I don’t know if I agree with the approach the teacher used, I understand the concept. As a high school history teacher I have found that one of the biggest problems today is that most children do not feel any responsibility for his or her actions. Leaving this book behind is just a minor symptom of a larger problem. I have students that turn in assignments a month or more late and they and their parents do not understand why they should be penalized for it. Even the administration pushes you to nag students constantly to turn in their late assignments. I have a hard time understanding how this prepares them for life. In almost every job in the real world, if you don’t meet your deadlines you get fired. Many students now don’t seem to care.

This may not apply to this particular situation, but I can see the teacher’s point. If there are some kind of consequences for a child’s action, then maybe they will be more responsible later. I realize that a student leaving a book behind seems like a minor thing to worry about, but you can’t imagine how often this and other worse things happen.

In the past I have hid the books left behind by students and told them that they had to pay for it and made them sweat about it for a few days, I don’t know if it helped or not but at least it is something.

Does seem as though the teacher is trying to extort money from the child. In order to teach the child responsibility, the child really should have done something wrong. I.E. wrote in the book that does not belong to the child. Then the teacher could have stated that the child can pay for the book which the monies would be donated to charity or can get detention for vandalizing borrowed property. Alternative to detention could be to have the child wash off the graffiti on the school’s walls.

My first question is what is the grade level of this student? I don’t really like the idea of taking money from the student. I’m sure the students I teach would have difficulty coming up with the money as would some of the parents. Definitely, students need to be taught responsibility, but I feel like there should be a better way to address this problem than with a monetary penalty. If this is a chronic problem, then maybe setting up the money penalty with some sort of “contract” with the student and his/her family might be a reasonable solution.

If that was the prearranged rule for leaving a book behind, then I think it is ethical because the teacher was showing that the rules should be followed. If the teacher just made it up on his or her own, I think the child will learn that if one makes a mistake, one must be punished. I believe mistakes are forgivable. However, if the child repeatedly forgot books there, maybe the teacher didn’t know what else to do to provide incentive to be more responsible.

The teacher is trying to teach the students responsibility because next time they leave their belongings they may not be there when they return. As long as the school knows the policy and there is no question that the money definitely goes to charity. The only problem I see is that some students may not be able to afford fines such as these.

That teacher should be reported, he,she should not ask the child for money. She should have just given the book back. He child remembered where he left it and he may have hurried out of the room for some reason and just forgot it. Report the teacher.

the teacher is being unethical, this is obviously not the right way of teaching the child of being responsible..

the teacher has to be careful in money matters she might be charged of extortion…not even if he says it is intended for charity we have no way of knowing if the money collected will do directly to charity

Taking money for the return of property is extortion. Extorting money from a child is not only unethical and immoral, it is also illegal. Since when do we allow teachers to bully our children?

Extortion and blackmail are never good values to teach children. While it’s wonderful to teach kids responsibility, detension is a threat tactic, it’s like the bully who threatens a child with violence if they don’t hand over their lunch money.

It does seem to punishing a child for being a child. I think a warning first then maybe some other way of reminding the child not to do that in the future.