25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them

88 Classroom Policies and Practices
people with different religious
beliefs. Forcing the “victim ” of this
hapless practice to wear a helmet and
sit at a special desk conjures up the
specter of a jeering audience surrounding
a helpless person in the coliseum.
The author of the scenario was
obviously a naive, trusting child
because the child continued to reveal
sensitive, embarrassing information.
The teacher betrayed that confidentiality
each time with shaming behavior.
This worthless practice places the
child at risk for internalizing this negative
labeling and class ridicule. The
label “loser” could lower the child’s
self-esteem and could become a selffulfilling
prophecy (Rosenthal &
Jacobson, 1968). It is chilling to think
of what a teacher hopes to gain from
such pathology.
When teachers ask students to
reveal sensitive information, that
SCENARIO 12.13
Only “Smart” Questions, Please
information should be handled
with a priority level of confidentiality.
Anything less than this
violates the students’ trust. Once
revealed, this sensitive information
must not be used against the
student. Parents are paying more
attention to the types of questions
or inquiries given to their children.
Recently in Texas, parents were
disturbed by an intrusive psychological
questionnaire that was
administered to their children. To
avoid a lawsuit, the school district
banned the questionnaire and
agreed to let some of the parents
observe them shredding the documents.
The best practice is to avoid
asking students for sensitive information
unless it is absolutely necessary
and only if the benefits of
such an inquiry clearly outweigh
any potential harm to the child.
The worst experience I ever had with a teacher was when I was in the seventh grade.
The teacher would always seem to pick on me as if I was doing something wrong. He
was like a sergeant in the army. If you moved, your name went on the board. If you
raised your hand to ask a question, he would say, “You’d better not be asking me anything
stupid.” I couldn’t understand him because the whole purpose for raising my hand
was to ask questions if I didn’t understand. If I had the choice, I wouldn’t recommend
him to anyone.
Control. The crux of this problem
is the teacher’s excessive
need for control. He could control students’
behavior but he found it difficult
to deal with the uncertainty of
what they might say. To minimize his
powerlessness over their questions,
he intimidated his students by daring
them to ask a “stupid” question.
Students that do not understand the
instruction may not know if their question
is stupid and rather than appear
stupid, they will not ask. Shutting his
students up is also an insurance policy
that will guarantee that he will not be
asked anything that he cannot answer.