Hey people, during my school years, we always had to ask the teacher to go to the bathroom. Like “May I use the bathroom?”, if they said no we were left to our devices which I think is inhumane.( Was a victim myself) What do you guys think especially the teachers about this system considering how difficult it is to manage classroom discipline?
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*then blame the student.
We were allowed to go whenever we wanted, but I tried to wait until there was a task/break so I wouldn’t miss important info. Kids in Norway are treated like adults, but of course if you’re childish and use bathroom breaks as a means to skip class, then you’ll always hear a “no” from the teacher.
Fair number of answers, no one saying what country they are from
US here, we had to ask but it was basically always a yes.
Reasons for a no:
Middle of a test
Middle of explaining something important, then you might be asked to wait a few minutes
If you were just abusing the system asked always asking just to get out of class they would probably start saying no. If you had a medical issue you could always meet the teacher after class or before school and say you have a medical issue that prevents your from waiting. It it was a sudden thing like diarrhea… Well just get up and go.
Also USA. My teachers ran the gamut from not letting anyone to treating us like adults. My school was VERY white with only a handful of black kids across all of high school. One of the teachers was well known for never letting the black kids go until one of them went and peed in his trash can to prove a point.
The ones who treated us like adults got treated with the most respect. Weird how that works.
Above 16 years old we were allowed to take smoke breaks during exams. :)
Only during the final exams we had to be accompanied by a teacher to the toilet and back to the class, smoking was not allowed. Otherwise we basically only had to inform the teacher when we wanted to go to the toilet or go smoking. ;) Ah, the nineties.
I don’t know about other countries, but in my own, teachers have their own designated bathrooms. As in there are girl’s bathrooms for girls, boy’s bathrooms for boys, and a third kind of bathroom with a logo not for girls or boys but for teachers (regardless of gender). If I were to use one of these teacher-designated (and yeah it has happened before), I would land myself in more trouble than if I used the boys’ bathroom. This being an age where gender norms are being challenged, being caught red-handed once, I made a remark about “sexually identifying as a teacher” which only caused my punishment to double (I even remember asking if the floor or my skirt would be a better option on a bad bladder day and got a blunt yes). Moral of the story, don’t get between teachers and their bathrooms, no pun intended.
When I was in school you had to raise your hand during free time to ask. If you raised your hand while the teacher was talking they would ignore you. There was maybe like a 50/50 chance the teacher lets you go to the bathroom and kids that were noisy generally were told no more than yes. Quite a few instances of kids wetting themselves and the class was merciless to them after. Had a whole list of kids who wet themselves.
In our kids’ elementary school, the rule at the start of year was that kids tell the teacher they have to go, then they simply go. Notifying the teacher is mandatory, 'cos they are responsible for the kids, they need to know where they are.
This was slightly changed since, because of bullies. While the vast majority of kids can go to the bathroom whenever they want, bullies don’t: they can only go alone, or supervised. So if there’s anyone else out, from any class, they have to wait. If it is urgent, a teacher or another adult will go with them, and stand by the door, close enough to intervene if need be.
Switzerland: Generally you are only allowed to go during breaks and if you forget / don’t have time due to switching buildings you are told to suck it. Starting a certain age girls are allowed to go whenever, but only some teachers allow it in practice. During breaks though, I never had to ask a teacher.
Germany: basically after you’re out if elementary school (10/11), youre expected to only use the bathrooms in breaks or between lessons (at our school, you’d have two 45 minute lessons and then a 20min break in between). If you go in between lessons, you were supposed to tell the teacher, but you didn’t need to ask for permission. Going during the lesson was basically a emergency only thing.
I don’t think that’s unreasonable or inhumane. Your not a toddler, you can hold your pee for a while and plan ahead. I can’t remember anyone ever having an accident or problem with it.
In elementary school, during the final year (age 12 or 13) I had a teacher whose system was during work periods you could leave whenever you wanted, but there was a board at the door to mark your name with a clothes pin.
Going to high school, it went back to having to ask for permission, or give a heads up in later years.
