Last Updated: Saturday, 22 March 2008, 12:35 GMT

Spoilt children 'disrupt schools'

By Hannah Goff

BBC News, Manchester

 

Primary schoolchildren spoilt by their parents can cause disruption in the classroom by repeating manipulative behaviour used at home, a report says.

Research for the National Union of Teachers (NUT) suggested a minority of children threw tantrums, swore and were physically aggressive.

 

NUT boss Steve Sinnott is calling for more advice for parents who struggle to say "no" to their children.

The government says it recognises parents want more support.

 

Cambridge University held 60 interviews with staff and pupils in 10 schools.

 

'Over-indulged'

 

The report was released at the union's annual conference in Manchester.

It cited examples of children who stayed up to the early hours and played on violent computer games.

 

It described a mother who celebrated the fact she had been able to get her five-year-old to bed at 1am instead of his previous bedtime of 3am.

 

It also told of a seven-year-old who smashed up his Playstation in a tantrum, then spent a week pestering his mother until she bought him a new one.

 

The researchers said some parents simply could not say "no" when their children demanded televisions and computers in their bedrooms.

Others would do "anything to shut up their children just to get some peace", it said.

 

Mr Sinnott said the problem lay with parents who were struggling with little or no help to bring up their children in a heavily commercialised world.

 

He wants advertising aimed at children to be banned.

"Parents are trying to cope by indulging, or by over-indulging, their youngsters," he said.

"A youngster who is being trained at home to get their own way by throwing a tantrum - I think it is pretty easy to see the impact that would have in the classroom."

 

He urged teachers and schools to give parents reasonable advice, but he warned they could not do it alone, and urged the government to tackle the commercialisation of culture head-on.

 

Violent neighbourhoods

 

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said it recognised parents were under pressure to cope.

He said: "In the Children's Plan we learnt that parents want more support in managing the new pressures they face such as dealing with the internet and the modern commercial world, and letting their children play and learn whilst staying safe."

 

The spokesman said the government has also worked to give new powers to teachers to support them when it comes to disciplining students who act out.

 

The report's author Maurice Galeton said the problem was particularly acute where people lived in violent neighbourhoods.

He said: "Very young parents in violent and deprived neighbourhoods without the network of support that others get ... [have] a huge level of stress in their lives."

 

Margaret Morrissey of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations said the problem of classroom misbehaviour was "not just about inadequate parents".

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are putting into reception classes, in many cases, children who are four years and two weeks old. These are, in many parents' eyes, very little children - almost babies.

"If you are in a situation where you have got to work, you can't be with your child and you can't be giving it the sort of values that the older generation did."

 

The report also found the methods schools used to deal with poor behaviour were not working.

 

Some used a system of rewards and penalties to encourage children, but they often led to those who behaved the worst winning rewards for doing very little.

 

Why do you think we have now got a generation of disruptive school children? And who is responsible for it?

 

 

all to often on trashy tv shows like 'wife swap' you see idiot parents asking what kids want for dinner, and 'giving my kids what they want'... this is stupid. it teaches the kids greed, selfishness, laziness. giving kids what they want isnt good parenting, parents should lead. empowering little kids to make decisions they aint equiped to do so is ludicrous. no wonder they mis-behave at school.

I blame the 1997 European Children's Rights Charter which became law in this country.

 

As a result parents were unable to smack children. Whilst children had more rights in the classroom as well as at home which has undermined the authority of teachers to install discipline in a manner they were previously able to.

 

A decade on, and look what is happening, we are reaping the harvest of that terrible law which was potentially a good concept, but it has been implemented to the detriment of our society today.

I agree with the last two posters. Unfortunately, in a lot of homes there appears to be no discipline and that reflects in the children's behaviour in school. I work with primary school age children and I often see the lack of respect the so called 'naughty' children have for their parents. If children aren't brought up with good morals and respect at home, it's no wonder these kids misbehave at school. So many of these children are also 'bribed' with expensive toys as reward for behaving for a period of time and that, frankly, doesn't work at all.

I have given up being polite / PC with such parents .... and am often abused for it - only last week was called a patronising old cow - can you imagine :rofl: because I suggested a parent should remove PS3 from child's bedroom as punishment :o

 

I teach 4 year olds!!!

 

WTF is a 4 year old doing with w PS3 in their bedroom and why the hell is the parent 'scared' of upsetting the child by removing it. This parent also told me I was brave as I said I had done the same to my 15 year old only 2 weeks ago .... brave???

 

but she didn't do it because she didn't want to upset her child - instead she told the child that Mrs ICR would be telling him off!!!!

 

SAYING NO DOES NOT MAKE YOU A BAD PARENT!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

So yes I agree children are spoilt and parents need to stop being afraid of saying no to children ...... and FFS stop giving mobile phones to 5 year olds!!!

 

the future looks bleak... we know whats going wrong here but how tf can you stop it?..

Hardly ever post in the perspectives section but thought I would today. I've just finished placement at a school in Kent working with 6/7 year olds. True as this statement maybe, I want to look at the flip side of it because in every class I've ever worked in I've found that the disruptive elements in the class generally come from those who are neglected by their parents. In the class I've just finished in we had a boy who used to throw tantrums when mummy didn't kiss him goodbye when she dropped him off for school. On one occasion he did a runner from school because Mummy and Daddy were taking a long weekend break to Amsterdam and were leaving him with his nan who, sadly, did not believe in school and so the boy missed a few days of school as well. I believe his parents were more interested in their drug/alcohol addictions than they were in buying games consoles for their son.

 

On another occasion I was working in a year 5 class in which a boy was disruptive because he kept on crying and screaming when asked to read - mainly because he was unable to read. His parents were travellers who had never learnt to read and thus decided that their son didn't need to either.

 

I think it's a generalisation to say that spoilt children disrupt schools, and would argue that even the most normal children can be disruptive if they don't get their own way.