Our elementary school has little charts at each table where the ladies get to adjust "how the kids are doing"...they scores range from 0-5 and if you get 4/5s you get something special (like a visit from the principal or VP for lunch at your table. It is a nice positive reinforcement program...d
My eldest starts middle school next year. You are not making me look forward to it, profmom
In our elementary school, if a table gets too rowdy the lunch monitors tell that table they need to eat silently.
Seems to me if it a one-time response to unusual rowdiness it is within bounds. If enforced silence went more than a day or so, or became a regular routine, then I would say something needs to be changed.
Do you every see adults eating lunch and not talking? Do you not think if the same number of adults were in the room the noise level would be the same? I'm not saying let them go crazy but there are lots of kids in a big room that amplifies the sound.
We give our kids less and less free time during the day. Fifth and sixth graders at our school no longer get recess. They have a very short "Gross Motor Skills" time. Lunch is one of their few free times.
I would complain to the superintendent. Luckily, we have a great principal so I never have had to do that, but luckily they understand that kids need to visit like adults do.
Sigh. Middle School years. So glad I don't have to relive those again.
Whole group punishment has been brought up on here before. I hate to see kids silenced during lunch but if they are so loud other people's teeth are jarring while they are trying to eat some kind of measure needs to be taken.
I am not sure how our middle school handles this. The cafeteria seems small. The principal and some of the teachers eat in there with them. At the old middle school the principal stayed in there the whole time and helped with clean up and things like that. I think that helps. At my oldest son's school they implement the CHAMPS program rules. If a class gets to loud they may have to be on a "0" the next day (that means no talking). Often it is just one table but they do get warnings. I understand your concern over bullying but if they know the whole group will get in trouble they may want to be good and not get everyone in trouble to avoid all that peer pressure. I can see both sides. But this form of discipline was done when I was in school. We just dealt with it as it was part of life.
In the hour I spent with twenty eighth graders yesterday I say this was just punishment! We have the total opposite issue of punishment not being harsh enough or just look the other way!
Anyway...I agree with Serendipity about speaking with the Superintendent, but hopfully you can have it a conversation of conserns. In our situation I have been "brave HA!" and told the Dean that the same punishment/disapline can't apply to two totally different students (we are K-12). I mean to suspend a first grader and "councel" a eighth grader for the same offense- fighting- (the eighth grader needed medical attention too- first grader had said "bad words") not even right. I should know as a parent of 5 ages 14,9,7,5,3!
I would defently make sure you are organized and have others that feel the same way. It's no longer THE squeeking wheel BUT the whole set that get heard!
now he has resorted to making the entire middle school eat in silence in the cafeteria because a group of kids were not quiet enough.
Was this punishment done for just one day or for a longer period of time? If it was just done for lunch one day then I do not see it as a big problem. If it was for more then one day for the one offense then I would have a problem with it.
I have seen punishment like this doled out occasionally and we have one teacher in our school that always punishes the whole class if someone or a group will not stop doing whatever is the problem. The rationale behind it is that if they won't stop misbehaving you punish everyone so that the other kids are also now mad at the offenders and it tends to keep them in line as they do not want the whole class mad at them. I really do not think this leads to bullying as in most cases the kids who are not behaving are more likely the bullies and not the timid kids that get bullied.
Kids today are not what they use to be in terms of respect for authority and adults period. We grew up in a time where you were afraid of what would happen to you if you were disrespectful or misbehaved. Kids today are totally different and have no fear of what will happen to them. I cannot begin to even imagine how hard it is for teachers and principals to keep kids in line in the older grades. I don't know all the particulars of your situation and what the past experiences you had are, but if you truly feel the kids are being treated badly and you have tried speaking to the principal with no closure then perhaps you should speak with the superintendent about your concerns.
