A teacher has been awarded £150,000 after she lost her voice trying to make herself heard in the classroom.Bad news, indeed. Bad for her, and bad for the local ratepayers who are now forced to compensate her.
Joyce Walters damaged her vocal cords straining to raise her volume above the clamour coming from a nearby playground.
But this gets my ‘WTF?’ of the month:
Joanne Jefferies, a specialist in workplace injuries at law firm Irwin Mitchell who represented Mrs Walters, added: ‘Despite attempts to raise her concerns with her employer, she was ignored and it has resulted in this terrible, life-altering injury.’Excuse me?
Life-altering in what way?
‘I have to think twice about day-to-day things, like speaking on the phone.’Now, not to belittle or diminish the injury she has suffered, but I’d reserve that description for people blinded or paralysed, missing limbs or suffering hugely disfiguring injuries.
Not those unable to raise their voice….
6 comments:
I'm lost for words.
Where do l pick up my cheque?
I teach. I often have to raise my voice. Then I go quiet which is the signal I am really pissed off with the class. They usually go quiet in response.
There is a point where shouting just doesn't work. A well aimed silence can be ominous.
Still, this story is not about teaching methods, but how the successful techniques of well-paid lawyers can screw money out of the public purse.
In all talk of compensation there is never a mention of fees and expenses. Include those and the picture changes.
brick, smash, wall, face.
she was using her voice improperly. That is the only way she could have damaged it. Think about actors who 'shout' for hours at a time/weeks/months at a time.
It could have been avoided with a couple of hours of voice training...
"I'm lost for words.
Where do l pick up my cheque?"
:D
"...this story is not about teaching methods, but how the successful techniques of well-paid lawyers can screw money out of the public purse. "
Indeed. But then, if they didn't fail to take appropriate steps to resolve the matter, then roll over at the first lawsuit, those lawyers would find rather slim pickings, wouldn't they?
But it's only taxpayers money, so why worry?
"It could have been avoided with a couple of hours of voice training..."
Quite. So whoever was responsible for resolving this should find themselves personally liable.
Back in my day a particular teacher demanded silence by banging a cane on his desk. Anyone not obeying the unspoken rule to shut the hell up RIGHT NOW got a closer view of the cane.
Result - instant silence and no knackered vocal chords. For some strange reason he was the most respected and popular teacher in the school. He was also the one who got the most kids through their 11 plus beacause he was a teacher and not a f*cking social engineer. These days he'd be up before the beak for frightening the crap out of his precious students.
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