Photo: TikTok
The Teacher's Response to a Strange Parenting Technique That Involves a Vacuum
By Maddie Haley — Written on Feb 02, 2023
Every kindergarten teacher has their own unique ways of keeping their classroom under control but most do not involve loud cleaning appliances.
A kindergarten teacher named Sarah revealed, in a TikTok, an unusual approach that a parent had to make their daughter behave in class.
The teacher mentions that she gets a lot of students who have not gone to preschool, which makes following classroom rules difficult for them because it is their first time in a school setting.
When Sarah encountered one particularly difficult student, she suggested to the child's parents that their kid should go to preschool first “because she was having a lot of trouble following directions, and she keeps like going under the table, and there’s a lot of things going on.”
In response, the mom gave her daughter's teacher a vacuum to turn on when she misbehaved.
Just one day after making the suggestion about preschool, the child's mom returned to the school with a handheld vacuum.
Sarah says the parent told her “every time that she is being bad, I want you to turn on the vacuum, and that will get her to stop.” The teacher turns on the loud vacuum in the TikTok and then says “I’m sorry… but I’m not doing that.”
Comments under the TikTok video claim the school system is the problem, and teachers can't expect pre-K-aged kids to sit still. They ask the question: why should this behavior be considered "bad"?
“Why are we expecting kids to be perfect in Kinder? These kids have been in a pandemic most of their lives and preschool and pre-k aren’t free to most.”
“Sounds like she has sensory issues and the parent is tormenting them with it for compliance.”
One commenter was more focused on the quality of the vacuum, writing “I want to know more about this vacuum.. it sounds powerful but it’s cordless? Where can I possibly get it? What brand is this.”
The teacher responded to a comment that blamed her instead of the parent.
To dismiss a comment that said “it seems to me that the teachers [nowadays] doesn’t know how to deal with children", the teacher replied with a video of the vacuum turned on and making noise — poking fun about the disciplinary action her student's parent suggested/
Many people laughed at the teacher’s response and agreed that it was the parent’s job to teach behavioral skills before kindergarten, not the teacher’s.
One commented, “Teachers can handle children. Not a class of 20-30 children who can’t behave, with no help. It’s the parent's [responsibility.] to teach their kids behavior skills”.
Another commented, “The way this response is 10,000 times better than what I could have predicted.”
The teacher made another response video demonstrating why she kept the vacuum.
Some wondered why the teacher had kept the vacuum if she didn’t intend to use it. The teacher answered them with another TikTok.
She explains the first way she could use the vacuum in class.
“When little Johnny spills his cereal I don't even have to get mad because I can just,” she turns on the vacuum, cleans up the cereal, and then says “Suck it right up.”
She goes on to say, “When I’m teaching letter V, I can be like V vacuum, VVVVV” then turns on the vacuum again.
“I don’t even have to worry about saying 'class, class' and them going 'yes, yes' because now I can just do this,” as she turns it on again, “how convenient!”
It’s unclear whether the teacher intends to actually use the vacuum in class because it may scare the little girl. Thankfully everyone agrees that this is not a healthy way of getting a kindergartner to sit still.
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Maddie Haley is a writer for YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers pop culture and celebrity news.