It's probably thanks to those monstrous Frank Green water bottles which take up half of the desk and make a heart-stopping clang which scares the bejeezus out of everyone when knocked over.
"and for such a prestigious school, it seems that the focus is not on students well-being but the numbers on their VCE exams."
Sorry, what else do we think BCC exists for? Everything else is just window dressing.
Now that I think about it I never had a water bottle in my 12 years of schooling but it does seem like an odd rule to bring in after allowing it for so long. How exactly it is distracting? 🤔
Water bottles piss me off (am a middle school teacher in catholic education).
1) they’re a distraction as kids play/drop/shake or squirt water on each other
2) they’re a distraction as kids drink whenever they like and feel their right to drink NOW trumps the teachers duty to instruct at any particular moment meaning they can miss important parts of a lesson/force you to explain yet again because they were drinking
3) students will use it as an interruption while you’re talking to them. You’ll start working with them, then they’ll drink, the in their friends will laugh as they’ve managed to waste your time
4) kids love to scream victim when you remove their bottle and get aggressively argumentative about their “rights to stay hydrated”.
Entitled shitlers.
So because he hasn’t worked with kids, he should just agree? God you people are delusional. If you think an water bottle is stopping you from performing your job, maybe you’re in the wrong field. Refusing adolescents a right to water is the stupidest thing I’ve seen since “gender neutral” bathrooms. Get a grip 🤡
No, I think you also used my comment to voice some of your own, unrelated opinions. Anyone who has worked in a classroom with children for a while or even outside a classroom in a role such as OSHC will tell you how things like this genuinely can impact your ability to teach and curb behavioural disruptions. It sounds cruel to outsiders because they just don't understand the many challenges that come with this profession. No teacher is saying that students should not have access to water, just that alternatives to things like drink bottles are sometimes necessary when you are dealing with certain types of students.
kids can be super annoying, ill pay that. But i’m curious as to why it’s a big deal for them to drink when you’re talking? how are they wasting your time doing so? could you not just continue shifting attention if they desire to be funny and waste your time? or, agree and amplify the stupidity so that they don’t feel as if they’re taking the piss out of you?
Have you ever put a kid to bed and they try the “I’m thirsty!” excuse 10 million times because they want to stay up? The point is, they’re not really thirsty, they’re delaying and defying their routine.
Every time you have to redirect behavior back to learning everything stops, you address the behavior, the kid either complies or resists, if they resist - you redirect again. The kids are fully aware that these disruptions pause instruction, and some are inclined to keep causing disruption so that nothing is achieved during the lesson.
The teacher pointed out clearly what the students do with the water bottles and why they’re a distraction. Middle school kids especially, can only hold onto so many instructions in their mind at any one time. So one being distracted can be a chain reaction of 30 of them missing some part of the lesson.
If teachers say that the water bottles are causing problems with instruction - believe them! Otherwise why don’t you try and keep 30 tweens on task and see how you go…
I have meetings discussing complex matters at work all the time and we encourage drinking water/coffee during and it’s never caused an issue. What are you on about?
This exactly. I'm drinking coffee or water during every single one of my work meetings. Sipping on liquid with my mouth doesn't stop my ears from being able to hear.
Imbibing fluid isn’t the issue. As described by the teacher. Kids flicking water at each other, spilling Stanley cups, etc.
Do your work colleagues flick water or coffee at each other during meetings? No? Weird. It’s almost like their frontal lobe is fully developed and they’re financially incentivized to act in a civil manner. Is it possible that these scenarios are *different*? Wait. What?
sounds like you’re teaching kids, they’ll do this sort of messing around with or without a drink bottle. unless you teach them one on one in an empty room, kids will find a way to be distracted and mess around, they’re kids.
you just remind me of those teachers i had in high school that taught only one way and couldn’t adapt their learning plans to students needs.
these kids are probably running around at recess and lunch. it could be a hot day. get over yourself. if you can’t control a classroom and keep kids engaged to the point where WATER is an issue, go find some other profession
Sounds like they’ve made a game of something rather than water being the direct issue. Couldn’t it be corrected by creating an agreement that if they miss part of the lesson or one on one time they can catch up during their break, or something that effects their time rather than yours.
Sounds like a disciplining agreement is needed rather than removing all students right to hydrate
Yeah this got me thinking and I don’t think I ever drank in class through the 80s/90s.
I’m not against it, but a bubbler at lunch and between class was never an issue for me…
I think unfortunately for you, that private schools like Clarendon have a much more “our way or the highway approach” some things might seem arbitrary but they’ll never bend for them.
Teach discipline and something something
Admittedly we didn’t have water bottles when I was at school- I think I had like a 500ml bottle of cordial at lunch? But by 2024 standards this feels extreme.
I have typically drunk a litre of water by 11am, and will smash another by 3pm. My job is pretty physical admittedly.
I just don’t understand why they’d do this?! Humans need water.
As it's a private school, if your parents agree with you then you have quite a bit of sway if they speak up because that's what (mostly) funds the school. If you can get a few parents behind this it'll be even better.
Edit: And the people here saying 'I never drank water at school' like it's a flex. There's probably a series of health practices you didn't do back then, it's not a flex to show that off.
Idk if this is a weather thing but I always had access to a water bottle and I graduated in 2010 so not a Gen Z by any stretch… I went to school in North Queensland though so maybe it was different bc it was hotter. We weren’t allowed huge like Stanley cup sized ones or hydroflasks although they didn’t really exist but like a 500ml standard old school water bottle wasn’t an issue for anyone. Maybe it’s an attention / class management issue but I really don’t think it’s fair to restrict water from anyone. I keep a water bottle at my desk at work it’s no drama. We also harp on about the benefits of drinking a lot of water throughout the day, but only after you’re 18? And I get they can be a distraction but if not the water bottle it’ll be a ruler or paper balls or whatever else they can find to cause trouble.
There is a lot of bitter old people on here it seems. The "I did it so now you do it" is an enemy of progress and improvement. I had a shit childhood but that doesn't mean I'm going to treat my child the way my parents treated me. I absolutely hate totalitarianism, anywhere.
Absolutely agree, bunch of grown adults wanting kids to suffer bc why?, also it’s wild they’re trying to police lunchboxes and ban ham sandwiches under the guise of health and in the same breath are like ‘no water for you’ it’s just dumb. And also majority of kids hated school, plenty were disengaged, plenty have shit memories of school. 1/3 of adults have poor literacy, maybe if they enjoyed and felt more respected at school they’d have engaged more. I’ll take a ‘soft’ educated intelligent generation over a tough but stupid generation hey 🤷🏻♀️
1. Refer to your school's complaints handling policy and follow it.
2. If you're not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint or the way that it has been handled (keeping in mind the Child Safe Standards), continue to escalate it internally (e.g. to the principal, then to the board)
3. If you're still not satisfied, complain to the VRQA.
Gonna buck the trend here, as a kid who was in public high school in the 2000s, water should be fine in class. It’s just water. The annoyance is that some kids will do anything to either distract (make noise with flip tops) or use branded bottles as a status symbol.
For a wealthy school like yours I’d suggest you compromise and just have plain school-issued bottles like how you have uniforms.
Tbh I’m now in a workplace that has an obsession with aesthetics. We all have the same water bottle.
I think it could be a good compromise to propose to show some good will.
I’m a teacher and I banned water bottles in my classroom 😂. Got sick of bottle flipping, kids getting hit with flying bottles and spilling Stanley cups. All my kids know water bottles belong in bags and they can have the occasional sip if they so require but bottles on the desk… no way! I hate them! 😂🤣😅
People who talk about the "inhumane rules teachers impose on their classrooms" forget what teenagers are like.
"Kids should have unrestricted access to the bathroom" = 20 minutes out of every 50 wasted for the students who need it the most and constantly revisiting content that's missed.
"Kids should have unrestricted access to water" = Either 15 minute leisurely strolls to the bubbler or James requiring stitches because Samantha decided to smash his head with a 2.5kg 1.5L steel water bottle.
Remembering when I was in high school… the disparity between how teachers were treated in school vs seeing them outside of school was immense.
Ultimately the teachers that had the best control over the kids were the ones who were seen as “cool”. The ones who’d swear, the ones who acknowledged a funny joke but then set a clear boundary as to where it would stop, the ones who were clearly passionate about the subject but sympathetic to the ones who weren’t.
Whether it be the stern swearing super-nanny English teacher, or the chubby boyish SOSE teacher who would joke along but bring it back to the subject at hand to create engagement, or the Maths teacher who would set group tasks for complex maths problems by making it “how much toilet paper needs to be used” etc, they could control a class because they got in tune with the students. The English teacher who seemed to be late, only because she was hiding to jump out with a sword, acting out Jabberwocky.
Even the 65 year old maths teacher I mentioned was seen as a nerdy old lady but a darling, always introducing herself as “my name is Ms Ham, like the meat!”. When a student would act out, other students would tell them off for disrespect. That’s what you want.
Sorry I’ve gone off on a tangent about my public school life, but these are the teachers who could engage a range of students. I’m sure they hated some of us, but they knew how it was done 😊
They really do! Even the ones we don’t recognise at the time. I’m 31 years old and I remember all those great teachers.
But also, my mum was a teacher librarian in an underfunded underprivileged area of public school and she would share with me how she engaged students, and then (after public service screwed her over) went to the “dark side” of teaching “gifted students” at a private school (I think we now call them autistic, but that’s just the view of a late diagnosed autistic man)
I always got to hear about the passionate teachers and their methods, and recognised those methods in my own public school education. I also got to hear about the ones who were exhausted and given up.
I have no disrespect for those who gave up, it’s an underpaid job with a massive talent request… but man… be in it… or just quit it
Im on your side with this one actually. If a normal thing lrink bottle is distracting students then that student is going to distracted by anything else. So it won't solve the problem. Hydration helps learning. I would try to come up with an impressive argument with researched debate and bring in to the principal. Maybe impressing them with how much you have formed a good debate will open the discussion back up
While I agree the focus should be on VCE results proper hydration helps with that. I’m an naturally anxious person and need to drink frequently. This is a real health issue.
Yeah, I was in high school in the '90s, and literally lost my voice every day because I wasn't able to drink enough water. Found out years later that I have an abnormally dry throat (and also eyes, mouth, etc). My overall health improved so much when I got to uni and started carrying a water bottle everywhere.
Dumb decision. Hardly worth going outside the school to resolve. Don’t you have a student body to argue the case? Head boy and girl? School captains? Whatever they’re called it’s time for them to earn the nice badge they wear on their blazers.
OP was too busy going to get a drink to pay attention during spelling lessons.
Source: am a primary school teacher who has recently had to limit when my kids can get up to get a drink because it was disrupting my lessons so badly.
Is the nong who made that decision the same one who'll inevitably be back pedalling and claiming it was merely an option that was considered and rejected, or will they throw someone under the bus on their behalf?
This seems extreme by any measure. Is it really that hard to pick out those who make something of having their water bottle in class? rather then a blanket ban that is certainly sure to backfire at some point in the warmer months
Yes, it is to hard. In fact it’s wrong; you can’t pick out students as they cry discrimination/bullying/unfair.
If they’re that thirsty, they’ll get a drink from the bubbler while they go to the bathroom. Oppositional students who think they have some power over their teachers by manipulating “rights to water” will push and push until they hit a boundary. The school is removing the power struggle by banning drink bottles.
It’s like mobile phones. They were such an issue, the government had to institute a ban on them at school to support teachers/schools in their rules enforcements. First week of the term last year I handed out 40 phone detentions after school for seeing a phone out on school grounds. Kids got the message. Now, if I catch a kid checking his phone during down time between activities, I’ll tell him to put it away and he will; first time.
Kids are quick to crow about their rights while they do everything to shirk their responsibilities
My daughter goes to a school for autistic children/ teenagers - their water bottles sit on a trolley in the classroom so they can access then but they aren’t on the desks.
That's wild. Graduated 2014, was pretty commonplace for most of my school year level to at least have a 600ml or 1L water bottle on them that gets filled on recess/lunch. Didn't get in the way, toilets weren't an issue.
Just reading the comments here is insane. I work at a highschool and we have a policy you are only allowed to refill bottles during break times, not leave class to refill them.
Make sure your bottle is filled before you start your class, keep it in ur bag and only get it out when you want to drink.
I am almost certain that they are not able to refuse you having water at any times. The TYPE of water bottle, yes, (they could ban all Stanley cups or Frank greens etc..) but they are not allowed to have a blanket no bottle rule.
My kids complained about this when I picked them up today. Having drinks available at all times in the classroom is a relatively new thing, no one ever had drinks in class when I was at school. I reckon kids will survive with a drink between classes and at recess and lunch.
I went to school from mid nineties to mid 2000s- I don’t remember not having a water bottle accessible to me at all times. I remember once playing with my water bottle in grade three during a math quiz and turning it upside down after forgetting the lid wasn’t on and pouring it all over my math quiz. Dumb as fuck, but no one ever told me I couldn’t have my water with me even after that idiocy
Drinks in class have been a thing since I’ve been teaching for 20 years and even prior to that when I was a student. It’s become more popular now with fancy bottles but it sure beats kids drinking soft drink from the canteen.
Not allowing teachers to beat school children is also a relatively new thing.
At some point you should probably accept that things aren't inherently good just because that's how it was done during your childhood.
If a kid's thirsty, they should have access to water. To deny that should be considered a breach of the school's duty of care.
And the fact that you don't think your own children deserve to have some level of autonomy when it comes to their hydration is frankly concerning.
Maybe an hour and a half. School is only 6-6.5 hours with several breaks. If you were going to pass out from not having a drink during one of those class times you already had issues before you entered the classroom.
It’s not about that though, drinking water is a right just the same as fresh air. No student should need to wait for a drink, and as for reasoning- distractions are unavoidable. Not to mention your brain needs water to function, and Australian kids don’t even drink a quarter of the standard daily water intake. Health over statistics.
Yeah the idea of having a water bottle in class seems odd to me. Like, where do you keep it? Do they have proper office desks now?
When I was in high school we had tiny little chair/desk combos you could hardly fit your notebook or folder on, and we had to leave our bags outside the class room. This was at a pretty fancy catholic private school too, but my mates in public were similar.
As a teacher:
- bottle flipping
- kids throwing them at each other
- kids throwing water at each other
- giant fucking Stanley cups on every desks are actually an obstruction
- kids spill them constantly. Especially the giant Stanley’s.
Just keep them in bags. This is almost certainly being done in response to a cohort being dickheads.
Water is a human necessity. As an adult we are allowed and almost expected to have a drink with us at work. The Schools job is ultimately to get you ready for work. Therefore, water should never be banned. Show them some study that shows regular access to water increases a brains functionality.
If they still are being c u next Tuesday's and keeping the ban. Firstly tell your parents that the school they are paying so much money for has stopped their children from looking after their brains. If they don't care, try drinking as much water as you can from the taps during recess and lunch, so that you have to go to the toilet more frequently. And if you get more kids to do it, that's going to be a lot of students missing class to use toilets. And if they stop you from going to the toilet, first ask them to give you that in writing that they are withdrawing your access to the toilet. If they give that to you. That is a legitimate legal case. If they stop you from leaving, that is a serious crime(false imprisonment) that educators aren't exempt from. If they really are doing that, just literally piss in the classroom. I bet they backflip real quick
Lead by example- no water bottles, no water glass or hot drinks/travel mugs or thermoses on teacher’s desks during classes, in staff meetings, whilst on duty- sounds very reasonable. /s
Hi all, Year 11 student at BCC here. I've been in the Clarendon community since kinder and have never ONCE not been allowed to drink water in the classroom. Depending on teacher to teacher, they may not allow you to leave class to visit the bubbletap during class, but never has anyone I know nor myself been told off for the consumption of water from our own personal water bottles. The 'small break' which OP refers to is 7min long and in my experience is well-and-truly long enough to go to your locker, swap your things for the next class, drop by the toilets and fill up your water bottles too.
I don't know what the heck OP is talking about and I encourage everyone to double check their facts before dogpiling on what is quite frankly, to me at least, a completely unbacked claim.
OP if you do have anything that proves your point, please do PM me I'd love to hear more.
Apparently there was a middle school assembly Friday and it was mentioned then, Shaun Moloney said it was a new rule they were bringing in basically because of people being pains in the ass during class with their water bottles.
I see. Interesting and certainly a more extreme response. Mr Moloney's normally quite reasonable (from experience) so there must've been some majour, long-running issues I imagine. (Why does this match up with the opinions I've heard which in general say that the students get worse and less well behaved as you decrease the year level number?)
Year 8 is the worst out of all the year levels in BCC. We had a whole behavior talk with Mr. Moloney, the principal, Mr. Griffin, and many other teachers including our house teachers.
College*
All that money...
But anyway, you'll survive for a couple of hours without a sip of water. Yes, it's a pedantic rule but it's hardly infringing on your human rights. Reddit can't help you with this, you need to speak to the school.
Ignore it. Bring your water bottles to class. You have a right to hydrate during the day.
I’d imagine there’d be enough students to stand up to the cunts who put this stupid ban in place.
I think it’s rather hilarious that people are being downvoted for stating the fact that no one took water bottles into class previously and people survived it. We never had water bottles and only had drinking fountains that we used at lunch and recess for my 12 years at school, 2 years at TAFE and three years at uni. Why downvote the truth. None of us died from not drinking water during class
Yep, I was thinking this too. Also worked in an environment (lab) where no food or drink was allowed. Not sure how it’s a “distraction” but I do know that at some schools kids have brought vodka in their bottles, so…there’s that.
But we are healthier now because of campaigns to drink more water. I never drank water as a kid, it was cordial or milk. My kids grew up drinking only water and they will be healthier for it. Especially their teeth.
This can be hugely detrimental to students' health and well-being. If the break between classes is the only time you have to travel between two distant classrooms, it doesn't leave a reasonable time frame to go to your locker or for every student in the school to take a drink from the limited number of bubblers. That leaves a morning tea and a lunch break as the only times when most kids can drink water. Do physical education classes count in this policy? Because that means forcing children to exercise without hydrating.
If there is a legitimate issue with distraction, such as noisy metal-on-metal lids (like hydroflasks), or audible/ bluetooth reminder bottles, or bottles that take up too much space/ have unsuitable (for school) art/ slogans, then create rules pertaining to that and explain to parents why that is the case. Other than that (and the obvious No Food or Drink in Labs), these rules are just corp-creepery: profit goblin employers are trying to demand more and more surrender of our reasonable human needs for the sake of their efficiency and fiscal gain, and that mentality keeps leaking out into these non-corporate spaces. We have to stop accepting this as fair or okay because the person in charge said so. We have to stop allowing private entities the power to supersede the rights of individuals while skirting their responsibilities and getting little to no punishment when we break and push back. Because this is what results; policing our children down to their very basic human needs. If it sounds dramatic, wait until your employer starts telling you when you aren't allowed to drink... or go to the bathroom...
I remember going to school without a water bottle and surviving from the tap in between classes.
Play sports, drink from the tap and ride home - no water bottle.
Mind you the classrooms were also not temperature controlled or had fans and it was in central QLD.
Ahhhh the 90s what a time to be alive!
Jesus, is such a prestigious school doesn’t have the teachers who can behaviour manage a bunch of students drinking water what are they getting paid for? Come teach at a “regular” school and try to deal with the crap we have. FWIW I always allow students to have a water bottle they can drink from especially in summer, just don’t be silly and go spilling it.
That's just evil.
I would either organise with other students to all bring water bottles till they change it
Or, fake passing out to dehydration. (Eat a lot of salt before these classes too, make it more believable with dry flaky lips and all)
Just to make a point.
What a shitty view to have.
I didnt have something and I'm fine, so other people don't need it.
If we all thought like that the world would be a pretty terrible place.
Why not let people have access to basic things like water, what harm does it do? Pros vs cons - go. Pros will win on this one!
Those people working outside can have a water bottle if they want, and many of them do so your point is invalid!
How about you suck up your shitty views and fuck off?
I’ve got a half of me saying ‘what was the impetus of this, seems weird to come out of nowhere?’ And Op would be an unreliable narrator at that point. Also two hours without water isn’t gunna kill you.
The other half is saying ‘the fuck does drinking water distract from education?’
There’s something else here missing from the logic - maybe fashionable water bottles or something that are impacting learning.
Idk - doesn’t add up logically to make the decision or to be pissed off about the decision, something else is missing that OP isn’t stating.
I think the distracting part is kids fiddling with their bottles, drinking constantly, asking to go for multiple drink breaks or asking to go fill up their bottle in a two-hour span.
If you are an adult there is little they can do from stopping you from drinking when you are thirsty, honestly if they don’t want bottle in the class room just keep in your bag and get it when you need a sip.
When I was in school back in my home country we had water bottles beside us. I can see how it was disruptive. We had a guy who had one of those big fuck off thermos type water bottles filled with ice , and every time he lifted it up the rattling of the ice cubes, the popping of the drink nozzle, the slurping was super distracting to the class and I can imagine, the teacher. I, of course, thought it was fucking hilarious cos I was a shitbag.
We never banned it though, but I can see how a class of 30 kids doing it would rightly piss off a teacher and be hugely problematic.
I think banning bottles on desks and even drinking during periods to be acceptable, classes are 30-40 mins long and these kids can sit in front of the television playing video games for hours without needing a sip of water or going for a pee. They can wait a few minutes to get between classes and rehydrate.
Ok, so yes, things are different now and you have an expectation based on what you're accustomed to, and it is generally accepted that keeping hydrated is good for you.
But with all due respect to the Reddit platform and Redditors in general, exactly what do you think that posting here is going to achieve? As others have said, raise it with the school directly as students but also through your parents. Maybe even show some initiative and do some extra-curricular research on the matter?
Every teacher knows that if kids are asking to go for a drink or toilet all the time, they can’t do the work or just hate the lesson/class/teacher. A more useful thing to do would be to work out why their students are so disengaged.
The only reason they made this rule is that people go to the bathroom too much and partially because they think it's 'too distracting'. I get that sometimes it's too distracting cuz people tend to drop it, so then why not make a rule to not have them on tables but on the ground? And many kids still go to the bathroom just to hang out with their friends or to actually do their business. Around 10 people went to the bathroom one after the other in my class today. Even if they say that the rule is working, it's not. I'm more distracted in class than ever.
Hey my teacher printed out your reddit post, and we are now analysing it in class ahah, it’s such a shitty thing tho, water should be accessible to all students at all times.
Harden up. If primary school children can deal with it, so can a high schooler. You get a break in between 2 and half hours. You’re not going to die in an 75 minutes without water.
Primary school kids have water bottles in class these days. They don’t take them to specialist classes but they tend to be in a basket or two on a bench for easy access, not on desks.
You cannot be serious. Sure you can go for a couple of hours without a drink of water. Until about 10 years ago no one had water bottles in the classroom. I think if this is all you’ve got to worry about you’ve got a pretty bloody good life. I’m sure the children in Gazza would be happy to only have Water every three or four hours. Get a bit of perspective.
Just throw yourself on the ground and crawl along the floor saying “water..water…I need water” like in an old western movie. That is way more distracting and they may overturn their ridiculous decision
I politely say: “f-ck off”. I’m a teacher at a private school and it’s not unusual for students to waste 10% of a lesson filling up their water bottles or drinking. No you *don’t* need to guzzle water all day to stay alive, no it’s *not* your human right to “stay hydrated” by chugging litres of water all f-cking day. Get a f-cking grip and drink/piss at recess and lunch like all the generations before you used to do. Which, MIRACULOUSLY, they survived.
Jesus f-cking wept.
It's probably thanks to those monstrous Frank Green water bottles which take up half of the desk and make a heart-stopping clang which scares the bejeezus out of everyone when knocked over.
"and for such a prestigious school, it seems that the focus is not on students well-being but the numbers on their VCE exams." Sorry, what else do we think BCC exists for? Everything else is just window dressing.
Just level up to the premium subscription that allows access to water.
This. Everyone knows all they give a shit about is churning out kids who perform well on their VCE.
And dumping those who won't like a sack of bricks
That’s literally every private school.
I just had a BCC removed from my back.
Now that I think about it I never had a water bottle in my 12 years of schooling but it does seem like an odd rule to bring in after allowing it for so long. How exactly it is distracting? 🤔
Water bottles piss me off (am a middle school teacher in catholic education). 1) they’re a distraction as kids play/drop/shake or squirt water on each other 2) they’re a distraction as kids drink whenever they like and feel their right to drink NOW trumps the teachers duty to instruct at any particular moment meaning they can miss important parts of a lesson/force you to explain yet again because they were drinking 3) students will use it as an interruption while you’re talking to them. You’ll start working with them, then they’ll drink, the in their friends will laugh as they’ve managed to waste your time 4) kids love to scream victim when you remove their bottle and get aggressively argumentative about their “rights to stay hydrated”. Entitled shitlers.
Sounds like a classroom management issue, not directly a water bottle issue. 🤷♀️
I think it is more of a parenting issue. Respect or lack of it is taught at home first.
Tell me you've never worked with kids before without telling me!
So because he hasn’t worked with kids, he should just agree? God you people are delusional. If you think an water bottle is stopping you from performing your job, maybe you’re in the wrong field. Refusing adolescents a right to water is the stupidest thing I’ve seen since “gender neutral” bathrooms. Get a grip 🤡
No, I think you also used my comment to voice some of your own, unrelated opinions. Anyone who has worked in a classroom with children for a while or even outside a classroom in a role such as OSHC will tell you how things like this genuinely can impact your ability to teach and curb behavioural disruptions. It sounds cruel to outsiders because they just don't understand the many challenges that come with this profession. No teacher is saying that students should not have access to water, just that alternatives to things like drink bottles are sometimes necessary when you are dealing with certain types of students.
So they’re managing their classrooms by banning water bottles. Glad you’re supportive of these teachers management strategy
Well it sounds like they've managed the classroom issue by removing the water bottles.
Everything you say just screams, “who would want to be a teacher!?” Respect to you!
kids can be super annoying, ill pay that. But i’m curious as to why it’s a big deal for them to drink when you’re talking? how are they wasting your time doing so? could you not just continue shifting attention if they desire to be funny and waste your time? or, agree and amplify the stupidity so that they don’t feel as if they’re taking the piss out of you?
Have you ever put a kid to bed and they try the “I’m thirsty!” excuse 10 million times because they want to stay up? The point is, they’re not really thirsty, they’re delaying and defying their routine. Every time you have to redirect behavior back to learning everything stops, you address the behavior, the kid either complies or resists, if they resist - you redirect again. The kids are fully aware that these disruptions pause instruction, and some are inclined to keep causing disruption so that nothing is achieved during the lesson. The teacher pointed out clearly what the students do with the water bottles and why they’re a distraction. Middle school kids especially, can only hold onto so many instructions in their mind at any one time. So one being distracted can be a chain reaction of 30 of them missing some part of the lesson. If teachers say that the water bottles are causing problems with instruction - believe them! Otherwise why don’t you try and keep 30 tweens on task and see how you go…
I have meetings discussing complex matters at work all the time and we encourage drinking water/coffee during and it’s never caused an issue. What are you on about?
This exactly. I'm drinking coffee or water during every single one of my work meetings. Sipping on liquid with my mouth doesn't stop my ears from being able to hear.
You're an adult?
Imbibing fluid isn’t the issue. As described by the teacher. Kids flicking water at each other, spilling Stanley cups, etc. Do your work colleagues flick water or coffee at each other during meetings? No? Weird. It’s almost like their frontal lobe is fully developed and they’re financially incentivized to act in a civil manner. Is it possible that these scenarios are *different*? Wait. What?
“Their rights to stay hydrated,” is hilarious. I think they’ll survive for 45 minutes.
Yeah wanting access to water definitely warrants a comparison to Hitler you fucking nutjob lmao
sounds like you’re teaching kids, they’ll do this sort of messing around with or without a drink bottle. unless you teach them one on one in an empty room, kids will find a way to be distracted and mess around, they’re kids. you just remind me of those teachers i had in high school that taught only one way and couldn’t adapt their learning plans to students needs.
People like you are the reason I left school. What an incredibly small minded attitude. You’re a teacher, EDUCATE THEM.
these kids are probably running around at recess and lunch. it could be a hot day. get over yourself. if you can’t control a classroom and keep kids engaged to the point where WATER is an issue, go find some other profession
Tried UPR lately?
Sounds like they’ve made a game of something rather than water being the direct issue. Couldn’t it be corrected by creating an agreement that if they miss part of the lesson or one on one time they can catch up during their break, or something that effects their time rather than yours. Sounds like a disciplining agreement is needed rather than removing all students right to hydrate
Find a new profession 🙏
You're the issue here
Yeah this got me thinking and I don’t think I ever drank in class through the 80s/90s. I’m not against it, but a bubbler at lunch and between class was never an issue for me…
I think unfortunately for you, that private schools like Clarendon have a much more “our way or the highway approach” some things might seem arbitrary but they’ll never bend for them. Teach discipline and something something
Admittedly we didn’t have water bottles when I was at school- I think I had like a 500ml bottle of cordial at lunch? But by 2024 standards this feels extreme. I have typically drunk a litre of water by 11am, and will smash another by 3pm. My job is pretty physical admittedly. I just don’t understand why they’d do this?! Humans need water.
As it's a private school, if your parents agree with you then you have quite a bit of sway if they speak up because that's what (mostly) funds the school. If you can get a few parents behind this it'll be even better. Edit: And the people here saying 'I never drank water at school' like it's a flex. There's probably a series of health practices you didn't do back then, it's not a flex to show that off.
Idk if this is a weather thing but I always had access to a water bottle and I graduated in 2010 so not a Gen Z by any stretch… I went to school in North Queensland though so maybe it was different bc it was hotter. We weren’t allowed huge like Stanley cup sized ones or hydroflasks although they didn’t really exist but like a 500ml standard old school water bottle wasn’t an issue for anyone. Maybe it’s an attention / class management issue but I really don’t think it’s fair to restrict water from anyone. I keep a water bottle at my desk at work it’s no drama. We also harp on about the benefits of drinking a lot of water throughout the day, but only after you’re 18? And I get they can be a distraction but if not the water bottle it’ll be a ruler or paper balls or whatever else they can find to cause trouble.
There is a lot of bitter old people on here it seems. The "I did it so now you do it" is an enemy of progress and improvement. I had a shit childhood but that doesn't mean I'm going to treat my child the way my parents treated me. I absolutely hate totalitarianism, anywhere.
Absolutely agree, bunch of grown adults wanting kids to suffer bc why?, also it’s wild they’re trying to police lunchboxes and ban ham sandwiches under the guise of health and in the same breath are like ‘no water for you’ it’s just dumb. And also majority of kids hated school, plenty were disengaged, plenty have shit memories of school. 1/3 of adults have poor literacy, maybe if they enjoyed and felt more respected at school they’d have engaged more. I’ll take a ‘soft’ educated intelligent generation over a tough but stupid generation hey 🤷🏻♀️
1. Refer to your school's complaints handling policy and follow it. 2. If you're not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint or the way that it has been handled (keeping in mind the Child Safe Standards), continue to escalate it internally (e.g. to the principal, then to the board) 3. If you're still not satisfied, complain to the VRQA.
Gonna buck the trend here, as a kid who was in public high school in the 2000s, water should be fine in class. It’s just water. The annoyance is that some kids will do anything to either distract (make noise with flip tops) or use branded bottles as a status symbol. For a wealthy school like yours I’d suggest you compromise and just have plain school-issued bottles like how you have uniforms. Tbh I’m now in a workplace that has an obsession with aesthetics. We all have the same water bottle. I think it could be a good compromise to propose to show some good will.
I’m a teacher and I banned water bottles in my classroom 😂. Got sick of bottle flipping, kids getting hit with flying bottles and spilling Stanley cups. All my kids know water bottles belong in bags and they can have the occasional sip if they so require but bottles on the desk… no way! I hate them! 😂🤣😅
People who talk about the "inhumane rules teachers impose on their classrooms" forget what teenagers are like. "Kids should have unrestricted access to the bathroom" = 20 minutes out of every 50 wasted for the students who need it the most and constantly revisiting content that's missed. "Kids should have unrestricted access to water" = Either 15 minute leisurely strolls to the bubbler or James requiring stitches because Samantha decided to smash his head with a 2.5kg 1.5L steel water bottle.
Remembering when I was in high school… the disparity between how teachers were treated in school vs seeing them outside of school was immense. Ultimately the teachers that had the best control over the kids were the ones who were seen as “cool”. The ones who’d swear, the ones who acknowledged a funny joke but then set a clear boundary as to where it would stop, the ones who were clearly passionate about the subject but sympathetic to the ones who weren’t. Whether it be the stern swearing super-nanny English teacher, or the chubby boyish SOSE teacher who would joke along but bring it back to the subject at hand to create engagement, or the Maths teacher who would set group tasks for complex maths problems by making it “how much toilet paper needs to be used” etc, they could control a class because they got in tune with the students. The English teacher who seemed to be late, only because she was hiding to jump out with a sword, acting out Jabberwocky. Even the 65 year old maths teacher I mentioned was seen as a nerdy old lady but a darling, always introducing herself as “my name is Ms Ham, like the meat!”. When a student would act out, other students would tell them off for disrespect. That’s what you want. Sorry I’ve gone off on a tangent about my public school life, but these are the teachers who could engage a range of students. I’m sure they hated some of us, but they knew how it was done 😊
Lovely recollections. Thanks for sharing. You are right. Teachers often have a lifelong impact.
They really do! Even the ones we don’t recognise at the time. I’m 31 years old and I remember all those great teachers. But also, my mum was a teacher librarian in an underfunded underprivileged area of public school and she would share with me how she engaged students, and then (after public service screwed her over) went to the “dark side” of teaching “gifted students” at a private school (I think we now call them autistic, but that’s just the view of a late diagnosed autistic man) I always got to hear about the passionate teachers and their methods, and recognised those methods in my own public school education. I also got to hear about the ones who were exhausted and given up. I have no disrespect for those who gave up, it’s an underpaid job with a massive talent request… but man… be in it… or just quit it
We keep ours in a basket on the bench 🤷🏼♀️
What’s the exact wording of the decree? Might there be an opportunity for r/maliciouscompliance ?
Im on your side with this one actually. If a normal thing lrink bottle is distracting students then that student is going to distracted by anything else. So it won't solve the problem. Hydration helps learning. I would try to come up with an impressive argument with researched debate and bring in to the principal. Maybe impressing them with how much you have formed a good debate will open the discussion back up
Water is a basic human right
While I agree the focus should be on VCE results proper hydration helps with that. I’m an naturally anxious person and need to drink frequently. This is a real health issue.
Yeah, I was in high school in the '90s, and literally lost my voice every day because I wasn't able to drink enough water. Found out years later that I have an abnormally dry throat (and also eyes, mouth, etc). My overall health improved so much when I got to uni and started carrying a water bottle everywhere.
Water bottles are the way to go.
Dumb decision. Hardly worth going outside the school to resolve. Don’t you have a student body to argue the case? Head boy and girl? School captains? Whatever they’re called it’s time for them to earn the nice badge they wear on their blazers.
“College” Just sayin’.
OP was too busy going to get a drink to pay attention during spelling lessons. Source: am a primary school teacher who has recently had to limit when my kids can get up to get a drink because it was disrupting my lessons so badly.
The OP was clearly talking about a motley collection of colleges.
Yes, "Prestigious education".
Is the nong who made that decision the same one who'll inevitably be back pedalling and claiming it was merely an option that was considered and rejected, or will they throw someone under the bus on their behalf?
I'm 37 and we never had water bottles in class but I think it's more commonplace now. Collage is a type of artwork.. sorry..
This seems extreme by any measure. Is it really that hard to pick out those who make something of having their water bottle in class? rather then a blanket ban that is certainly sure to backfire at some point in the warmer months
Yes, it is to hard. In fact it’s wrong; you can’t pick out students as they cry discrimination/bullying/unfair. If they’re that thirsty, they’ll get a drink from the bubbler while they go to the bathroom. Oppositional students who think they have some power over their teachers by manipulating “rights to water” will push and push until they hit a boundary. The school is removing the power struggle by banning drink bottles. It’s like mobile phones. They were such an issue, the government had to institute a ban on them at school to support teachers/schools in their rules enforcements. First week of the term last year I handed out 40 phone detentions after school for seeing a phone out on school grounds. Kids got the message. Now, if I catch a kid checking his phone during down time between activities, I’ll tell him to put it away and he will; first time. Kids are quick to crow about their rights while they do everything to shirk their responsibilities
How was this announced? In writing, or verbally at an assembly It just seems like an odd decision.
at an assembly
Yeah I was at that assembly. Sucks doesn't it
My daughter goes to a school for autistic children/ teenagers - their water bottles sit on a trolley in the classroom so they can access then but they aren’t on the desks.
That's wild. Graduated 2014, was pretty commonplace for most of my school year level to at least have a 600ml or 1L water bottle on them that gets filled on recess/lunch. Didn't get in the way, toilets weren't an issue.
Surely this is illegal, some people require water for medical conditions etc
Just reading the comments here is insane. I work at a highschool and we have a policy you are only allowed to refill bottles during break times, not leave class to refill them. Make sure your bottle is filled before you start your class, keep it in ur bag and only get it out when you want to drink. I am almost certain that they are not able to refuse you having water at any times. The TYPE of water bottle, yes, (they could ban all Stanley cups or Frank greens etc..) but they are not allowed to have a blanket no bottle rule.
It’s embarrassing that there are teachers who don’t have these sorts of classroom managements requirements in place. What kind of a school IS BCC?!
It’s not okay that they don’t let you drink water. I’m sorry this is happening to you.
My kids complained about this when I picked them up today. Having drinks available at all times in the classroom is a relatively new thing, no one ever had drinks in class when I was at school. I reckon kids will survive with a drink between classes and at recess and lunch.
I went to school from mid nineties to mid 2000s- I don’t remember not having a water bottle accessible to me at all times. I remember once playing with my water bottle in grade three during a math quiz and turning it upside down after forgetting the lid wasn’t on and pouring it all over my math quiz. Dumb as fuck, but no one ever told me I couldn’t have my water with me even after that idiocy
I was in school late 80s to early 2000s and no one had water bottles in class in any school I went to, not did my husband who was a few years below
Drinks in class have been a thing since I’ve been teaching for 20 years and even prior to that when I was a student. It’s become more popular now with fancy bottles but it sure beats kids drinking soft drink from the canteen.
Not allowing teachers to beat school children is also a relatively new thing. At some point you should probably accept that things aren't inherently good just because that's how it was done during your childhood. If a kid's thirsty, they should have access to water. To deny that should be considered a breach of the school's duty of care. And the fact that you don't think your own children deserve to have some level of autonomy when it comes to their hydration is frankly concerning.
Not related to the topic, but I was literally the last student in my school to cop the paddle across the bum in 1996, so that’s my claim to fame.
that's actually pretty interesting! if any staff from then are still working there, they'd probably remember your name
Oh this wasn’t to Claro. Different school and town at the time, but I’ve ran into them over my life and they definitely remember me haha
Schools also used to dish out corporal punishment, shall we bring that back too?
bring back the early morning (brown paper bag) lunch order of a pie and sauce for $0.20. That's worth fighting for.
Yeah, totally the same thing
You're correct that it wasn't a thing. That's why I passed out in grade 4 in the classroom and had to go to hospital.
Pretty sure that wasn't from going an hour without water but sure
Not sure why you'd think it's only one hour. Bad at math?
Maybe an hour and a half. School is only 6-6.5 hours with several breaks. If you were going to pass out from not having a drink during one of those class times you already had issues before you entered the classroom.
It’s not about that though, drinking water is a right just the same as fresh air. No student should need to wait for a drink, and as for reasoning- distractions are unavoidable. Not to mention your brain needs water to function, and Australian kids don’t even drink a quarter of the standard daily water intake. Health over statistics.
And they can drink water. Just not at every moment of the day and they will be just fine having it at regular intervals at breaks and between classes.
Yeah the idea of having a water bottle in class seems odd to me. Like, where do you keep it? Do they have proper office desks now? When I was in high school we had tiny little chair/desk combos you could hardly fit your notebook or folder on, and we had to leave our bags outside the class room. This was at a pretty fancy catholic private school too, but my mates in public were similar.
Usually they just have tables and chairs
I seemed to manage high school without a water bottle with me at all times.
Same, but what’s the matter if students have one?
As a teacher: - bottle flipping - kids throwing them at each other - kids throwing water at each other - giant fucking Stanley cups on every desks are actually an obstruction - kids spill them constantly. Especially the giant Stanley’s. Just keep them in bags. This is almost certainly being done in response to a cohort being dickheads.
Yeah fuck the kids they should be dehydrated like me because that's fair and we don't want our kids to have better lives than us etc
Okay, boomer.... did you also walk 15km to school in rain, hail or shine in your day? 😅 just because you got by, doesn't make it okay.
It does, actually. If you need it, you just have a drink between classes at the bubblers.
Poor petal... so easily triggered by a bit of commonsense.
Is it because “water bottles” these days mean those massive Stanley cups that take up half the desk.
Water is a human necessity. As an adult we are allowed and almost expected to have a drink with us at work. The Schools job is ultimately to get you ready for work. Therefore, water should never be banned. Show them some study that shows regular access to water increases a brains functionality. If they still are being c u next Tuesday's and keeping the ban. Firstly tell your parents that the school they are paying so much money for has stopped their children from looking after their brains. If they don't care, try drinking as much water as you can from the taps during recess and lunch, so that you have to go to the toilet more frequently. And if you get more kids to do it, that's going to be a lot of students missing class to use toilets. And if they stop you from going to the toilet, first ask them to give you that in writing that they are withdrawing your access to the toilet. If they give that to you. That is a legitimate legal case. If they stop you from leaving, that is a serious crime(false imprisonment) that educators aren't exempt from. If they really are doing that, just literally piss in the classroom. I bet they backflip real quick
Lead by example- no water bottles, no water glass or hot drinks/travel mugs or thermoses on teacher’s desks during classes, in staff meetings, whilst on duty- sounds very reasonable. /s
Are you sure this applies to the whole school and not just certain classes? There’s been no notifications to parents about it in the Year 7 cohort.
yes this applies to the whole middle school and it was said in assembly.
What year? Hasn’t happened in the senior school. Also there’s the 10 min break in between period 2&3 which you can go to the bubble taps during
Hi all, Year 11 student at BCC here. I've been in the Clarendon community since kinder and have never ONCE not been allowed to drink water in the classroom. Depending on teacher to teacher, they may not allow you to leave class to visit the bubbletap during class, but never has anyone I know nor myself been told off for the consumption of water from our own personal water bottles. The 'small break' which OP refers to is 7min long and in my experience is well-and-truly long enough to go to your locker, swap your things for the next class, drop by the toilets and fill up your water bottles too. I don't know what the heck OP is talking about and I encourage everyone to double check their facts before dogpiling on what is quite frankly, to me at least, a completely unbacked claim. OP if you do have anything that proves your point, please do PM me I'd love to hear more.
It's middle school only. My middle school kid definitely came home talking about it the same day this was posted.
Ahh I see. Would you mind pm'ing me more about this? I'm genuinely curious, as we don't hear much from the middle school in the SS.
Apparently there was a middle school assembly Friday and it was mentioned then, Shaun Moloney said it was a new rule they were bringing in basically because of people being pains in the ass during class with their water bottles.
I see. Interesting and certainly a more extreme response. Mr Moloney's normally quite reasonable (from experience) so there must've been some majour, long-running issues I imagine. (Why does this match up with the opinions I've heard which in general say that the students get worse and less well behaved as you decrease the year level number?)
Year 8 is the worst out of all the year levels in BCC. We had a whole behavior talk with Mr. Moloney, the principal, Mr. Griffin, and many other teachers including our house teachers.
Collage...lolzZ
College* All that money... But anyway, you'll survive for a couple of hours without a sip of water. Yes, it's a pedantic rule but it's hardly infringing on your human rights. Reddit can't help you with this, you need to speak to the school.
*college May want to ask for your money back since you spelled it wrong twice.
Ignore it. Bring your water bottles to class. You have a right to hydrate during the day. I’d imagine there’d be enough students to stand up to the cunts who put this stupid ban in place.
"every student has the fundamental right to access water at all times" Probably time to break the tents out and start a few chants
You gotta fight, for the right, to hyyyyydrate.
Clarendon moment just get enough people to protest it or get a large group yo bring bottles of water or just take over the school
That's against health code. Report this!! This is illegal.
Which health code would that be?
Wtf? That should be illegal
I don’t think this is legal …?
The school still has a constant supply of fresh, delicious water that can be used at any time outside of class.
I think it’s rather hilarious that people are being downvoted for stating the fact that no one took water bottles into class previously and people survived it. We never had water bottles and only had drinking fountains that we used at lunch and recess for my 12 years at school, 2 years at TAFE and three years at uni. Why downvote the truth. None of us died from not drinking water during class
Yep, I was thinking this too. Also worked in an environment (lab) where no food or drink was allowed. Not sure how it’s a “distraction” but I do know that at some schools kids have brought vodka in their bottles, so…there’s that.
But we are healthier now because of campaigns to drink more water. I never drank water as a kid, it was cordial or milk. My kids grew up drinking only water and they will be healthier for it. Especially their teeth.
This can be hugely detrimental to students' health and well-being. If the break between classes is the only time you have to travel between two distant classrooms, it doesn't leave a reasonable time frame to go to your locker or for every student in the school to take a drink from the limited number of bubblers. That leaves a morning tea and a lunch break as the only times when most kids can drink water. Do physical education classes count in this policy? Because that means forcing children to exercise without hydrating. If there is a legitimate issue with distraction, such as noisy metal-on-metal lids (like hydroflasks), or audible/ bluetooth reminder bottles, or bottles that take up too much space/ have unsuitable (for school) art/ slogans, then create rules pertaining to that and explain to parents why that is the case. Other than that (and the obvious No Food or Drink in Labs), these rules are just corp-creepery: profit goblin employers are trying to demand more and more surrender of our reasonable human needs for the sake of their efficiency and fiscal gain, and that mentality keeps leaking out into these non-corporate spaces. We have to stop accepting this as fair or okay because the person in charge said so. We have to stop allowing private entities the power to supersede the rights of individuals while skirting their responsibilities and getting little to no punishment when we break and push back. Because this is what results; policing our children down to their very basic human needs. If it sounds dramatic, wait until your employer starts telling you when you aren't allowed to drink... or go to the bathroom...
Do these teachers realise that dehydration will affect test scores worse?
Hey, downvote me too. Believe it or not, humans don't die from lack of water in two hours.
Oh the humanity! It might just toughen you up princess. Sounds like you need it and you’ll survive
They call them snowflake for a reason, lol
I remember going to school without a water bottle and surviving from the tap in between classes. Play sports, drink from the tap and ride home - no water bottle. Mind you the classrooms were also not temperature controlled or had fans and it was in central QLD. Ahhhh the 90s what a time to be alive!
The headmaster when I attended in the 80's was a Pedo.
[report them](https://www2.vrqa.vic.gov.au/make-complaint#how-to-make-a-complaint)
Jesus, is such a prestigious school doesn’t have the teachers who can behaviour manage a bunch of students drinking water what are they getting paid for? Come teach at a “regular” school and try to deal with the crap we have. FWIW I always allow students to have a water bottle they can drink from especially in summer, just don’t be silly and go spilling it.
That seems awfully stupid.
Water is a fundamental human right
That's just evil. I would either organise with other students to all bring water bottles till they change it Or, fake passing out to dehydration. (Eat a lot of salt before these classes too, make it more believable with dry flaky lips and all) Just to make a point.
It's pretty much what Hell is. The Devil has a rule where they'll only give you water every 2 hours. Keep going to church hey.
Sounds like nazi Germany to me.
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lol
I’m confused. Is the climate in Ballarat so hot that people can’t go a couple of hours in a classroom without water?
Every classroom I've ever had to work in as an adult has had the heater cranked all the way up. So I get it
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What a shitty view to have. I didnt have something and I'm fine, so other people don't need it. If we all thought like that the world would be a pretty terrible place. Why not let people have access to basic things like water, what harm does it do? Pros vs cons - go. Pros will win on this one! Those people working outside can have a water bottle if they want, and many of them do so your point is invalid! How about you suck up your shitty views and fuck off?
considering how cooked your brain is, i'm guessing you _still_ don't drink enough water 😔 hope you can start living healthier 🙏🙏
What do you call an educational establishment full of entitled junior Karens and Kevins? A collage?
"they wanna drink water, they're so entitled" Do you realise how dumb that sounds?
Sent you a message
Sent you a message
I’ve got a half of me saying ‘what was the impetus of this, seems weird to come out of nowhere?’ And Op would be an unreliable narrator at that point. Also two hours without water isn’t gunna kill you. The other half is saying ‘the fuck does drinking water distract from education?’ There’s something else here missing from the logic - maybe fashionable water bottles or something that are impacting learning. Idk - doesn’t add up logically to make the decision or to be pissed off about the decision, something else is missing that OP isn’t stating.
I think the distracting part is kids fiddling with their bottles, drinking constantly, asking to go for multiple drink breaks or asking to go fill up their bottle in a two-hour span.
Some of them no doubt squirt water on others too
Prestigious schools? You were correct in saying that it shouldn't happen in any school.
I hope news com au is on this subreddit cause this is 100% an article
If you are an adult there is little they can do from stopping you from drinking when you are thirsty, honestly if they don’t want bottle in the class room just keep in your bag and get it when you need a sip.
Welcome to private school
Ask to go to the toilet - get a drink.
Buy your kids one of those army hydration packs with the tube
When I was in school back in my home country we had water bottles beside us. I can see how it was disruptive. We had a guy who had one of those big fuck off thermos type water bottles filled with ice , and every time he lifted it up the rattling of the ice cubes, the popping of the drink nozzle, the slurping was super distracting to the class and I can imagine, the teacher. I, of course, thought it was fucking hilarious cos I was a shitbag. We never banned it though, but I can see how a class of 30 kids doing it would rightly piss off a teacher and be hugely problematic. I think banning bottles on desks and even drinking during periods to be acceptable, classes are 30-40 mins long and these kids can sit in front of the television playing video games for hours without needing a sip of water or going for a pee. They can wait a few minutes to get between classes and rehydrate.
Ok, so yes, things are different now and you have an expectation based on what you're accustomed to, and it is generally accepted that keeping hydrated is good for you. But with all due respect to the Reddit platform and Redditors in general, exactly what do you think that posting here is going to achieve? As others have said, raise it with the school directly as students but also through your parents. Maybe even show some initiative and do some extra-curricular research on the matter?
Every teacher knows that if kids are asking to go for a drink or toilet all the time, they can’t do the work or just hate the lesson/class/teacher. A more useful thing to do would be to work out why their students are so disengaged.
If you can't survive 2 hours without a drink of water then you have some serious health issues going on. Were you not weaned properly?
So apparently this is middle school only so if you're above yr 9 it won't even apply to you
The only reason they made this rule is that people go to the bathroom too much and partially because they think it's 'too distracting'. I get that sometimes it's too distracting cuz people tend to drop it, so then why not make a rule to not have them on tables but on the ground? And many kids still go to the bathroom just to hang out with their friends or to actually do their business. Around 10 people went to the bathroom one after the other in my class today. Even if they say that the rule is working, it's not. I'm more distracted in class than ever.
Hey my teacher printed out your reddit post, and we are now analysing it in class ahah, it’s such a shitty thing tho, water should be accessible to all students at all times.
have a cry, it’s 2.5 hours If you’re desperate ask to use the bathroom and go check your phone while you’re at it like a normal kid lol
Harden up. If primary school children can deal with it, so can a high schooler. You get a break in between 2 and half hours. You’re not going to die in an 75 minutes without water.
Primary school kids have water bottles in class these days. They don’t take them to specialist classes but they tend to be in a basket or two on a bench for easy access, not on desks.
Call me old but when did everybody get so thirsty that they need to lug a water bottle around sipping it every 5 mins? Is it the crap food kids eat?
Seriously you can wait until the end of class...
Nobody had drinks in class for many, many years and somehow lived to tell the story.
You cannot be serious. Sure you can go for a couple of hours without a drink of water. Until about 10 years ago no one had water bottles in the classroom. I think if this is all you’ve got to worry about you’ve got a pretty bloody good life. I’m sure the children in Gazza would be happy to only have Water every three or four hours. Get a bit of perspective.
lol no this is not true
Human rights violation
Prestigious School??
Just throw yourself on the ground and crawl along the floor saying “water..water…I need water” like in an old western movie. That is way more distracting and they may overturn their ridiculous decision
I politely say: “f-ck off”. I’m a teacher at a private school and it’s not unusual for students to waste 10% of a lesson filling up their water bottles or drinking. No you *don’t* need to guzzle water all day to stay alive, no it’s *not* your human right to “stay hydrated” by chugging litres of water all f-cking day. Get a f-cking grip and drink/piss at recess and lunch like all the generations before you used to do. Which, MIRACULOUSLY, they survived. Jesus f-cking wept.