I can’t take away the eraser or give it to him only when he asks, because I have more students.
He’s impulsive but nice. His parents know he does stuff like that.
Any ideas?
Don’t all children do that?
I used to shew on everything, my friend used to literally destroy pens by shewing them too much. I think it’s normal.
Could be just a bad habit as you say. Boredom. Might be worth checking to see of some kids have any other issues that might put them on an au/dhd spectrum. One of ours habitually destroyed pencils and erasers no matter what we did. Found out later It was anxiety and stress from undiagnosed neurospicyness.
Yeah… Parents noticed something wrong too and he’s being checked.
I have things for students of all ages that for whatever reason need to destroy stuff, and they know I’ll give them the item they prefer no questions asked (but I’m always there to listen to them). Before I figured out why those students were behaving the way they were, lessons were miserable.
One day I offered a girl a tray of used paper sheets to shred instead of the textbook and it changed my life lmaoo
This kid is not destructive, so my usual tactics don’t work. The bitter spray did, tho.
Why do you want that? Is there some inobvious harm in chewing erasers? Or money is the main problem? Let him chew his own erasers then.
He’s not chewing them. He’s putting them in his mouth whole. I don’t think he’ll choke, but other people want to use the eraser too. Yes I paid for them myself, as someone else guessed in the other answers.
I paid for them myself
Understood. This was the inobvious nuance to me. In my culture we expect pupils to have their own writing tools, paper, etc.
Other kids have to use them.
Communal erasers? Are they extremely expensive in some countries?
If this is in the U.S., teachers typically have to buy their own supplies on meager salaries. Watching one kid literally eat those supplies must be pretty demoralizing.
Something similar to the spray they use on animals after a surgery? It’s safe for consumption but it tastes god-awful to stop the animal licking the wound.
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I’ll find something else too, then. I don’t want to harm him
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Hi! So I suggested nail chewing deterrent to the boss, checked that the kids have no allergies, bought the deterrent in a pharmacy and coated all the pencils and part of one eraser (they stop working with the polish).
All it took was one lick (and OMG their faces), they didn’t put the pencils/eraser near their mouth again. I hope they remember the lesson next week lol. I coated all pencils so the kid I wrote the post about wouldn’t get targeted.
I watched the kid that has me particularly worried and he didn’t show interest in putting anything else in his mouth, nor did he have a change in attitude. Now that he isn’t licking stuff, he is somewhat more focused in class?? I have to keep watching.
I’ll update you!!
Yeah, this is exactly what I was thinking, too. You redirect the behavior somewhere safe while still fulfilling the essential need.
Give him gum to chew instead?
Kick in the nuts will do.
Do like my ol’ dad did make him smoke a whole pack. It’ll put him off forever.
“you can put that eraser in your mouth as much as you want, but first you have to eat this pallet of erasers from the supply storage”
Make him write in pen?
Well, there is stuff you paint on kids nails to prevent them from biting them, which basically tastes bitter. Maybe apply this to the eraser?
Maybe get connected to this guy
Don’t bother trying. It isn’t going to hurt the kid.
It can easily be a chocking hazard, it’s unsanitary, and it can cause the child to be ostracized by peers which can limit their social development.
Is eating erasers going to get you more ostracized than constant nagging from the teacher to not eat erasers?
Personally still going to put the blame there on eraser eater, but the whole point of this post was to find something that actually works to curb the behavior
It doesn’t sound like they’re necessarily his erasers though
They are not
Long shot but it could be a sign of iron deficiency. Eating, smelling and licking odd things like paper, erasers, I’ve heard of these associations. I even read about a woman who would spend her lunch hour smelling the concrete in the stairwell. Turned out to be iron deficiency.
Chewing ice as well, supposedly it is motivated by iron deficiency.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_(disorder)?wprov=sfla1
Maybe a vitamin b or magnesium deficiency?
Did the parents take Tylenol? Equip him with erasers.
If the parents don’t support you, and you can eliminate the existence of mental issues that require treatment or special attention for chewie, and you can’t use a spray solution, I would go for gentle peer pressure. Point it out in class, do a friendly dressing down how none of the other students want to use the chewed on eraser. If he won’t stop if you say so, maybe you can get other kids to do the trick. The unwanted public attention from his peers might be enough. Would your principal be up for a bad cop routine where you can be the good cop?
Peer pressure would be a disaster. Kids are vicious creatures when they have the chance, and I know that several of his classmates are certified brats with a taste for blood.
In summary: you have the cooperation of the parents, you cannot exclude the existence of a mental issues, and you are allowed to spray the item then. These are conditions I put ahead of any other suggestion.
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I want to highlight again that this suggestion was preceded by a lengthy checklist.
I think you and I have a different idea of what bullying is. I remember kids picking their nose in class and eating it in elementary school. I don’t think it took an intervention from the teacher to get that to stop. Just some kids going “ewww, that’s disgusting” got the message across. This is how society corrects behavior. I wasn’t suggesting a teacher goes before class, does a Nelson Ha-Ha, “look at that loser, go beat him later and take his lunch money.” Just something like “Kevin, the other kids need to use this eraser as well and they don’t like it full of spit. Please don’t chew on it. Thanks.” It signals to the kids this is not okay and I don’t think they will go full Lord of the Flies on him - keeping in mind the preconditions I had outlined above.
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It’s an enumeration of if-phrases. “If the parents don’t support the teacher” is just the first condition of many. And some things you may have to infer, like if the teacher had to talk to the parents and got cold shouldered, I think you can presume the teacher has already talked to the student too. I’m not gonna go as far as saying my post was immaculately written and presented. I would go as far as saying the options presented were at the bottom of the list. No support from the parents, maybe not even school leadership, cannot use bitter taste spray for insurance reasons, etc.
If a teacher telling a kid to get their feet off the table, to stop shooting spit wads at the row in front of them, to stop rocking back their chair because they might tip over and fall - if all these situations are okay for a teacher to say out loud in front of the class: “Kevin, stop it!” - and I think they are - then telling the kid not to chew on communally shared erasers is no different. Claiming this will immediately lead to bullying or just the threat that it might do is to an extent quixotic to me. If teachers will not assert their authority ever for fear of what the chaos kids will do, they might as well pack it in then.
Your office comparisons are insignificant here. Elementary school is a different sport entirely. There is a difference between coworkers sharing an office hierarchy and the power, responsibility, and maturity differential students/teacher, never mind the fact that offices shouldn’t employ 9yos.
OP has weighed in against the suggestion anyway. I’ll defer to them because they know more about this case than you or I.
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My word choices have given you the impression of a scheming Machiavellian teacher who reenacts the Spanish Inquisition on the boy until his classmates pelt him to death with rotten eggs. That’s on me, it’s not what I meant. I think I’ve added enough clarification in this thread at this point. So I won’t go into it again.
The opinion of one teacher, one that due to the question they asked initially and the forum they asked it in, and a few down votes are, I feel, not enough to call my argument dumb. Never mind the more personal attack that followed. Tackle the ball, not the player. If you want me to change my mind, that is.
There is a whole field of study for this, pedagogy. I am sure the first chapter of the book isn’t “kids are ruthless. The end.” I remain unconvinced that my approach, where my suggestion was preconditioned on many things to have happened first, is the worst one until I hear something that isn’t that or teetering on the edge of name calling.
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Point it out in class, do a friendly dressing down how none of the other students want to use the chewed on eraser.
Seems like a great way to get your own private eraser!
They sell stuff called Chewelry; it’s a necklace or wristband you can chomp on.
Maybe get the kid one of those? If not, maybe make one out of a piece of string and eraser?
This one’s for chewin’, this one’s for undoin’.
This is something the parents should do - along being in the driver’s seat of correcting this behavior in their 9yo. In times of teachers crowd funding classroom supplies, I don’t think it’s fair to suggest “throw money at it” to a teacher. It’s not going to cost $5 just once and that’s it. If you have to beg for boardmarkers in general, this will be a line item that matters.
Talked to the parents because this kid is known for doing weird/illogical stuff. They say that they know that something is not right and that they are trying to figure out what it is.
So till we know if the student has an issue or of he’s simply the Herald of Chaos, I will keep coating the pencils with bitter stuff.
Also, yes I have to beg for board markers and all the materials in my class have been paid by me, and I’d like them to last.
If they are the school’s I would simply not give them to that student anymore, for very obvious reasons that every 9yo should understand. Let him use his own.
Is the act itself disturbing the class or his own ability to concentrate? If not, I do not see any further problem.
Haven’t we all chewed on pencils to concentrate?
Well, yes, it interrupts the class because every few minutes I have to stop him. The other lemmings have given me some great ideas
