As someone who works with kids almost daily and who is leaving soon, and who has been really overwhelmed by how positive the feedback has been in terms of references for the future from the parents of the kids, the main thread is that the kids never see me lose my temper but I also don't put up with rubbish. That is from the kids themselves. It was something I learnt long ago, when my mom only really seriously punished me once - she took away my access to to the one thing I truly loved which in my case was sport. No anger or violence is necessary. The only teachers who beat me were the ones who couldn't teach. In my best teachers' classes noone needed to be beaten. But I will put a caveat on to this: there are kids I have had who, in my mind, at the time, I could easily have thrown with a rock. In almost every single one of those cases, the issue was not with me. And I think people who can't deal with a circumstance and who don't understand the child may be trying to tell you something, end up doing the beating in frustration. Second caveat: I haven't had to deal with a seriously disturbed/abused/violent child. I am grateful. My colleagues have and it is an unbelievably difficult thing to handle. In this circumstance, and I am generalising with hearsay, it is almost always the parents.
