Unnecessary class punishment

It really irritates me when teachers punish the whole class when only a few students were doing something wrong.

The other day, sections of my class were talking, and the teacher just stopped what he was doing and watched the clock. He didn’t really say anything, and when the students quieted down he said, “You wasted my time so I’ll waste yours.”

He made us all stay after class for talking. It was only five minutes, but this isn’t the only class this has happened, and it’s usually for a longer amount of time.

Before high school, I’ve never gotten in trouble or had a detention, but now that I’m in high school, I’ve had to stay after school four times because of a teacher punishing the entire class. I think it’s unnecessary, and when teachers make us stay for a long amount of time, it can cause some students to get caught in the student parking lot and make them late for work.

I’m not bashing class punishment all together though. Some classes get really out of control and do need punishment. In one of my classes, the back of the room gets really loud, but the teacher only yells at us, and then the students just snicker about it. In that class, we’ll probably get a class detention eventually. That wouldn’t surprise me because we’ve gotten many warnings and the talkers won’t listen.

But if teachers feel that punishment is needed, I think they should just start writing names on the board and make only those students come in. And then give those students an option to go before school, because like I stated before, some students have to work and can’t be late.

16jschaffer@usd489.com