Teachers are dealing with a “small but significant” number of pupils who throw tantrums in class if they don’t get their own way, turn up exhausted because they stay up late and have increasingly “belligerent” parents who take their child’s side.
“These parents, themselves under social pressure and often unable to deal with their own children’s behaviour, could be highly confrontational,” the Cambridge University study, commissioned by the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said.
Steve Sinnott, NUT general secretary, said parents were under increasing pressure because of the commercialisation of childhood.
Overindulgence
“Some parents are struggling to cope with their children. Parents seem to be trying to cope by indulging their children, and perhaps more accurately overindulging their youngsters,” he said.
The Cambridge University study revisited primary schools which were involved in a study five years ago.
In 2002, schools reported that their greatest problem was trying to control classes bored by a narrow and unchallenging curriculum.
Last year the same schools told the researchers that they were getting better at navigating the constricts of the curriculum to engage pupils, but were facing new behaviour problems in the face of a “rapidly changing social scene”.
Interviews with 200 teachers revealed that families are struggling to control their children.
Now, a six-year-old boy in London told his teacher how to go about “killing pimps and prostitutes” after mastering the famous Grand Theft Auto computer game made by Rockstar Entertainment, which is now being bid by FIFA maker EA Games.