Undeniably, educational policy has been reshaped by lawmakers lately. A good number of school employees are conscious of the growing lawsuit and legislation. However, most administrators and teachers misapprehend the essential legal impressions which are mostly applicable in educational queries. Therefore, there are not sure of the legality of decisions they make in managing their schools. The major aim of this easy will be identification and summarizing articles that tackles ethical and legal insinuations for classroom management linked to the responsibilities and rights teachers, students, as well as parents.
To begin with, is an article that was written by Sarah Ganly, titled Rights and responsibilities of student and a teacher. The major issue that is being addressed in this article is the rights of students as well as the responsibilities of teachers or rather instructors in the classroom. In law,the safety of students is considered to be a legal right; hence, it should be at the top of the list of the priorities of teachers, (Ganly, 2007). Besides, parents have the responsibility of registering their children in an institution that they consider to have taken into account for the safety of these children. Moreover, liability of teachers as well as the extent to which they would be held answerable has been addressed in this article. To illustrate this argument, according to law, a teacher would be held legally responsible for the welfare of students if a predictability of harm exist. However, due to lack of a clear basis of determining predictability incident, justifying situations should be scrutinized and every occurrence has to be evaluated in individual basis.
According to the writer of this article, one of the activities that jeopardize students’ safety is a field trip. The writer asserts that, the teacher as the responsibility of examining and ensuring that the safety of the students during a field trip has been guaranteed, (Ganly, 2007). However, most individuals lack knowledge of the relationship between the rights of the students and the responsibilities of the teachers. The author of this article argues that, some situations may dictate limitation of the rights of students so as to safeguard the security of the total crowd or the individual.
The second article is titled Public School Law: Teachers’ and Students’ Rights written by Martha McCarthy & Cambron-McCabe. In this article, the rights of students and teachers have been emphasized. It is within the powers of a court to establish whether an instructor is legally accountable for the injury sustained by a student if the injury was predictable and preventable through exertion of apposite care as per the Law of Torts precisely in Negligence, (McCarthy, & Cambron-McCabe, 1992). According to this law, it is the duty or rather the responsibility of the instructor to protect the students in the classroom. The writer asserts that, this is a very susceptible role which calls the instructor to take safety measures to guarantee the safety of the students in the classroom. Arguably, instructors will be judged of negligence if a student is injured in an accident which would predictable and hence, avoidable. Nevertheless, if the injury is as a result of ignoring the advice or not sticking to the rules of the classroom, the instructors will not be held accountable as this could be a contributory negligence.
According to the writer of the article, in the case of contributory negligence, other factors such as the age are taken into account. The other things which might be considered in analyzing contributory negligence are professional training and certification of the instructor in charge at the particular time, immediate situations under which the accident occurred, as well as the nature of the activity, (McCarthy, & Cambron-McCabe, 1992). As an attempt to reduce cases of injuries due negligence, most public as well as private institutions have suggested for routine scrutiny to be conducted.
Response and Responsibility in the Classroom by Edgar Baguio, is the third article to be analyzed. As per this article, the focal point is on the accountability of the students inside the classroom, (Baguio, 2008). Nevertheless, writer of this article also brings out the idea of reactions of the students to the manner in which the instructors manage the class. As such, responsibility in this case is outlined as the job of the students to stick to the regulations and procedures within the classroom. From the author’s point of view, an efficient classroom is comprised of students and teachers who hold on to their promises and responsibilities. Unquestionably, if the two parties are able to take their responsibilities accountably, they can be in a position to rely on and trust each other. To be more precise, ‘trust’ promotes easy classroom management.
Lastly, author of this article also argues that the best approach that can easily be applied instructors in managing classrooms is that of behaviorism and positive reinforcement, (Baguio, 2008). This will entail development of a system of managing behavior which has both credits as well as debits. Additionally, it is the responsibility of the instructor to train a student to learn how to monitor himself/herself and how to make smart choices in different circumstances. This is aimed at training students to become independent at the same time acting responsibly in the attempt of realizing their goals and objectives in the future.
The fourth article is titled Students’ right and teacher responsibility: Random Locker searches by Pauley. The main focus of this article is to analyze the role of teachers as far as security and the rights of students are concerned, (Pauley, 2010). According to the author, teachers spend more time with students as compared to their parents. Therefore, teachers have a role to play in ensuring the security or rather the safety of their students. One way in which this could be done is through random locker searches. The author goes on to say that, besides monitoring the security and welfare of students, it is also the role of teachers to ensure that students are not exposed to drugs and violence.
As mentioned above, locker search one of the best ways of eradicating use of drugs, violence and ensuring safety of students. The point of argument in this case is that, if students are aware of the locker search, they will abstain from coming with drugs and weapon to school.
Arguably, this will not only protect the students, but also protection of teachers is guaranteed also. From other people’s point of view, this procedure could be a violation of the right of privacy of the student. According to the Board of Education, “students have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their persons” within the school compound, (Pauley, 2010). However, locker search is not included in this clause; hence, no violation of students rights in this particular case. Furthermore, the author argues that if it means violating rights of a few to safeguard the safety of many, it is the duty of the teachers to do the search. In handling cases to do with student’s rights violation, the court has to look to the context of each case before giving a verdict. The author concludes by saying that for students to achieve academically, they should be accorded a productive, safe, and healthy environment.
Finally, the fifth and last article is How to Deal with a Problem Child in the Classroom, by Lets. According to Lets, keeping students comfortable in class is one of the responsibilities of teachers. However, she agrees that it is difficult to take undertake this role if there is a problem child in the class. Therefore, different strategies must be employed by the teacher to create a favorable environment for learning.
Some of the strategies that she suggests to be used in this case are; first, befriending the problem child, which will minimize the child’s troublesome behavior, (Lets, 2008). The second strategy is to have a private talk with the child. This will be crucial in making the child to understand the behavior is not good within the classroom or elsewhere. Thirdly, is to avoid use of threats, for instance, sending the child to the principal’s office. If a teacher uses such threats, it will create a bad impression on students which will make them to be scared of other teachers. Lastly, is to know the background of such a child so as to know what the problem could be, and how to handle such cases. The author concludes by saying that a good teacher should be aware of strategies that could be used to carefully handle a problem child without creating a negative impact on such a child.
References
Baguio, E. (2008). http://www.scribd.com/doc/2936599/Response-and-Responsibility-in-the-Classroom
Ganly, S. (2007). Rights and Responsibilities of a Teacher and a Student. Retrieved on
May 16, 2011, from Associated Content: Information from the Source Website:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/352999/rights_and_responsibilities_of_a_teacher.html?cat=4
McCarthy, M.M. & Cambron-McCabe, N.H. (1992). Public school Law: Teachers’ and
Student’s rights (3rd Ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Lets, (2008). How to Deal with a Problem Child in the Classroom. Retrieved on 16th May 2011
from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/648169/how_to_deal_with_a_problem_child_in.html?cat=4-
Pauley, (2010). Students’ Rights and Teacher Responsibility: Random Locker Searches.
Retrieved on 16th May 2011 from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5805062/students_rights_and_teacher_responsibility_pg2.html?cat=4-
