Complaint against one of my tutors

[trashpony]

Fuck sake - that's a bit one way. I expect you to behave impeccably at all times but I won't hold up my side of the bargain.

They're not going to survive long in the outside world if they make such a huge fuss about a bit of shouting

 

[baldrick]

Exactly. They need to get a grip. I'm sure the department's resources would be better spent on teaching then pandering to a pair of whining students.

 

[catinthehat]

Could Trashpony and Baldrick please be put in charge of education forthwith. I would take a pay cut for that sort of realism injection.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Exactly. They need to get a grip. I'm sure the department's resources would be better spent on teaching then pandering to a pair of whining students.

It's a specious point. Lecturers who think it's OK to shout at students are going to cause huge problems down the line. Saying "oh, these students should learn to take it" is quite wrong. It's workplace bullying and workplace bullying needs to be tackled before it gets out of hand. That is realism, not telling other people that they ought to accept the unacceptable.

 

[DotCommunist]

Well, an apologetic e-mail has done the rounds. All is now forgotten.

What a palaver over one fella raising his voice. I'd have visited verbal destruction on him there and then, but hey-ho. Now I can remove the fence from my arse

 

[Donna Ferentes]

That's a good outcome, I think.

 

[baldrick]

It's workplace bullying and workplace bullying needs to be tackled before it gets out of hand. That is realism, not telling other people that they ought to accept the unacceptable.

I didn't say they should have left it. The appropriate time to raise their concerns would have been then and there in the seminar. They may well have found it difficult speaking up to someone in a position of authority to ask for an apology, but it needed to be done and it's something that would have stood them in good stead in the future.

Instead we have the farcical situation of an official complaint being initiated, people being asked for statements, totally unnecessary and a waste of time.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

I didn't say they should have left it. The appropriate time to raise their concerns would have been then and there in the seminar.

Quite likely, but if they didn't - perhaps for the reasons I suggested above - I don't see that they were obliged to leave it or that it would have been a good thing to have done so.

 

[Sweet FA]

“The discipline of the birch rod may facilitate learning but...also breed followers of dictators and revolutionists.” (Skinner, 1958).

 

[goldenecitrone]

“The discipline of the birch rod may facilitate learning but...also breed followers of dictators and revolutionists.” (Skinner, 1958).

After a few weeks couped up with a classfull of knife weilding tots you'll be crying out for tazers, let alone birch rods.

 

[Sweet FA]

“…punishment places both the teacher and the student in the most painful and difficult of positions. Neither love…respect nor trust can be preserved between a teacher…and the child he is punishing” (Vygotsky 1926)

 

[goldenecitrone]

"Would you like to see my puppies?" Myra Hindley (1960)

 

[DotCommunist]

Well he gave a very good talk on the difficulty of using allegory in poetry this afternoon. Naturally everyone brought lots of copies. He's a good tutor, but the agreement is that next time he goes postal, we shall all leave.
But I think he'll keep his temper from now on. After all he aint stupid, and a complaint must surely have involved him talking to the course leader in a formal enviroment. I'm sure he'll avoid a repeat of the situation. As I hope the students involved will. I was a slovenly unacedemic sparsely attending cunt in the first year, but this is the two years that count ffs

 

[Wookey]

I think asking students to bring in multiple copies of their homework as class materials is asking for trouble, what on earth was he thinking of?

Talk about setting people up to fail!

 

[Dowie]

Was perhaps a bit unprofessional at worst but was hardly worth complaining about if it was directed generally and didn't contain profanities. Even if he was pissed off he has at least show some restraint and it sounds like they half deserved it - they won't forget to bring notes to his class again.

In the real world a 'boss' might not have been so reserved in his/her bollockings.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Likely true, but I'm not sure that "bosses are often worse" will hold a lot of water as a reason not to complain here...

(well, I'd hope not anyway)

 

[Loupylou]

Likely true, but I'm not sure that "bosses are often worse" will hold a lot of water as a reason not to complain here...

(well, I'd hope not anyway)

Yes - those sorts of bosses are people that don't know how to weild authority properly and think they can disrespect people who work for them. It is very undermining and demoralising to be yelled at by someone in authority at work or college and leads to immense stress.

I also think that in further education, this kind of behaviour (or the fear of it)is exactly what prevents people who've had a negative experience of teachers at school from going into a learning environment.
FE educators are meant to be sensitive to the potential difficulties adults face going back into education.
I'm surprised so many people think that his behaviour was (at least half) justified because students forgot their work - it was very immature behaviour and a complete over-reaction.

Also that kind of scene is intimidating for everyone present and may prevent other people from returning to his class - even if it wasn't directed at them.
I agree it might have been better for the people getting screamed at to raise it with him, but this is very difficult with those in authority (especially after they've just been abusive) and may not have led to the successful resolution that came about. And he may have thought he could get away with it again.

I'm glad they did something about it because it shows the other students that if they are in that situation they can do something about it i.e. preparing them for what to do if/when they get yelled at at work. And even if other students think 'well I would have done something different' at least they are considering the options of how to respond.