Poor Parenting 'Fuels Rise In Violent Behaviour'

Poor parenting and family breakdown is fuelling a rise in violent bad behaviour in UK schools, a survey says. A third of teachers polled for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said they had dealt with violence like pushing, punching or kicking this year.

ATL head Mary Bousted said some pupils had a "total disregard" for school rules. They were as likely to be "overindulged middle class" pupils as disadvantaged ones, she added.

The teaching union surveyed 814 teachers and support staff at UK schools on the issue, and heard tales of violence in the classroom. More than half said they felt behaviour had worsened in the past five years.

One teaching assistant at a state primary in England said: "A pupil once hit me in the back totally unexpectedly, because I asked her to put a book away. I was so winded and hurt that I couldn't carry on that day."

Another, at a school in Wales, said: "I had a female student threaten to kick the smile off my face, in front of the whole class." While a teacher at an English state secondary recalled "six boys refusing to work, throwing glue, pens, fighting and throwing books". When teachers were asked about the root cause of poor behaviour, three-quarters (72.9%) blamed a lack of positive role models at home.

And nearly two-thirds (62.7%) said that breakdown of relationships within a family was a main cause.

Original source here.