Classy mum's pupil control

Some years ago I read in the Express & Star an amusing story of how a mother managed to get her streetwise and unruly son under control while in school.

Her son was in the latter years of his primary school when he cottoned on to the fact that he could get away with murder in the classroom and the fact that his teachers could not administer any kind of corporal punishment.

His behaviour deteriorated and had reached the point where he was constantly disrupting the whole class and also bullying other pupils and he was laughing in the face of his teachers.

His Mom was mortified after receiving several letters concerning his appaling behaviour; she had tried everything to bring her son under control but to no avail. She then had a brilliant idea - she decided to go to school with him and sat next to him in the classroom for the whole day. Her son was absolutely devastated by this humiliation when his classmates started laughing at him and taking the micky by calling him a "mummy's boy".

His mother sat in on his lessons for three consecutive days and the whole school got to know about it. By the end of the third day the humiliation was too much to bear and he was begging her not to go to school with him again and he promised to behave if he could go to school on his own. His Mom agreed and she received no further reports concerning his poor behaviour in school. Sorted.

There is no greater punishment than to humiliate a child in front of his/her peers, especially these days when children are very conscious of their street-cred. The older the child, the more effective this type of punishment is.

It should be a legal requirement for parents of disruptive pupils to sit in class with their offspring. Discipline starts in the home and is the sole responsibility of the parents. Teachers are there to teach, they are not in school to sort out the appalling and disgraceful behaviour of some of the present-day tearaways who have no respect for anyone.

Fining the parents for their children's misbehaviour at school would also work wonders, especially if that meant that they wouldÊhave to go without a few luxuries to pay for their child's misbehaviour.

For the bleeding-heart brigade who think this is an abuse of a child's Human Rights, try spending a week in an inner city school classroom and take the flak from the little monsters teachers are expected to take in the course of a day's work. You'll be waving a white flag in no time.

James Tibbetts, Manor Lane, Stourbridge.