What do you think about mass punishment over the actions of a few?

It’s not fair at all, but it is very effective in bringing order to disorder. It’s often a ham-fisted, last ditch effort of a leader who senses they are losing control of the troops. It’s not very popular among the troops and should be used only sparingly. Redemption comes with the re-institution of order, which the troops appreciate. If it is used too often, or arbitrarily, disorder will ensue anyway in the form of rebellion. All good leaders know this. Idiots and sadists don’t, or they don’t care. In this case there maybe pressure on the leader from higher up. Possibly an urgent time restriction, possibly objectives have not been met on the leader’s part. I would suggest cooperation on your part and, if you feel it expedient to do so, make your complaints to your parent, and upon their advice, or principal.

Life is not fair, you are lucky to realize it early. There is probably a list of steps to take for student teacher greivances. Find it and follow it. If there is not a procedure in place:

Talk to the teacher privately.
If that doesn’t work, request a meeting with the teacher and the principal or superintendant. Having parental support here will help but probably isn’t necessary yet.
If that doesn’t help, you can go to the school board, you will probably need a parent to attend with you.

Before you go into these meetings, be prepared. Practice what you want to say in front of the mirror. Be respectful, do not be confrontational, ask how you can resolve the issue, don’t push them into a corner where they are on the defensive.

- your principal.

Just do it. It isn’t hurting you.

There’s good advice in all of that, depending on which route you choose.

You could also study what Ghandi did, and see if any of his method of organizing non-violent protest could work for you. Not that we’re going to make you Ghandi, but it would improve your education – which is something everyone should aspire to for its own sake, and you might even learn some ways to confront injustice in a way that might be effective and not hurt too much.

What a prick this guy sounds like. I’d follow @WestRiverrat‘s advice.

@Dutchess_III I know you’re a teacher, but doesn’t this guy sound like he’s crossing the line?

I wouldn’t write the essay he assigned, either. Fuck that.

No, it’s not fair. The military uses that method to teach people to act as a unit.

In high school, the teachers are supposed to train people to reach their individual potential. This teacher is completely wrong minded. I would report him, or try to get moved to a different class.

He isn’t doing anything to you that isn’t acceptable as your gym teacher.
Grin and bear it.

Talk to your guidance counselor, but only after talking to your teacher. Yes, it is a method that is used in the military but it does come down to life or death, so they have to learn to function as a unit. Plus they do it because there is usually more that will follow the rules than the unruly people. When the bad kids out weigh the good kids than he has to know that it will not be effective. I have seen bad kids rule a group and everyone to afraid to say anything. He knows who his trouble makers are and should punish them only.

It isn’t fair. I know what it feels like. You try to do the right thing and get punished anyways for someone else acting like an asshole. Unfortunately that happens sometimes in life. I would never tell you to grin and bear it. I like @WestRiverrat ‘s advice. It sounds reasonable and intelligent and it’s your best chance for change in the future. Or you could just lie low and deal with it. It’s bound to get back to the teacher that you acted as a whistleblower and because of that you might have to face more heat. If you are prepared to fight and deal with that, go ahead. Otherwise bear up. It isn’t going to last forever. I will not ask you to grin however. That is expecting too much.

@Earthgirl I was a whistle blower with an incompetent teacher. I warned him about shaping up and he blew me off. So I went to my counselor. She had to take my concerns seriously because my grades were only taking a dive in his class and I had nothing lower than an A up to then. Then he was failing me and passing other kids with poor records. I didn’t know it now but he either had dementia or alzheimers.

They had to investigate and he made sure he looked competent for their appearance, but he decided to suddenly start giving me A’s on papers where I really didn’t bother to try and test that I wrote stupid answers. I thought he was going to continue to fail me but he decided to pass me instead. I think the counselor scared him and warned him that it wasn’t over if I failed and issued more complaints. She told me she would take the complaint up to the board of education if she continued to get reports. I also was not the only student to complain but I was the student with the best record. All my teachers liked me or at least respected my work ethic.

People underestimate the power a good student has in a school. Schools have to try to get the best overall grade and they know that they need the good students to keep their overall grade into the toilet. If it goes down, than they loose funding. The better a school is the larger enrollment the will get and they will get a bigger budget and better teachers.

I had malicious, authoritarian teachers that did the same and worse. I wish I hadn’t thought it was just something normal and that my only option was to “bear it.”

It is injustice, it is repugnant, and this teacher is showing signs of incompetence and callousness, and an unhealthy authoritarian attitude completely unsuitable to any social environments. Collective punishment is vile.

If you don’t stand up to injustice now, however small, you’ll grow up to just accept it. Speak to your parents, even speak to your school friends who may feel as aggrieved as you do. Start finding your allies now and prepare to make a stand.

You may consider defying his punishments. Refuse to accept his nonsensical request to write a paper on how he should be respected, or at least satirise it and write the opposite, since that is the most it deserves.

I won’t make disparaging remarks about male gym teachers, but I don’t think non thinking male gym teachers are a rare breed. Chalk it up to experience. You’ll look back and reminisce with your friends, “Remember old Mr So and So? What a dunce.”

I’m not in favor of this type of punishment at all. If you’re prepared to fight it, take it up with your guidance counselor or principal.

I’m reminded of my junior high gym teacher that made a disabled kid (gimpy arm and leg, which made him walk funny. He was in the ‘alternative’ PE course for kids that were in wheel chairs or had casts on or whatever) do push ups for harmlessly goofing off in the locker room.
So, obviously he couldn’t do a push up with one working arm, but that asshole teacher yelled at him anyway for being “weak”...unbelievable. Typical case of an ex-military guy treating 7th graders like they were in boot camp. Fuck that bullshit.

If you respect him why not give him the names of the girls who were fighting?

Get over it. Roll with the punches. The fact is that this sort of ‘collective punishment’ happens everywhere and anywhere all of your adult life. What do you think employment layoffs are? Collective punishment (being fired) because of someone else’s incompetence.

It’s tough, at high school age, to suppress the feelings of injustice, but this is very small potatoes compared to the real world.

Suck it up. learn from it.

I guess he’s over the line @FutureMemory….but I guess I’d need to hear his or her side of it. Has he changed his mind about any of it @Moonaa? Maybe he was just having a really bad, bad day, and over reacted. Also, kids tend to see only their side, while the teacher sees the over all picture…and he may have misread what he saw.

I was in a building once, as a long term (6 month) sub for a 5th grade class room. Teacher next door to me taught 5th grade as well, but he was a HORRIBLE teacher. He had a hearing aid. Which he turned off on a regular basis. And went blind to boot. His class was always in an uproar. It was bad. One time a couple of my students were in there…don’t remember why. Teacher wasn’t in the room and one of my students came running to me telling me there was a major fight going on. I went over and broke it up, sent the perps to the office.
About 30 minutes later the teacher comes storming into my room, starts ranting at us all, telling me and my students to mind our own damn business…and proceeded to put my two students into detention at recess!! Wow. Well. He left, and we had a long talk. Kids were VERY upset. So was I. The teacher was completely out of line…I was SO pissed…but I had a tight rope to walk. I had no seniority…I was a sub…and I was hoping for a permanent job. Without telling them to do it outright, I managed to convey to the class how the Hippies protested in the late 60’s…peacefully. I managed to get them to come up with how they they could show solidarity to their two classmates…and they came up with the grand pal of joining them in detention, and behaving perfectly during the whole time. It was like they could read my mind! ♥
Every girl joined them…none of the guys did. Wimps! You should have seen the look on the teacher’s face when every single girl in my class room, about 15 of them, quietly walked into his his class, found a seat, and quietly waited the time out. It was cool. I was so proud. So were they. Bet they never forget it, either.

Anyway, @Moonaa…life isn’t fair. When I was abot 4 my next door neighbor once gave me a spanking for something I didn’t do!! Sometimes we just need to suck it up.

Depends. Not stopping someone else can make you guilty.