If you haven’t heard about the one where the kid is suspended for talking to him mom, who is in Iraq, during school hours, the article is here.
Apparently everyone else on the internet, except for this guy thinks having rules at school are a bad thing. And if teachers enforce rules they are liable to be fired.
Those people should try to teach.
5 comments:
Rules appropriate for maintaining general order and decorum are necessary. No argument there.
However, they also, of necessity, fail to accomodate individual need.
What is at fault here isn't the rule itself, but rather the zero-tolerance policy that requires specific action even when it proves unreasonable in a particular situation.
Interesting how I said nearly the same thing the guy you linked to, but you posted a comment making it sound like I don't think schools should have any rules. To me it sounds like you are just skimming through posts and posting reactionary comments. Way to go!
With due respect, I think you have oversimplified this issue.
I invite you back to see a piece I put together after I read your comment.
I see this as a semantical challenge to whether an absolute value interpretive argument can be plotted on a continuum.
"Rules are rules" because they are necessary ... I've cut through the intellectual semantics. It doesn't make you one bit wrong.
It just makes others not summarily relegated to the ranks of those devoid of insights. Thanks for considering a deeper treatment of a serious issue.
Grant: The problem i have is that we haven't got the full story yet so your comment of
"If my mom was in Iraq and I was told to get off the phone by some teacher or school official, I would tell them to fuck off as well."
makes it seem to me like you think that the rules don't matter.
Boston: Your follow up post is pretty good, and i generally agree with you.
I appreciate your feedback. And I noticed that the school reduced the consequence to time served because of the public furor. Not sure they stepped back and reconsidered so much as couldn't conduct business with the phones going off incessantly.
I do have the highest regard for teachers and social workers - they do some of the most important work in our society, and are vastly undercompensated and undervalued.
And today, with safety issues and breakdowns in the American family, they are in many cases the only structure provider in a kid's life. A kid's bound to resist subordinating to structure. And consistency in expectations and consequences is critical. Wishing you well and willing your good. b
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