1: If you took his cigarettes then there was no need to take his hat, because it had nothing to do with his offense. Sounds like you did it just to flex your power over him to "show him who's in charge" and if so, just is a jerk move. I don't smoke cigarettes, so if someone blew smoke in my face, I would be upset, but I wouldn't take his hat, because the two are unrelated. It was nonsensical to take his hat because they were unrelated.
2: As far as assaulting a student, firstly, he assaulted you with poison gas, so I think it is morally justifiable to retaliate, however I acknowledged that you probably couldn't get away with it, at least not today. In the 50's, you probably could.
Confiscating property is ok so long as the property confiscated is RELEVANT to the offense. If he blows smoke, take the cigarettes, if he uses a straw to blow spit wads, confiscate the straw, if he uses a slingshot to disrupt the classroom, take the slingshot, but don't take his CLOTHING away because he smokes. That's just stupid.
As far as his respect ladder, it has to do with you FIXING the problem, which is not losing more respect and hopefully gaining it back. ANY teacher can resort to the rules to deliver PUNISHMENT. Punishment is EASY. It takes a lot of charisma to LEAD people without using force, and not everyone can. Not every school teacher has leadership qualities, but they demand the same respect that a real leader gets even though they don't HAVE the charm to be a leader. Of all the teachers I ever observed, the ones with the most charisma ALWAYS had the least amount of discipline problems, because the kids all liked them so well.
Then there were the teachers who had the least charisma, who were weak in charm and thus the kids didn't like them, and thus they acted out the most with those teachers.
No, my whole argument does not come down to what you said.
The irrelevance of a hat to cigarette smoke is self evident. (Unless the hat happens to have a cigarette logo on it, in which case it is very relevant. Did the hat say Marlboro on it or something? If so, then you were right to confiscate that the hat, because in that case, the hat directly advocated the substance that he abused)
There are two basic types of teachers in my experience. One type is the one that wants to help each individual to learn all they need to know to be the best that they can be as an individual, and to become anything that that person wants to become, recognizing their uniqueness, and wants to nurture each student's individuality, or individual style. They teach because they want each person to be the best person that they can be to become as dynamic as they can be as uniquely as they are.
Then there is the other type, that was so strongly conditioned by the system when they were growing up, that they believe that the way that school is taught in the way that it demands that everyone conform to be like everyone else is what "normal" is and is the only right way to be, and they want to perpetuate that SYSTEM, because they believe in acting as perpetrators of that system, and supporting it whole, with all of its benefits as WELL as all of it's flaws, because they were so brainwashed by school growing up that they believe that it should all be swallowed whole, without any desire to improve it on their part.
They have no desire to buck the system. Reinforcing the system as it is with all of its flaws makes them feel secure and gives them a sense of stability. They want to impart this belief on (brainwash the next generation to believe the same thing) their students in the desire to keep the culture running "smoothly, to keep it stable, ie the same.
Those kind of teachers are the most lacking in charisma and leadership ability, because they are essentially followers trying to force others to follow the rules of the system just as sheepishly as they have. These people can't CONTROL their classrooms or the kids, because they don't have the charisma to lead by encouraging, and a lot of people don't like to be told what to do.
People like THEM like the establishment to tell them what to do, because they did, which is why they became teachers. So the sheepish follower type pro establishment kids will comply, but independently minded kids will not, and will hate such teachers. When these teachers teach, it is as if they present the kids with something they are just "supposed to do".
The other type of teacher presents what they teach as an opportunity for each student to learn something useful for their lives and that that is an exciting and enriching thing.
Getting people to be obedient requires two things: A they must be absolutely convinced that you know what you are talking about. This also means knowing what will be relevant for THEIR lives. This is an area where the better leader is more effective, because they are more concerned with each student being who they are and becoming an individual, rather than the non leader trying to get students to CONFORM.
Trying to tell people or even implying that you are trying to get people to conform to an assembly line notion of learning that presumes that all people should be the same is something that a lot of people realize to be flawed, at least on the subconscious level, and it is going to make some people mad, and be upset with the teacher for using this method. Thus, the kids don't like you, and will blow smoke in your face if they are upset enough.
The second thing that is needed for obedience is that people have to be absolutely convinced that you care about what is in their own individual best interests. Once you have those two things, kids will always obey you. Of course, it is easier said than done.
If you knew someone who you were absolutely convinced knew everything and who absolutely cared about you, you would listen to everything they said, virtually without question. Why wouldn't you? Example: kid wants to be x when he grows up, you know all about how to be x, and he knows it and he is convinced you want to help him become x. I guarantee you he'll listen up.
Most disobedient kids believe that what the teacher teaches is not relevant to their lives. A lot of the time, they are right. That is because of the curriculum. It isn't relevant to them. Why is school needed? In theory, it is to help people become successful in life.
The pop star Pink hated school, and did poorly in it, getting bad grades, and now, she has become more successful in 5 years than 10 teachers will be in their entire lifetimes. She was right. They were wrong. Not everyone has her talent, but the point is that she wanted to be a pop star and felt strongly enough that she could do it to be frustrated with the school system, and have a tough time of it.
If the school system was more accommodating, or better able to actually meet different student's needs, or at the very least tolerate when they don't totally obey the rigid curriculum, things would go smoother.
I have to ask, what did you do that made that kid get so mad at you that he would blow smoke in your face. It seems to me that you HAD to do SOMETHING to make him mad. Oh, right, I forgot, you are the TEACHER, so that entitles you to upset your students and you shouldn't have to care about that, because you are the "authority" and if they should step out of line in expressing their disdain with you or your teaching methods, you can just fall back on the disciplinary rules that were made mainly for those teachers who can't lead well in the first place, and can't seem to run a classroom without making the students mad at them. That makes it all ok, right??
Don't tell me I don't know what it's like to be a teacher in a classroom, because I've spent a lot of time observing it and listening to what was going on in the classrooms. No, I wasn't doing much schoolwork, so no, I wasn't too distracted by that. I just laid low and drew pictures in class as best as I could get away with, and I always paid attention to the teacher's lectures, so that I would not need to crack a book.
I rarely did homework, because I did well on tests, and if the test percentage was high enough, I got an easy C average, since I aced the tests, and when I didn't do well, because I didn't do enough homework, I didn't give a damn, because I paid enough attention to LEARN what they taught me so I would remember it, without having to do all the stupid repetitive questions on homework, ect. i was easily smarter than 98% of the school anyway, so it wasn't like I would be handicapped in life due to lack of intellect. When I think back to all the grief some of the teachers caused me, wanting me to do stuff I didn't need to do for the quality of my life, or the nonsense they spewed that somehow I NEEDED to do these assignments was just ridiculous. Most of these teachers were a lot less intelligent than I was and yet they were going to tell me what I needed for MY life, as if they KNEW me.
There was zero respect for people who were artistically inclined. All creative aptitude was treated like it wasn't important at all. Dreamkiller. That is what the public school system is for creative people. Treating it as if creativity is unimportant. The school system treats people virtually like they are on an assembly line.
Actually, what I heard is that the public school system was patterned after a system that was used to turn Prussian serfs into military slaves. I bet you never heard that before. The rows of desks, the way it's structured, the whole thing. The Waldorf schools, for example, are not like that.
There was one time when a teacher stole something from me and lied to me saying that I would get it back at the end of the year, but that evil witch never gave it back to me.
I hate the public school system, and I have a rather extreme dislike for school teachers in general. Some I hate, and some I actually liked. Of course, I liked the type of teacher I described first, and I hated the type I described second if they were the type to make me do things. Yes, they should try to make me, because I know what is best for me better than they do, because I know myself better than they do. But of course to them, it wasn't about really helping me, it was about trying to make me step in line because they thought everyone should be the same and resented the notion that anyone should not disagree with the system enough to question it's relevance to them and not comply. They are basically trying to make everyone the same. Obedience. They demand obedience to the system to be the way THEY think all people should be, rather than teach each student to be a more capable individual human being who an think for themselves.
Why no ethics classes in school, yet they will teach history? Because they don't want students questioning how it was right to steal North America from the native peoples and break nearly every treaty they made with them. They also don't want to bring up the unethical aspects of various businesses. History is taught to brainwash people into believing that the one who won the war and made their country what it is is right, even when it is wrong.
Also teachers will lie. There was a teacher who taught health that said that anyone who uses nutrition to cure disease is a quack, and that nutrition can't help cure anything. Apparently, this guy conveniently forgot about British sailors getting scurvy and then bringing limes with them to cure it and prevent it in the future. Scurvy is a disease, and limes, which is nutrition, cured it. What other conditions can nutrition help with what nutrients in what amounts under what conditions for what people? Try living on just Twinkies and see how well you live.
This teacher was a liar and a charlatan. Hack. How many people will dismiss the possible benefits of nutrition as a healing aid because of this guy's lies? Thousands of people going through his classroom over the years, and some people getting diseases and dying when they could have used nutrition to help themselves all because of this guy's lies. Teachers are in a position to do an incredible amount of damage to people. It makes my blood boil.
. he would come over to my house and hange out. he loved my 1/6 collection and new the names of every single 1/6 gun l had. he started helping me with math so after school once in a while he woud come to my house and tutor me. l had some pellet guns and we would actually shoot guns in my garage after we were done. he was definitely the best teacher l had.
