When I was in elementary school, I think it's accurate to say the kids considered a teacher "mean" or "nice." No teacher was in the middle, they were classified in kids' minds one or the other. For a year and a half I had a mean teacher, but this was merited solely because of yelling at the kids quite often. That was until one day in third grade (age 8).
One of two twin girls (they were not favorites of the teacher), was apparently being too talkative in class. I didn't notice that things had gone too far, so when the incident started it was a bit of a shock. I guess she had been warned once too many times, and all of a sudden the teacher hauled her out the classroom door into the hallway. The class, left behind sitting there, fell into immediate silence as all ears strained. It didn't take good hearing, though, to hear the several loud smacks and wails from outside the door. The teacher marched the poor girl back in not 15 seconds later. She was crying loudly. The teacher, clearly no less angry, said, "Now that's the kind of noise I like to hear." |