Strollerderby : teacher

Playdate: Does Your Sitter 'Love' Your Kids?

JeanneSager — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:01:00 GMT

My daughter tells her babysitter "I love you" every day when I pick her up and gives her a kiss. Her sitter does it right back.

And although we're not related, it doesn't bother me one wit.

According to Amy Jo over at Philly Moms Blog, it should. The stay-at-home mom says she's protecting her kids from insincerity when she says she'd rather not hear her kids' childcare provider using the "love" word with her kids.

"My oldest is only three and change, and I doubt he understands the difference between how his parents love him and how his teachers "love" him. I would hate for him to suffer any kind of hurt over this confusion," she says.

Hold on a minute here. Doesn't everyone who "loves" our kids love them in different degrees? You don't tell Great Aunt Sally not to say "I love you" even though she sees them once a year and can barely remember their names, do you? True, she's family, but this woman doesn't even know their names! And sends your son barrettes to wear in his buzz-cut hair!

Maybe I'm particularly lucky. My nursery school teacher still gives me a hug when she sees me, and she's been out of the game for some twenty years. Living in Florida most of the year, she sees me only in the summers at chance run-ins at the grocery store. And still, she remembers particular details about my childhood and relates them with a genuine smile. She might not love me like one of the kids she gave birth to, but I was one of her kids. Just like the hundreds of other little boys and girls who went through her little house on the hill catty-cornered from the old Chevy dealership.

Somehow, I'd bet she's the rule rather than the exception when it comes to folks who sign up for her (former) profession.

Amy Jo admits she's being cynical when she fears the teachers are just buttering her up for a better gift at the end of the year. But, really, if the people are in it for the gifts, they've chosen the wrong profession.

I chose my sitter based on a number of factors - but the number one was how she related to kids. She genuinely likes being around them and caring for them. So yes, I believe she loves my daughter. Not the kind of all-consuming love that I have for her, of course, but a love that makes her take the kind of care of her that I'd want someone to take while I can't be with her. You can't just turn the mama/papa bear thing on during the hours you watch a child and turn it off when they walk out the door.

Image: Clipartguide.com

Bag of Feces Sent Home in Kid's Backpack

JeanneSager — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:05:00 GMT

As Madeline pointed out yesterday, the word "panties," is shudder-tastic. I've found three worse words - at least used in succession, and when referring to the contents of a little kid's backpack.

Bag of feces.

Yup, a kindergartner came home from school this week with a big ol' bag of dung in his backpack.

Inside, his dad says, was a note from the teacher that read "This little turd was on the floor in my room."

What??? This child is five and apparently had an accident in the classroom. I repeat, this child is five. Accidents happen (come on parents, sing the Elmo's Potty Time song). For a teacher to make an issue of it to begin with shows she does not belong in a kindergarten classroom (or, perhaps, any classroom). Kids need to realize there's no shame in accidents and taught that they can always ask the teacher to use the bathroom. If this was a habit, the teacher might even be wise to talk to the school psychologist about the incidents, as elementary age kids whose potty training regresses are often displaying signs of stress, illness or even abuse.

Bagging it up and sending it home is particularly heinous because, let's face it, this is POOP we're talking about. Human waste. Excrement. Should I continue? The school says they're "looking into it," but I'd say they need to look at flushing this teacher out of their system.

What do you say, Babble readers?

Image: PoopReport

Teacher Fired for Letting Kids Play Gay

JeanneSager — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:24:00 GMT

Note to all teachers with small-minded administrators - don't bother trying to teach your kids about history. At least not homosexual history.

A teacher in a rural Oklahoma town has been fired by administrators after trying to teach the story of gay college student Matthew Shepard's murder by assigning students parts in The Laramie Project, a play based on the hate crime inflicted on the young homosexual man a decade ago.

Of course, officials say it isn't the play itself that prompted the firing. Debra Taylor dared let her students voice their opinions about the school's decision to CANCEL the play that earned her a place on the chopping block.

When her principal told her the play - which he'd previously given permission to Taylor to put on - had to be stopped, she let her kids spend twenty minutes in a local park, writing their feelings on helium balloons and releasing them (not enviro-friendly, but at the very least offering some catharsis). Taylor says she never asked the kids to change their minds about homosexuality, just to be tolerant.

The park stunt is what administrators say was Taylor's undoing. What about it was wrong, they won't say. Perhaps that she let kids voice dissent? That she voiced dissent? That she did something else that might, possibly, maybe make the kids think again about tolerance and respecting others?

Because cancellation of the play to begin with was inappropriate, but it might have had a very positive affect on the kids. Suddenly, they saw it was like to be discriminated against. After several weeks of hard work put into practicing for their production, they had the rug swept out from under them by school officials - and for no reason.

And how's this for irony? The school punished Debra Taylor, but her job loss makes her a role model for kids. Kind of what we always hope our kids' teachers will be.

Image: USA Today

When Should the School Call the Parents?

JeanneSager — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:02:00 GMT

Life in a small town is strange sometimes. I didn't hear about the punching incident at my daughter's pre-school from her or even from the teacher.

I heard about it in town, via the long grapevine of small town life. I also heard it was dealt with - appropriately - by the teacher.

It didn't bother me in the least that I hadn't known before - after all, my daughter wasn't involved. But when I mentioned it to another parent, her reponse shocked me. "You didn't get a letter? The teacher didn't say anything?"

Of course she didn't say anything. One little boy punched another little boy, and the teacher stepped in. She talked to the parents of the kids involved. The parents dealt with it. My daughter wasn't involved, and therefore I wasn't involved. I probably would have been more concerned if the teacher was telling the private business of two other children and two other sets of parents - to me.

My friend wasn't giving up. "But there's a bully in your daughter's class. Don't you want to know to protect her? Shouldn't you know what happens in that classroom during the day?"

I can see her point, but when I drop my daughter off in the morning, I put her in the care of her teacher and the teacher's assistant for three hours. I have to trust that those two adults are protecting my daughter, and that they're ensuring what happens in that classroom is safe and appropriate. If it isn't, I'd expect them to tell me.

What do you think? Should parents be notified of every "bad" thing to happen in a classroom? Or should notification be child specific?

Elementary School Essay Lands Dad in Jail

JeanneSager — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:20:00 GMT

I'm not sure which part is more depressing: that a father would shoot his son with a BB gun or that the boy would think it normal to write about in a school essay.

A Wisconsin nine-year-old related the day his father shot him in the buttocks for not moving out from in front of the TV screen in an essay for his teacher; and the teacher called in police to investigate the boy's father.

The dad, David J. Peschl, was subsequently arrested on a felony count of child abuse. He admits to the incident, but says it wasn't malicious or even a form of discipline. It was "horseplay," he says, and he regretted it immediately after it happened. Regretted it, maybe, because he realized he'd end up in jail?

The little boy apparently wrote in the essay that the moment was the "most painful thing I ever felt in my life," and says his mother could hear him screaming from the road. His father says the wording of the essay doesn't sound like his son, inferring that the boy had "help" from a teacher in crafting the piece. Although I agree kids embellish, it's not hard to imagine a nine-year-old saying the time his father shot him in the behind with a BB gun was the worst moment of his life. He was shot . . . with a BB gun . . . by his father.

That's not horseplay. Horseplay is wrestling a child to the ground and giving them a noogie. Horseplay is tickling them until they move out from in front of the TV. Horseplay is throwing a blanket over their head and yelling "now you can't see the TV either" or something equally silly. Shooting them in the hind end with a BB gun? That's simply cruel - and I dare say abusive (hey, police agree - look at the charge).

It's sad that a father would do this to his child, but a small part of me is even sadder that the child thought this was normal. That of all the moments in his life, he thought of this one to write about for a school essay - as if it were just another moment like any other.

Or do you think this was a simple cry for help? That the nine-year-old was too afraid to speak about this in words to his teacher, so he wrote through the pain to share his tale?

Image: Kids.Indianeducation (not the boy in the story)

Teacher Taped Kids Mouths Shut

JeanneSager — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:26:00 GMT

A teacher from Tennessee really wanted the eight-year-olds in his mouth class to be quiet.

Did he prod them to raise their hands? Haul out the old "zipper your upper lipper" from days gone by? Start sending kids to the office?

None of the above. First-year teacher Kevin Ray has been accused of taping the kids' mouths shut. If it's true, I've got to ask. What the heck was this guy thinking when he got into teaching?

A self-described devout Christian who enjoys reading the Bible, Ray apparently skipped the part about "do unto others." He allegedly slapped the tape on the mouths of three of his charges, including one eight-year-old who sat through an hour-long class with his mouth clamped shut. Another child was allegedly tied to a chair.

Teachers have a rough row to hoe these days, I'll grant you. There's the No Child Left Untested Act, there's the lack of training for teachers who are now heading up classrooms of mainstreamed special needs kids, there are more discipline problems and more helicopter parents. There are also some fantastic, dedicated and talented teachers out there.

Still, I have never been able to fathom the excuse of the teachers who say "my job is tough, so . . . " It's a tough job, but you signed up for it - with full knowledge of what makes it so difficult to be a teacher. And part of that is dealing with mouthy kids.

If you can't hack it as a teacher, my response is the same as those who can't hack it as a writer or a fry cook. Get another job. Because if you can't handle kids being kids, you can't be head of a classroom.

Image/Source: MSNBC

Entire School Board Recalled By Angry Students

JeanneSager — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:15:00 GMT

Note to boards of education: listen to your students, you're there for them. Or maybe you're not?

A collection of angry students at one California high school organized a recall election that might well be the first ever in the state to unseat an entire school board. The kids and their adult supporters collected enough signatures to authorize a recall vote on all five members of the board of education at the Big Oak Flat-Groveland Unified School District.

What made the kids this angry? The board fired a popular math teacher. Yes, a math teacher, not a football coach (although he is a former professional football player) or a gym teacher. A guy who teaches one of the core subjects. To be fair, he was also coaching baseball - but that wasn't at the heart of the kids' arguments.

The board released Ryan Dutton from his job teaching math at Tioga High in September over an allegation of plagiarism. Working toward his teaching credentials at Cal State Fresno, Dutton was accused in March 2008 of copying another student's homework. He denied the charge, and the university eventually found it was unfounded. Still, members of the school board say they're standing behind THEIR source, and they've refused to rehire Dutton. Nor have they revealed their sources.

Students have appealed to the board to no avail. So civics teacher Tim King helped them organize a civics project instead: collecting the necessary nine hundred ten signatures per school board member necessary to put the recall on the ballot. They got them. . . and more.

There's scuttlebutt, according to the Los Angeles Times, that these kids are being used to settle old scores in a fractious community. And while I'm often cautious about putting kids on the front lines of these kinds of arguments, I've seen what they can do. As a community reporter, I followed the case of a school librarian cut because of budget constraints, and the students who worked to have her reinstated. The kids were brushed aside by a school board that did not realize the gem they had in their midst - kids who cared enough about a librarian, with no ties to the sports community. They held lengthy executive sessions while the teenagers sat in the high school library, waiting patiently to have someone simply listen to their pleas. Never was there an explanation issued of the way budgeting works, of the intricacies of tenure. Nor was a thank you issued to the kids for their hard work.

Teachers can't always be reinstated simply because the kids care about them. But without the children, there is no school community, no school board. Not listening to them, at least providing some feedback and a "hey, you tried, but. . ." is tantamount to telling them you're not there FOR them.

Image: Los Angeles Times

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Teacher Fired for Wearing Sneakers

KeriF — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:58:00 GMT

A teacher in England was fired for not following his school's dress code. The offending garments? Track pants and sneakers. The school apparently had a dress code the teacher chose to ignore… for 30 years.

So why was the teacher suddenly sacked now?

Adrian Swain insists he was fired because he is a representative for the National Union of Teachers. He said, "I was singled out and fired while other staff have regularly worn banned items.

"It is clear that this is not about what I wear or what kind of teacher I am. This is victimization because I have consistently worked to protect union members against bullying and intimidation."

Here's the part I don't get: Mr. Swain taught physical education. Gym, as it's known on this side of the pond. How can you teach P.E. in slacks and loafers? I'm no fan of track pants for myself or my kids, unless we're doing something athletic, like, say, I don't know, going to the gym?

The local education authority supports Mr. Swain's firing, since apparently the children who attend the school are not allowed to wear track pants and sneakers themselves.

A spokeswoman said Mr. Swain was fired for "continually failing to comply with a reasonable management instruction.

"Staff in Tower Hamlets schools are expected to set a good example to the students they teach. It's vital that standards are set in terms of appearance and behavior, and staff are asked not to wear items of clothing that students are not permitted to wear themselves, eg trainers [sneakers]."

Mr. Swain's fellow teachers are threatening to strike if he is not reinstated.

Teacher Beats Student to Death for Late Homework

Cole Gamble — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:00:00 GMT

There are few things I am certain about. Okay, there is nothing I am certain about...except this. My kids will never, ever attend public school in Egypt. Was this ever a consideration? Probably not, but after hearing this bit of news I am sure it will never happen. What news, you ask? The news an Egyptian teacher beat a student to death for turning in math homework late.

Haitham Nabeel Abdelhamid, 23, is accused of beating Islam Badr Ibrahim with a ruler before taking him outside the class and hitting him savagely in the stomach.

The boy then collapsed in a faint and was taken to hospital - but he died of heart failure.

The attack, which took place in October at the Saad Othman primary school near the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, caused national outrage in a country where people are already skeptical about the state.

Many believe this horrific incident is a product of Egypt not having enough teachers. So take note, politicians. If you don't fund education evidentially the teachers will start murdering our kids.

UPDATE:

Haitham Nabeel Abdelhamid was found guilty on Christmas Day and sentenced to just six years in prison.

Teacher Tells Kids: Santa's Not Real

JeanneSager — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:59:00 GMT

Alert NORAD: Santa has been taken down by the substitute teacher at the Blackshaw Lane Primary School in Royton, England. The mean Ms. Grinch told her classroom of seven-year-olds that Father Christmas is a big fat fake.

And parents are complaining about campus security guards stepping in as substitute teachers? The sub told the kids "it's your parents who leave out presents on Christmas Day," when the class started to get out of control during a discussion about Christmas.

Because this substitute apparently needs a refresher course in how to deal with children, here's a quick lesson. First rule of Santa: Don't talk about Santa (unless you know kids' beliefs). Second rule of Santa: you know how this goes people.

Kids will eventually learn the big guy doesn't exist, and parents everywhere will lose their best-valued fall/winter behavior modification method. Most parents hope for later rather than sooner, and they hope the magic dies accidentally - not via a callous adult who decides she needs to shock some kids. If the kids were being rowdy, whatever happened to the good old-fashioned, "Santa's watching?"

Perhaps I'm just cranky because I remember my Santa dreams being dashed by a teacher too. Lying in the bed in the nurse's office because of a stomach ache, I could clearly hear all the goings on in the main office - linked to our nurse's station via a narrow, open hallway. The gym teacher, father of one of my classmates, was so busy checking his mailbox that he never noticed me lying there while he talked up what he had to do to get things ready for his kids on Christmas morning . . . including his massive production to make Santa "seem real." Wouldn't you know it - I was seven too.

Do you think adults have the right to throw this one at kids?

Image: PBase.com

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Bus Driver Spanks 6 Year Old For Not Sitting Down

JeanneSager — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:59:00 GMT

A six-year-old won't sit down on the bus. What do you do? If you're one Oregon bus driver, you spank his little tushie and put him back in his seat.

Or maybe (just thinking out loud here), you could put his seatbelt on and tell him to sit there . . . then write him up for disobeying and put it in the hands of administrators and his parents? Apparently, I wouldn't make much of a bus driver.

Parents of the kids on the bus have told the Eagle Point School District they'd like him removed - citing not only the spanking incident but the fact that he's an erratic driver, frequently accelerating and slamming on the brakes. The district told an Oregon newspaper it's already taken appropriate disciplinary action. Therefore: case closed.

Wait, what? He gets to touch hand to tuchus and go about his merry way? This is not a spank or not to spank issue. Because that's something parents can argue about. This guy wasn't a parent. And as such, he doesn't get to use corporal punishment.

Bus drivers don't have it easy; I'll grant you that. They're at the front of the bus, with their backs turned to a large group of kids. On the drive home, that back is facing a group of youngsters who want nothing more than to get out the energy that's been pent up all day while they sat in a classroom with hands a scribblin' and legs a wigglin'. Kids learn naughty things on the bus because there is little a driver can do when he's paying attention to traffic and seated at the far end from where a bunch of kids are talking about s-e-x.

But I'll give you the same argument here that I gave to giving teachers extravagant gifts to make up for the crappy pay: they chose this job. The degree of difficulty does not give them a bye on treating our children according to the laws of the land. They're hired to protect our kids, transport them home. Taking someone's six-year-old over your knee to teach them a lesson? That's assault people.

Image: 2News.TV

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When Your Kid's is the Puny Gift to the Teacher

JeanneSager — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:24:00 GMT

When we vowed last year to cut out all non-immediate family gift buying, I forgot we'd have to add two members to the gift buying "family" this year: my daughter's new nursery school teacher and her assistant. So much for cutting back.

But as Stefenie Ilgenfritz pointed out in The Juggle yesterday, not every parent agrees on what's considered "appropriate" to spend on the teacher. In this economy, not everyone can AFFORD to spend on the teacher.

Like any blog, this one got some comments that were just way off the wall. Like the mom who says money's tight, but she can't "bear" to contribute less than $100 to the group gift for the preschool teachers. She's going to give another $100 to the two women who run the home daycare where her other kid spends the day. Therein lies the problem. The percentage of parents who would consider spending $100 on a group gift for the preschool when times are tight are few and far between.

Good for her that she has that kind of cash lying around (I'm not doubting she worked hard for it - or someone in her family did) and that she's generous enough to share it. But she makes the rest of us look like crap. A bag of cookies lovingly decorated by your toddler? Makes you look chintzy when the other parent strolls in with a wallet from Coach in their glittery bag.

And if we're truly talking about a group gift, I thought the point was to pool your resources so a little can go a long way. My little is $5, $10; not of a heck of a lot less than I'd spend if I was going it alone. To be honest, I wouldn't spend $100 on a group gift for the teacher even if the economy was booming like it was 1999. I value my daughter's teachers - don't get me wrong. But I pay for nursery school. When she goes on to kindergarten, I'll be paying for that too - via my taxes. I think a small token of my daughter's appreciation is enough.

Because, honestly, isn't that what the teachers are there for? The kids? People talk about teachers getting low pay - and in some areas that's very true (I consider myself VERY blessed with what we pay for my daughter's nursery school, don't get me wrong) - but I don't think that's something that can be fixed with an over-the-top Christmas gift. They took the job because they love kids, crappy pay or not. If the gift really comes from the kid, it's the kind of thing they'll hold on to, even if it's worth less than the paper it's drawn on.

Image:ThisNext.com

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School Security Guard Teaches Biology Class

JeanneSager — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:39:00 GMT

Parents of students at a New Mexico high school are crying foul after they say a campus security guard was called in to "teach" their kids biology classes the same week the district announced it would be cutting back spending on substitute teachers. Hey, at least they picked a guy the students would be safe around.

The Rio Rancho School District said it would call on administrators and "other qualified staff" to fill in when a teacher called out sick. So how is a security guard "qualified" to teach high school biology?

Frankly, I don't see how he's any less qualified than the bulk of people I've seen substituting. Although there are some trained educators who fill in as substitutes until they land a full-time gig, they aren't necessarily trained in teaching the subjects of the teacher they're being called on to replace. The best gym teacher in the world can't really be expected to explain dangling participles and gerunds, can he (or she)?

Not every substitute even has teacher training. They're hired, essentially, as glorified babysitters, there to ensure the kids stay in one room, and don't spend the day playing with toy trucks if it's a kindergarten classroom or making out in a back corner if it's high school. I hardly remember a class spent with a substitute at the helm where learning was high on the agenda. As students, we were given busywork, whether it was elementary level worksheets or high school textbook chapter reading. If you had a question, you were always told "wait 'til tomorrow and you can ask your teacher." Some teachers planned quizzes and tests for days they knew they'd be out, a guarantee the kids would be quiet for the substitute. Some kept a movie handy for sudden sick days; you knew there was a substitute if you walked into a darkened room with the giant TV stand set up at the front.

With the exception of extended sick leave, when a qualified teacher really should be stepping into the vacancy to ensure the students' learning is kept on track, does it matter the career background of the adult standing at the front of a classroom for a day?

Image: KOB

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Elementary Teacher Sends Student 80th Birthday Card

JeanneSager — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:57:00 GMT

If she were still manning a classroom today, Collette Hartung would be the teacher who inspired parents to start a bribing war to ensure their kids got to be her students. The ninety-year-old Hartung put down her chalk almost seventy years ago, but she hasn't forgotten her kids.

Just last month, she sent one of them a birthday card. An eightieth birthday card.

Hobart Anderson was one of the children Hartung taught during her just three years in front of a classroom. She taught his sister too - twice during that three-year span. It's no wonder she remembers them; there were just two students in Anderson's class. But there are plenty of kids from small classes whose teachers have long since forgotten them. Running into Hartung once several years ago, Anderson's wife, Charlotte, said the teacher not only remembered her husband but had kind words to say. "She said 'He was a smart little fellow but he liked his fun'," Charoltte told the Minnesota newspaper The Journal.

At ninety, she apparently had the same fond memories. Here's what she wrote in Anderson's birthday card:

"Eighty candles shine today to honor one important life that's touched so many others and been such an inspiration. And as they shine, may you look back with pride and satisfaction knowing that your life and you are cause for celebration!

Your teacher 70 years ago, Collette Hartung"

Think your kids' teachers will care when they turn 80?

Image: The Journal

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Teacher Sells Ad Space on Math Tests to Cover Budget Shortfall

JeanneSager — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:34:00 GMT

Tom Farber had three choices. The California teacher could pay for paper to print his students' tests on himself. He could cut out the practice sheets he's traditionally given the kids to help them bone up on their math skills.

Or he could sell advertising space on the math tests.

The school budget was so tight this year, the nine-year veteran in education chose option three. He told parents on open house night this year that they could buy a line on the bottom of the sheets he'll hand out to his one hundred sixty-seven students this year. Space on a quiz went for $10; $20 for a test sheet and $30 for the end-of-semester exam. In one night, he raked in $270.54. That's just 54 cents over the amount he's estimated he'll spend on the nine thousand eighteen pieces of paper necessary to get through the year. It's just over $112 more than he was allotted by the school district for paper costs this year.

I'm sure there are parents reading this who drew in their breath with shock. But I say good for him. Because a teacher's job is to educate his (or her) students. How they manage that with a funding shortfall sometimes makes me wonder if part of the master's of education degree is a course in witchcraft. And yet, as a taxpayer in the state reported to have the highest property taxes in the nation (New Yorkers fund schools through property taxes), I'll admit I struggle with the raising school budgets year after year.

In states where taxpayers are feeling like stones being squeezed for yet another pint of blood, the funding has to come from somewhere for the sake of the kids. And the answer isn't in making kids sell more oranges and wrapping paper . . . to the taxpayers. So what's wrong with selling advertising? In Farber's case, parents could fund inspirational slogans on the bottom of a test paper or businesspeople could put in a promo. The money ensured the kids still got their practice sheets. At the very least, the money was benefitting the kids on an academic level.

Now think about how many advertisements get thrown at our kids inside a school building without one single dime actually benefitting the district, and therefore not helping the kids' education. Do the teen boys get a flyer from the local formalwear shop come prom season? Is there a brand name on the basketball they bounce during gym class? How about on the milk carton at lunch or the cereal box at breakfast? As ubiquitous as branding is in our society, there's little we can do to protect our kids - even in a school building. Yet little of that advertising benefits anyone besides the company selling its products.

So did Tom Farber really do anything wrong?

Image: Arts Journal

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Kindergartners Vote An Autistic Classmate Out of the Class

JeanneSager — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:01:00 GMT

You know that warning, kids can be mean? So can teachers. A Port St. Lucie, Fla. teacher has been suspended without pay for allegedly bringing a five-year-old boy to stand in front of the class and letting his classmates vote him out of the class. And that's not even the worst part. The child in question? He has Asperger's, a form of autism.

Yes reports say Wendy Portillo actually encouraged her students to pick on a kid with disabilities. Alex Barton had been sent to the principal's office twice that day for discipline problems before Portillo allegedly brought him to the front of the class and asked the students to tell him how his behavior had been affecting them. Then she let them vote. Fourteen said bye bye Alex. Two were on his side.

Let's set aside the fact that this kid was in kindergarten and thus at an already immature state of development (he was five for crying out loud). Let's even set aside his Asperger's diagnosis. What kind of teacher disciplines her students by letting the other kids pick on him? I shrink in horror when a waiter gets his ass handed to him by the maitre d' at a restaurant in front of a dining room full of people, and we're talking about two grown adults. Discipline is the teacher's job and the teacher's job alone. While I don't expect an educator to walk out of the class with a child every time he acts up so they can have a private word, more than simple admonishments (sit down please, raise your hand before you speak, etc.) should be done off to the side of the room. Even with the rest of the kids in the room, it should be a teacher-to-student conversation without the "help" of the other kids.

The socialization process requires kids learn what kind of affect their actions have on other kids; I'll grant you that. His autism certainly plays a role here. But even non-autistic kids have a me-centric focus on the world at five. So how do you teach them? Sit them down and talk about it. Give examples of some of the things other children have done that were hurtful. Make it personal - in a personal setting. Don't turn a child into a punching bag for his classmates.

Portillo has been suspended without pay for one year by the school district. I hope she spends that year pursuing another career path.

Image: NYC Schools

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High School Teacher Gets a Little Too Hot With Strip Tease

JeanneSager — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:59:00 GMT

Teenagers at a school in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary saw more of their teacher in a two-minute strip tease than I saw of most of my teachers over my entire high school career. Make that more than I wanted to see of my teachers over my whole high school career.

One of several teachers overseeing a beginning of term party, the twenty-something female teacher was dared by the teens do pole dance for them. Instead she started whipping off her clothes, while Tom Jones' classic You Can Leave Your Hat On played in the background. She was down to a bra and unbottoned pants and beginning to take off her knee-highs when another teacher stepped in to wrap her in a jacket.

Watching the strip show caught on a cell phone camera by a student, I admit I was giggling through the hand over my mouth. My husband's first reaction? "Why didn't any of my teachers do that . . . I mean, there were one or two I would have wanted to." Our second, joint reaction? "Grooooooosssssss."

The school has told parents they've reprimanded the teacher, but they won't bow to demands the woman be fired. What she did was clearly inappropriate, but this was a teenage audience (rather than an elementary school picnic). No kids were actually touched in any sexual manner, nor was there any actual indecent exposure (although who knows how far she would have gone if the other teacher hadn't stepped in?).

What do you think? Should she be fired or just forced to leave her hat on?

Source: The Sun

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Middle Schoolers Exposed to Curse Words, Parents Shocked

JeanneSager — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:03:00 GMT

Parents of middle schoolers in Fresno, Calif. were shocked, shocked, I tell you, when they learned their kids had been exposed to curse words. Imagine, 12 years old and seeing f*%k in all its glory. Where have these parents been in the past 50 years?

Watching offensive language usage rise in his classrooms, the principal at Tioga Middle School said told teachers to write a list of four-letter words on the whiteboard in each classroom let kids know exactly what words would not be tolerated. Then the mother and future stepfather of 12-year-old Phoenix Hawkins complained. They want to protect his innocence, they say.

The principal's pulled the plan, but I hope Phoenix isn't riding a bus to school. That's where I learned "motherf***er" at 5 and "time of the month" at 7. Maybe Phoenix's parents should consider homeschooling? And no TV, naturally. No books. No movie. Definitely no trips to the grocery store or even outside the house.

Awww, s**t, let's just bring on that bubble.

Source: San Luis Obispo Tribune

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Students Suspended for Hair Dyed Pink in Honor of School Nurse's Battle with Breast Cancer

JeanneSager — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:27:00 GMT

It was a rare show of selflessness for a bunch of middle school students, but showing up with strips of pink in their hair last week earned a dozen Indiana pre-teens suspension. The kids said they were doing it in honor of the school nurse who recently passed away after a battle with breast cancer.

Their parents are refusing to make the kids wash the pink out of their hair, but the school is firm. Dyed hair, says the principal, is distracting.

No doubt the kids went about their impromptu remembrance - which for some kids was also a tribute to moms who've fought the battle and won - the wrong way. If you know hair dye is against the rules, why not slip on pink armbands or wear pink ribbons in your hair? Maybe approaching administration with the plan to begin with would have enabled a school-wide dispensation for the day to honor a faculty member who teachers must be mourning as well. Interviewed on camera, the principal expressed his regret for having to stick to the rules - he thinks it's a good idea. But the rules are the rules - no dyed hair.

You can't fault a principal for requiring every kid follow the same rules. But you can fault the rule.

It's just hair. Is it distracting in the morning when a kid shows up with blue hair? Yes. But show me something that won't get a bunch of hormonal pre-teens riled up. Exactly. Do we have to worry about kids flashing gang colors in schools today? Unfortunately, yes. But tell me how it's any different to have it in a hair streak than a barrette. It's just hair, which I'd rather kids were talking about then picking on the fat kid or spreading rumors that turn a girl into the class slut. It's just hair, which I'd rather my kid were playing with than drugs, booze or guns to get my attention.

When kids want to get attention, I'd like to see them doing it in positive ways - like joining up to dye their hair pink for breast cancer awareness. So maybe we could stop telling kids what they can't do and start telling them what they can do?

Image: WSBT

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Gym Teacher Likes Girls A Little Too Much

JeanneSager — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:29:00 GMT

Another teacher, another sex scandal. Same unfortunate news, different day. But to make it interesting, Indiana gym teacher Brooke Biggs is accused of seducing a 16-year-old female student.

That I won't have to listen to some nasty radio DJ talking about the hot teacher and the lucky teenage boy is about the only silver lining to this story. Because I don't believe in the double standard for female teachers. Sorry, not even for a hot lesbian teacher.

That Brooke Biggs shares her name with a porn star doesn't make me laugh either (well, not much). The 27-year-old was in a South Bend, Ind. court late last week to answer two felony charges of child seduction. Biggs teaches seventh and eighth grade physical education and coaches at the local high school where the 16-year-old girl is a student. The investigation that led to Biggs' arrest was prompted by the girl's parents who first forbade the teen from having any contact with the teacher then found she was sneaking out anyway. Court documents allege Biggs' bought the girl a cell phone to replace one her parents had taken away, and the two allegedly exchanged hundreds of sexually explicit text messages.

Seems teenage girls do a little more than talk on the phone these days.

Image: WSBT

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How the Choice Not to Homeschool Made Me a Better Parent

JeanneSager — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:07:00 GMT

Agree with them or not, the Bad Parent essays are food for thought. Babble Talk: Bad Parent, Unschooling by “unschooling” mom Joanne Rendell put a whole new spin on children’s education. Or should I say un-education?

As a some-time Bad Parent author myself, I’m always interested in the feedback. Some of it makes me think, and some makes me stick my hands in my ears and wiggle them at the screen. Yet another reason why it's good that my daughter enrolled in two mornings per week of nursery school earlier this month. Some time away from the 3-year-old is probably needed about now.

Yup, I’m one of those parents who has hopped up on the “formal education” bandwagon. Although, like some of the friends Rendell mentions in her tale, I’m not firmly ensconced in one camp or the other. Homeschooling is right for some people. Just not me.

I’m not a born teacher. I don’t have the patience or the passion required to transform kids’ minds. Hence the job as a writer - not a teacher.

I know my limitations. I also know my daughter. The fiery spirit we’ve decided to encourage in her will make her a challenge for bad teachers one day, a joy for good teachers to teach. It shines through when she recites back to me the words of her favorite bed-time story or yells, "That's an octagon," when she sees a stop sign. And it blazes when she refuses to recite the ABCs simply because Mommy asked (but she'll whisper them in Daddy's ear).

Bad parent? Nah, just one who’ll be making her mark on her daughter’s mind after school hours, not during.

10 Ways to Schmooze Your Kid's Teacher

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:09:00 GMT

School is starting this week. School is starting this week!! Hoorahs are heard around the globe as the fun but also tiring summer draws to an end.

Teachers are often absolutely wonderful and self-sacrificing creatures, but in their new role as parole officer/ behavioral management cop/ no child left behind drill sargeant/ they sometimes need extra loving care from parents -and unfortunately this goes beyond a nice crisp Red Delicious left on the desk.

Your life and your child's will run much more smoothly if you remember a few key ways to love their teacher:

1. Compliment their strengths -- Don't get to see them in action? Then observe a well-organized classroom, daily calendar, anything that shows you appreciate their effort and are paying attention.

2. Give credit - If your kid learns how to read this year (or to add or subtract) make sure to give credit to his or her teacher. Simply acknowledging their role can really help them feel supported.

3. Vote for a raise - Vote in favor of the next public education levy in your town, or state referendum increasing teacher wages. Paying teachers what they're worth goes a long way to decreasing teacher turnover.

4. Encourage your child to show respect - Nothing is as discouraging as a child whose bad manners and disruptions ruin it for the rest of the kids. Encourage your child to view their teacher as a person of authority, deserving of respect.

5. Don't gripe about teacher work days or early release days - Though it often seems as though at least half the school year is taken up by early release or teacher work days, these periods are crucial for teachers to get the prep time they need to do a good job.

6. Don't treat your child's teacher like a babysitter - It isn't a teacher's job to watch your child early before school or stay late after school to accomodate your work schedule. And while sometimes things come up, teachers aren't paid enough to play babysitter...

7. Bring them coffee -- A few mornings I brought my daughters' teacher a cup of coffee and you would have thought I'd hung the moon. A $4 latte bought me more goodwill than nearly anything else.

8. Volunteer - Most parents these days are too busy to volunteer at their children's school. If you can take vacation time or a few hours here or there to volunteer with a special project or field trip, it shows that you care about your child's education.

9. Occasional gifts - Thoughtful gifts to the teacher don't have to be expensive. A nice bottle of bubble bath and a thank-you note is usually deeply appreciated.

10. Show interest - In an age where each parent thinks his or her little precious is the most important child in the universe, you'll stand out if you can show you are capable of generating a more global concern for education or the size of his/her class, or other details of the school environment.

Maybe all of this will be viewed as pandering and unnecessary. I look at it as supporting a field of workers who are so dramatically underpaid and underappreciated it will be a miracle if teacher shortages don't plague all major cities within the next few years.

Foster Care Worker Pregnant with Teen's Baby

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:41:00 GMT

In extremely depressing pregnancy news, an Ohio teacher named Carolyn Hatcher is pregnant with her student’s baby. While working as the house mother and teacher for six children in a foster care facility, Hatcher, who is 27, started having marital troubles and ended up getting a bit too close with a 16-year-old boy under her care.

After another child living at the home reported the affair, Hatcher was fired and the 16-year-old boy she had seduced ran away. Fortunately, he returned safely and is living at the home once again.

Now Hatcher is 10 weeks pregnant and faces six counts of sexual battery, or up to 35 years in prison. I’m glad that Hatcher’s actions are being viewed as serious sex offenses—sexual contact between male teachers and female students is much more likely to be taken seriously than the reverse—but I can’t help but wonder what will happen to Hatcher's baby.

Photo: WLWT.com

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Not So Hot - Male Strip Tease Teach Suspended

Brett Singer — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

If you heard that a teacher did a strip tease in front of their class, you probably would think of a Van Halen-esque scene ("I got my pencil -- give me something to write on." Ah, the 80's.) At least that's what I would think of.

But, once again, I would be wrong. An English teacher at the Sudbury Upper School in the U.K. was trying to get his students to calm down. They wouldn't, so he threatened to take his clothes off. The teacher is not, shall we say, in the best physical condition. When the wild rumpus continued, he made good on his promise, "whipping off his shirt…before flexing his muscles…topless for a few seconds then spending half a minute getting his shirt back on."

A student filmed Mr. Rose Lee (not his real name, I just made that up) with her cellphone and posted the footage to YouTube. Unlike R. Kelly, he was unable to convince anyone that it wasn't him, and was promptly "sacked" as they say in Britain.

Bizarrely, some people actually seem to think this was an extreme punishment. Over at the Daily Mail, one commenter said, "I just think it's sick to take a bloke's job away for that. At least he got the pupils' attention." Another weighed in with, "I suppose this was a bit of fun, he never really hurt anyone, things like this make school life all a bit more fun."

The video is gone from YouTube, but some screenshots survived. For comparison, here is the classic Van Halen "Hot For Teacher" video. Even if the teacher looked more like the Van Halen girl and less like Fatty Arbuckle (actually, he kind of looks like Rob Reiner), I still think a firing isn't exactly unwarranted. Maybe he should hook up with this guy and start a day care center.

images: DailyMail

Substitute teacher shows up drunk

Brett Singer — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

During my time going to school in New York City, I saw a lot of things. However, I never once saw a teacher pull a kid to the front of the class so the other students could berate him. I also never had a substitute teacher show up drunk.

In Richardson Texas, Thomas Brownlee arrived at school with liquor on his breath and, one assumes, sadness in his heart. Another teacher figured out what was happening and the drunken doof was removed from the class. Apparently, he was "too intoxicated to complete a sobriety test." In my opinion, if you're too drunk to take the test, that should mean you fail. Sort of like the SATs.

Once you get past "wow, that's really terrible" and move on to "that would make a great SNL skit" ("1+1 ain't 2! It's misery! You try being married to that woman!" etc.), it makes me wonder how many times this sort of thing has happened. In fourth grade, I remember our regular teacher, not a sub, had a nervous breakdown of some kind right in front of us. We were on our way to a field trip, and a substitute teacher was on his way to take over the class. "You don't realize what I do for you!" she screamed. It was fairly frightening while it was happening, but once she left, we actually all thought it was pretty funny. No one, as far as I know, was scarred for life; in fact, I think we were over it by lunch. I'm not excusing her behavior, which in retrospect was amazing and not in a good way. And showing up drunk to teach is a bad thing. I'm just saying that kids are resilient. Hopefully the school fires the inebriated educator and doesn't make a big deal out of it to the students.

image: Hoboken411.com
Note: this is not a photo of the teacher. Not as far as I know, anyway.