25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them

112 Classroom Management and Instruction
my friend’s parents because my dad worked swing shift and my mom didn’t drive. At
my friend’s house, things were chaotic. Her mother couldn’t find film and batteries for
the camera. As time got closer and closer to the concert time, I got more and more
anxious. “Your mom knows the orchestra is first?” I asked my friend.
Her mom insisted we would not be late, but we were. When we got to the school,
I ran to the band room, grabbed my violin out of the case, and ran down the hall.
I opened the door to the gym just as the orchestra played the first note of our first
song. I knew I couldn’t come running in and interrupt while they were playing. I burst
into tears. The band members waiting to play next insisted the teacher would understand.
“You don’t know Miss J.,” I bawled. “She said if we weren’t here we’d fail.”
When Miss J. came out in the hall, she looked like she could have killed me, even
though I was still hiccupping from crying so hard. She said she’d talk to me about it the
next day and that I could at least play in the finale. The next day she told me, “I realize
that you were late for reasons beyond your control and you did play in the last song.
So, in view of that I will not give you an F. You will get a C.”
I’d had an A up until that point. To this day, I don’t think I’ve forgiven her. As an adult,
I wonder how she could punish a thirteen-year-old for something, knowing an adult
had been to blame, not me. I had even brought a note from that parent explaining and
apologizing. Fortunately, I still love to play the violin. (Amazing.)
The teacher was understandably
angry with the student for
being late to the concert. However, her
reaction to a situation that was obviously
out of the child’s control was
extreme, punitive, and irrational. The
student indicated that she brought a
note confirming that it was the adult’s
fault that she was late. The teacher
obviously ignored this acknowledgment
and remained steadfast in her
resolve to punish the student.
In extenuating circumstances like
this, effective teachers are flexible.
They show empathy and understanding
for what was obviously an agonizing
situation for the child. The
teacher’s intent was to have a mandatory
policy that permitted no exceptions
under any circumstances. Pol icies
that are this rigid are bound to break
somewhere. In this case, it broke the
spirit of an innocent child. Teachers’
policies should not be like dry, brittle,
rigid sticks but more like green
branches that bend in a gracious
bow of forgiveness and understanding
in extenuating circumstances. The
teacher let the student play in the
finale and she should have stopped
there. The child had been punished
enough. Lowering her grade at this
point was more of a punishment than
an assessment. It is reasonable that
teachers should communicate rules to
students, should expect that the rules
be followed, and should have appropriate
consequences if they are not
followed. Teachers also should communicate
that each case will be judged
by its own merits.
The teacher’s inflexibility about
rules is reminiscent of Piaget’s (1965)
concept of moral realism where children
see rules as absolute with no
consideration of intent. In a similar
childlike manner, this teacher did not
consider her student’s intentions.