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*NOTE* The original post detailing this issue was pulled from the blog it was published on due to concerns regarding privacy (attention from a national news agency). I have permission from the blogger who posted it to re-post (and gently edit) it here.
My re-posting has been reviewed and approved by said blogger (whose husband *is* the teacher). Due to the unusual circumstances, I will not be linking to that blogger.
~*~
*NOTE* The original post detailing this issue was pulled from the blog it was published on due to concerns regarding privacy (attention from a national news agency). I have permission from the blogger who posted it to re-post (and gently edit) it here.
My re-posting has been reviewed and approved by said blogger (whose husband *is* the teacher). Due to the unusual circumstances, I will not be linking to that blogger.
~*~
Dictionary.com defines corporal punishment as:
Monday, a teacher in a K-8 public school was called into the district's Legal Department for assigning a punishment to his students that is categorized as corporal punishment.
Have your attention?
Wonder what he did?
Have visions of spanking?
Paddling?
Canings?
Nope! He made them sing, or recite a poem, to regain text books, musical instruments, notebooks, backpacks or other items that belonged in their locker, but were left behind in his classroom.
The non-PE teacher equivalent of running laps. Which, by the way, is also defined as corporal punishment.
This teacher has a huge classroom, a portion of it houses lockers for the middle school students. All 100 middle school students tromp in and out of his room between classes to access their lockers.
According to the teacher, there are days when you cannot even walk into his classroom because there are book bags, lunches, coats, sweatshirts, etc. all over the floor. You know how a teenager keeps their bedroom? Yeah ... that's what they were doing to his classroom.
Enter in creative discipline. The rule is simple. If you don't put your stuff in your locker, the teacher assumes it is lost and puts it in the lost and found pile. If it is a text book, binder, notebook or instrument, he puts it in his pile - and you have to earn it back.
The teacher used to assign essays, but switched it up to memorizing and reciting a poem or singing a song. Last year, his kids thought it was funny and named the teacher's pile "The Glee" pile.
Everyone has had stuff in the pile. If a kid was too overwhelmed by the idea of singing, the teacher would work out an alternative.
The teacher did have other options. He could have given detention, resulting in his loss of all of his before and after school planning, and lunch period, to supervise the detention. Instead, he decided his creative punishment was a better fit for the crime.
It was not a big deal. It got the student's attention and deterred them from doing it again.
Best of all, the parents were happy. They were not paying replace things like text books, band instruments and other high dollar items.
Until this year. Ten days into school, and a parent decides that rather than talking to the teacher, or the principal, he'd go straight to the legal department.
The teacher was officially told he could not use essay writing, poem memorization or singing to punish the kids ... or else he loses his job ...
The teacher has no recourse if kids leave their belongings all over his room, treating the classroom like it is their bedroom. He is expected to pick up after them. Nothing else.
The principal isn't happy either. The only option his middle school teachers have for punishment now is to send the kids to the office. This is far from ideal as the goal is to enable the teachers to solve minor discipline problems themselves. Now, in addition to everything else, the principal will be tasked with handing out punishments, or not punishing at all.
Anyone else bothered by this one?
Have we really become a society where making kids write an essay as punishment is the equivalent of spanking or caning or flogging?
Or has this gone too far?
The teacher apologized. "Admitted" that for the past three years, he has been administering an illegal punishment. That he met with the legal department who explained to him what he was doing did not follow district guidelines. The students are all smiles until he let them them know that now he is going to punish them within school guidelines. First offense for leaving your belongings outside of your locker is detention. Second offense is a longer detention. Third offense may include detention but could also be a suspension.
I'm thinking all of the students would rather be singing now!
1. Law . physical punishment, as flogging, inflicted on the body of one convicted of a crime: formerly included the death penalty, sentencing to a term of years, etc. 2. physical punishment, as spanking, inflicted on a child by an adult in authority.
Monday, a teacher in a K-8 public school was called into the district's Legal Department for assigning a punishment to his students that is categorized as corporal punishment.
Have your attention?
Wonder what he did?
Have visions of spanking?
Paddling?
Canings?
Nope! He made them sing, or recite a poem, to regain text books, musical instruments, notebooks, backpacks or other items that belonged in their locker, but were left behind in his classroom.
The non-PE teacher equivalent of running laps. Which, by the way, is also defined as corporal punishment.
This teacher has a huge classroom, a portion of it houses lockers for the middle school students. All 100 middle school students tromp in and out of his room between classes to access their lockers.
According to the teacher, there are days when you cannot even walk into his classroom because there are book bags, lunches, coats, sweatshirts, etc. all over the floor. You know how a teenager keeps their bedroom? Yeah ... that's what they were doing to his classroom.
Enter in creative discipline. The rule is simple. If you don't put your stuff in your locker, the teacher assumes it is lost and puts it in the lost and found pile. If it is a text book, binder, notebook or instrument, he puts it in his pile - and you have to earn it back.
The teacher used to assign essays, but switched it up to memorizing and reciting a poem or singing a song. Last year, his kids thought it was funny and named the teacher's pile "The Glee" pile.
Everyone has had stuff in the pile. If a kid was too overwhelmed by the idea of singing, the teacher would work out an alternative.
The teacher did have other options. He could have given detention, resulting in his loss of all of his before and after school planning, and lunch period, to supervise the detention. Instead, he decided his creative punishment was a better fit for the crime.
It was not a big deal. It got the student's attention and deterred them from doing it again.
Best of all, the parents were happy. They were not paying replace things like text books, band instruments and other high dollar items.
Until this year. Ten days into school, and a parent decides that rather than talking to the teacher, or the principal, he'd go straight to the legal department.
The teacher was officially told he could not use essay writing, poem memorization or singing to punish the kids ... or else he loses his job ...
The teacher has no recourse if kids leave their belongings all over his room, treating the classroom like it is their bedroom. He is expected to pick up after them. Nothing else.
The principal isn't happy either. The only option his middle school teachers have for punishment now is to send the kids to the office. This is far from ideal as the goal is to enable the teachers to solve minor discipline problems themselves. Now, in addition to everything else, the principal will be tasked with handing out punishments, or not punishing at all.
Anyone else bothered by this one?
Have we really become a society where making kids write an essay as punishment is the equivalent of spanking or caning or flogging?
Or has this gone too far?
*FUNNY FOOTNOTE* (I love this teacher)* The student whose parents raised a stink? She came to school Tuesday and told the other students that she got her parents to fix the problem. The students walk into the classroom ready to challenge the teacher on the rule.
The teacher apologized. "Admitted" that for the past three years, he has been administering an illegal punishment. That he met with the legal department who explained to him what he was doing did not follow district guidelines. The students are all smiles until he let them them know that now he is going to punish them within school guidelines. First offense for leaving your belongings outside of your locker is detention. Second offense is a longer detention. Third offense may include detention but could also be a suspension.
I'm thinking all of the students would rather be singing now!
~*~*~
16 comments:
The pussification of America's children has been going on for years now. As is evidence by the number of parents today who are the same way. It's quite humorous in some ways and incredibly sad in another. Cheers Dana!!
Matt-Man has got it right. The pussification of America's children is a real issue. In the area of the country where this story comes from. I am not surprised by this story. I am only surprised that this teacher's common sense approach to this issue was tolerated for so long by the idiots that pass for parents in this "enlightened" part of America. Just wait till little Johnny and little Susie get out into the real world and find out how ill prepared they are for real life thanks to their parents and some gutless school boards and administrators. There has to be a special place in Hell for these assholes.
I will repeat the comment here that I made there, since it is gone.
Outrageous! I find it extremely annoying that todays gun toting, weed smoking, sexting, foul mouthed teens are so pampered. Funny how they can do all this but when an adult uses an elevated tone or any other method to catch their attention The adult is wrong. Hello??? We are the adults. Any time an adult stands up for something that the kids don't like they run and tell someone who then gets involved and makes the adult that tried to hold the kid accountable in the first place some evil villain.
We are creating a generation of entitlement teens/preteens. Kids today demand so much respect from adults but rarely give it in return and somethings just damn wrong with that.
And sending kids to the office "whew wee" Is completely ineffective. Because apparently when they get to the office there is still nothing the staff can do with ensuing a riot or media attention. And the kids are well aware of this.
I could go on and on but since this is not my post, I will leave it at saying I am bothered by this and the other million examples similar to this that I see everyday!
That is insane! I hope that complaining parent is proud that he/she is raising a self-entitled idiot.
My goal for retirement is to move to Siberia...yes, you heard it right. I really don't want to be around when these kids become adults. I would rather die a lonely death than be at their hands.....
Oh, and another mission of mine in life is to shoot all the lawyers!
This is a huge part of what's wrong with how the schools deal with kids. They are not allowed to make the kids suffer any consequences for bad behavior.
Now the parents that don't do a good job of parenting in the first place are preventing the schools from doing the parenting for them.
Too bad it's not the 60's when the teachers could just spank your ass for misbehaving. Too bad it' not the 60's when if you DID get spanked at school and went home and told your parents about it, they said "GOOD! Want some more?"
"she got her parents to fix the problem."
This falls under "becareful what you wish for".
Matt-Man, I tend to lean towards incredibly sad. These parents who think they are advocating are really enabling!
we're doomed, what I wanted more than anything for Cam in middle school was that his teachers approach things EXACTLY like this teacher has. I may also have a better understanding of why they didn't!
Raquel's World, in some ways I'll be very interested to see what this generation of child-rearing does to this country. In others, I almost hope I'm not here to see it!
Karen, my guess is the parent is also a self-entitled idiot!
Joker_SATX, as is so often the case, the pendulum swung too far on this one. Parents demand teachers teach but remove all ability to discipline? It's insanity!
bikinfool, I think far too many kids these days are parenting themselves ... which can never be a good thing.
Mike, from what I understand, Miss "I am the world" managed to piss off all of her peers too! Natural consequences in action!
Any bets on how long until that same idiot parent is complaining to the school about how ineffective they are?
I'm so glad I turned my back on a career in public school education...
I can definitely imagine those kids exacting mob justice when they realize the full impact of the way they have to be punished now that they other way has been removed.
If I was the teacher (after being PO'd about getting called on the carpet for this) I would have the worst time keeping a straight face when describing how they will now be facing a WORSE punishment than what I was giving them. I would have also loved to see the expression on the face of the little b*tch who instigated this when she realized how she screwed it up for everyone now. Does anyone have a copy of that tape?
it is flat out shameful and ridiculous.
For the number of paddlings and rulers smack across my knuckles (those Nuns were notorious for this), I would gladly have taken this teacher's classes.
Bubble-wrapping our children. He should also just send their stuff to the Lost And Found office so the kids will have to work to get their stuff back.
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