JAPAN: A 43-year-old woman teacher has been reprimanded for making four students stand up during classes for three days last December because they couldn’t answer a question.
The primary school teacher in Saitama, near Tokyo, whose name was not disclosed, told the local education disciplinary board that she intended to “impress on the students how to express their opinions”.
Second grade students who gave “incorrect responses” to questions were forced to stay standing for up to six hours a day, even through lunch breaks.
After three days the teacher told the pupils to sit, but three chose to stay standing for a further two days, until they were told that their answers were adequate after all.
Michael Fitzpatrick