[kakuehl]

Dear xxsurroundedbyxy,

It seems to me there are a couple issues here. As I understand the story, part (a big part) of the problem was the teacher's attitude. It was a bit of "the best defense is a good offense," except that she came across as very defensive. Not "this is my plan for discipline" but... "This is how it is, and don't think you're going to complain about what I do." It set up an adversarial relationship with the parents rather than an expectation that "we're on the same team."

The second objection that I heard in the original post was the appropriateness of the length of the punishment for the age of the children.

I taught for many years, beginning 35 years ago. In that time many things have changed including how one can discipline. That is both good and bad. The problem that I frequently ran into was that if parents' questioned anything, they went immediately to the superintendent of the schools to complain and rarely checked with the teacher first to hear his/her side of the story. Superintendents don't like being blindsided. I, personally, am very tired of the education wars! Maybe my problem is, that when I started to teach, the schools were still in locum parentis and teachers were expected to have some expertise. (OK. I'll stop now... this is becoming a rant, lol!)