistry because
it was very difficult for them. At that moment, I just thought about how to finish the syllabus considering the
high load of chemistry curriculum. I just wanted to share the material so that they can pass the examination.
The other mistake was I used complex language that they did not understand. Furthermore, I did not use the
analogy, the examples to make it simple. I was also too serious. I never told a story, a joke or everything to let
them stay relax. The last mistake was that I always arranged difficult questions for their test. There are some
competencies in curriculum that they have to achieve and it was very difficult for them to achieve those
competencies. This condition influences them to feel inadequency in academic achievement, which
contributes to students misbehaviour (Acerman, 2006, p.41). Of course, the low exam scores did not help to
raise their morale.
Related to three interests of Hubermas in Grundy (1987, p.10) which are technical, practical, and
emancipatory. I used that story as my reflection in technical interest. I did not care of my students
understanding. I just thought that they had to have a good result. Therefore, I frighten them with chemistry
result. At that time, I always did it and sometimes it did not work for my students. According to Grundy (1987,
p.12), technical interest focuses on the controlling students and academic achievement. In addition, I tend to
finish the curriculum and using the wonderful teaching strategy without concern on my students background.
I just talked and used the complex language, because chemistry was complex. I did not realize my perception
on complexity of chemistry influenced me to teaching chemistry in complicated way.
I tried to solve the problems in my classrooms. It was very difficult for me as a new teacher. However, I tried to
come up with some solutions. First, I tried using variations in teaching methods to cope with students
misbehaviour (Tomlinson, 1999 as cited in Ackerman, 2006, p. 40). I chose a demonstration method to explain
acid-base material. I used acid-base indicator such as litmus paper to identify acid-base solution. The
solutions that I used were vinegar to identify acid and soap to identify base. They were interested because
the colour of litmus paper changed to different colour. For example, if I put the blue litmus paper to vinegar, it
changes to red. They told me that it was like magic. Then, I started my lesson because I already got their
attentions.
The other strategy was sometimes, I used to giving test after class. The questions were related to my
previous explanations, only few questions. Some of them had better scores because they could still remember
the material. Sometimes, I gave them writing tasks related to environmental problem. I just tried to link
chemistry with their day-to-day activities. The other strategy to help them to memorise chemistry easier was
using acronym. For example, elements in IIA class which are Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ra. I told them that they
could memorize the elements by these words: Be (Besok), Mg(Minggu), Ca (Camping), Sr(Seregu), Ba
(Bakal), Ra (Ramai). In English it means Tomorrow, Camping will be interesting. This strategy did not only
motivate them to study but also motivated me to come up with creative words.
c. Knowledge on Applied Subject
Knowledge on applied subject helps teacher to deliver the subject effectively which increase students
attention (Mc Intosh, Herman, Sanford, Mc Graw, & Florence, 2004, p.33). On my experiences, I used
knowledge related to my students major subject on engines and electricity, for example, I told them about
electroplating process in the car frame. I used simple electrolyte solution to show them how the process
works. I used rings and pens with silver solution. Later, I knew that some of them used principal of
electroplating process for working. They told me that they were more interested because chemistry is close
with their life. Sometimes, they came to me after class just to ask about something related to chemistry, such
as the dangerous of smoking and chemical compound in drugs. I was very happy that they show their interest
to study.
d. Personal Approaches
Another important strategy to dealing with students misbehaviour is personal approaches. Building good
teacher-student relationship will assist teacher to cope with students misbehaviour (Acerman, 2006, p.41).
Most reseach studies find that good relationship between teacher and students lead to successful behaviour
management. Teachers have to show respect respect for each student dignity to create positive classroom
environment ( Abrams, 2005, p.41). Even though, sometimes, it is very difficult for techers, especially
beginning teacher, but this approaches will help them.
Based on my experiences at STM, I use a strategy to be closer with them by learning their slang words, chat,
and hang around with them in the canteen. I became more concerned with naughty and lazy students. I also
tried to remember my students entire name. They were surprised that I could remember 160 students name
that I taught for 2 weeks. However, I still had problems with my students who used drugs. They still slept in the
classroom under drugs influence. They were not conscious about their action. It was a big problem for me.
In addition, pedagogical universities should aware about those problems to prepare their students as
teachers, because the university does not give curriculum analysis at STM. Therefore, the students never
realize that the curriculum is different from other high school. They have difficulties to using their knowledge
and skills in applied chemistry. In university, the lecturers taught teaching methods, evaluation, and class
management. However, they never give case study to give description of the real teaching experiences. In
addition, most students will have field teaching experiences in the good reputation school, which has mix class
and well-behaved students. Therefore, they will shock to cope with students misbehaviour like at most STM
schools. As a result, it is important for pedagogical universities have to prepare their students to face with
various classrooms environmental. According to Kullina, Cothran, & Requalos (2006, p.38), ideally, pre
service teachers would have opportunities to participate in quality field experiences in multiple school settings
which wouldallow them to see different, effective management techniques.
Conclusion
Teachers, especially beginning teachers who face the students misbehaviour will find their job as a stressful.
However, their conscious of the problems will help them to be a creative teacher to create the improvement
and solve the problems. As beginning teachers,, management classroom is more important than their
cognitive skills to cope with students misbehaviour. However, to solve this problems, integrated solution are
needed, there are not only teachers strategies such as classroom management, teaching strategies,
knowledge on the applied subject, but also the role of pedagogical university which prepare their students to
be teachers.