A teacher has attempted to defend herself against objecting parents who have gotten frustrated over her refusing to let their children go to the bathroom during class.
Teachers and parents should be the perfect union of guidance, wisdom and understanding - in an ideal world at least.
But we are all aware that this doesn’t always play out like this and teachers and parents can often clash, something one UK teacher is more than aware of.
A primary school teacher (grade 1-6), first name Jade and known as @homelearninghaven on TikTok, released a video on the platform explaining why she doesn’t let children go to the toilet during class time.
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Now, if you think back to your school days, you will admit that nothing is more frustrating being told you can’t go to the bathroom when you really need to go.
But on the flip side, I bet you can’t honestly say every time you asked to go that you... well, needed to go.
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Making the video on her lunch break in her classroom, the teacher said: “I'm just thinking about the problem that parents have with teachers not letting their kids go to the toilet.
"Today, I had about three examples where I did not let the children go to the toilet.”
Explaining one of the incidents, she said she denied a student from going as they were in the middle of a reading exercise with partners.
"I said no because it would make the activity futile for both the child and their partner," she explained.
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In another moment she said she refused as she was at the start of explaining an important task and if she let the child go, she would have to explain the task all over again.
A third moment she said a student asked to go after coming in from break and she was forced to tell them no for the time being.
Now, before you grab the pitchforks and start the free-the-pee movement, the teacher also noted she would only deny them for a few minutes, would explain to the child why and make exceptions if the child was truly on the verge of bursting.
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That said, some social media users weren’t happy. One person said: "In university you dont even have to ask to go you just go, same with work, what are you even preparing them for?"
Another wrote: "I'll be honest i told my son if he needs to go toilet and gets told no I as his mother give him permission to walk out of his class."
And a third added: "My son had an accident at school yesterday because he was riddled in anxiety to even ask the teacher to go to the toilet out of genuine fear he will be told no - respectfully I can't have that."
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However, some users supported the teacher’s stance and reasoning.
One person commented: “She is explaining that it’s only 4 mins max [wait], let’s be honest, most times 4 mins is fine.
Another added: “it's good for them to learn to wait, if my child has to wait 2 mins it's no different to being at home and having to wait 2 mins if someone else is in the bathroom.”
What do you think?
Gerrard Kaonga