Handling family cultures..

[aelliott]

For a class I'm taking, I have to answer the following question:

How would you handle a parent whose culture allowed physical punishment?

If anyone can start discussions to get my head thinking on how to answer this, that would be SPECTACULAR!!!!! Thanks so much y'all!

[aelliott]

Hmmm, I was hoping that I'd get something to ponder upon...but I'm thinking on it, and as a teacher, I have to take into account of physical punishment legally. My take as of right now is that it would all depend on what type of punishment we're talking about (spanking vs. something more harsh). I can't really think of how I would do it, but in a perfect world, I would want to convey in some way to the parents that it is my job as a teacher to report any evidence of intentional harm to the proper authorities. Because even if their culture allows it, in our (American) culture, where they are living and their child is being educated in, we do not allow it.

Any thoughts? Bash my idea, please, b/c I need to get some kind of perspective on this...

[teachercop]

For a class I'm taking, I have to answer the following question:

How would you handle a parent whose culture allowed physical punishment?

If anyone can start discussions to get my head thinking on how to answer this, that would be SPECTACULAR!!!!! Thanks so much y'all!

I'd need a definition of physical punishment. If you mean a simple and reasonable spanking, fine. Do it at home or in a private place. If you mean abuse, as a teacher you are a designated reporter....meaning you report it to DFCS.

[aelliott]

I'm going to assume that the professor is talking about harsher than spanking..
But it appears that I would know about the family's culture, so would I need to talk to them personally, or perhaps have someone else confront them about it?
Pretty much to say that I understand that it's your culture to do this, but if I see evidence of this, I must report it...


??maybe??

[iteachsocialstudies]

I agree with everyone else. No excuse will be good enough if you don't report suspicions of child abuse. I've never heard of a teacher getting in trouble for reporting a case that turned out to not be abuse. I've seen plenty fired for not reporting where it turned out to be abuse, though.

[TeacherRW]

You would need to report the "punishment" if you thought it was abusive. At that point, you would need to make a professional decision (perhaps going on gut instinct) about going to the authorities or to administration. No matter what, if you believe the punishment to be borderline, document.document.document. and bring that documentation to your administration. By making them aware of the "situation", you will have the backing of the district/parish if you follow their protocol.

This certainly would not be an easy situation by any means.