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teacher should make sure that parents are aware of any laws pertaining to sexualharassment that could affect their child. In this scenario, the teacher should have admonished the boy’s behavior and given him some consequences. State laws would determine if she would have to report the incident to someone else. Prevention is best for sexual harassment. The competent teacher will make students aware of consequences and will monitor student behavior as a deterrent.
SCENARIO 1.27
Copious Copying
    In fourth grade, Ms. T. made me copy several pages from the dictionary as punishment for misbehaving. I think it was the time my friends and I were in the bathroom looking at glow-in-the-dark rubber balls with the lights off.
    If a student is forced to copy the dictionary as punishment for misbehaving, Behavioral Learning Theory (Skinner, 1950) suggests that the child may learn to associate using the dictionary with punishment. This would be unfortunate if the teacher wanted to assign useful dictionary work. Copious copying might also make them hate writing. If the teacher were trying to punish students by giving a boring, tedious assignment, it would be better to create a passage with a positive message and have the students copy that instead of the dictionary. Informed teachers would be very cautious about using reading, writing, researching, copying, and so forth as forms of punishment. The risk of turning students off on these educational activities is too great.
SCENARIO 1.28
Assault With a Deadly Playground
    The worst experience with a teacher was when I was in second grade. I was outside on the playground and a kid somehow fell or got hurt on the barrels. It was raining. I somehow got wrangled into being at fault (and maybe I was). I got dragged into the school and had to go to detention which was absolutely awful.
    As an education major, I can see that the teacher didn’t see it and so had to just do what she thought she heard. Maybe I was to blame.
    The legal term “assumption of risk” usually applies to adults who knowingly enter a dangerous situation where they might get hurt. If they get hurt, it is their fault. A second-grade child cannot be expected to assume the risk of playing on the playground. Playground safety is an adult responsibility. The playground should be as childproof as possible. If a child gets hurt on the playground, there may be something wrong with the playground setup. The teacher assumed the child was at fault and physically dragged the child into detention.
    Experienced teachers know that the school is responsible for playground safety and that a child engaged in reasonable play should not get hurt. The student in this scenario seemed to be engaged in reasonable play and may have caused an accident. The teacher should have tried to comfort the child while examining the child to determine the extent of the child’s injury. Punishment should not have been on the agenda.
    Resourceful teachers would have the nurse tend to the injured child and would have seized the moment as an opportunity to review playground safety rules with the class. The other students could learn from what happened to this student. This could be a very effective learning experience because the other students in the class can also learn vicariously from the injured student’s consequences (Bandura, 1986).
SCENARIO 1.29
Punishment Befitting the Crime
    During my senior year, I was kicked out of a physics class for excessive talking and laughing and was threatened with expulsion.
    This is obviously a case where the punishment does not fit the crime. To expel someone for talking and laughing is excessive. In many cases, it is not so much the offense that is important, but it is the underlying need for control and the power struggle that has polluted the classroom climate. When teachers have a “do as I say or else” approach, students can experience some bizarre punishments. Wanting to curb a student’s talking is very