Schools

For a long time, years in fact, I have maintained that the schools are run by people who shouldn't be allowed to run them. Even though most people don't pay attention to my views on this, the evidence continues to pile up.

I heard these two this AM. One parent claimed that a couple of fourth graders (including her own son) were being treated poorly by another boy. On their own, they opted to ignore the other boy, pay him no attention, not invite him to play with them, refrain from talking to him, etc. When the principal of the school heard about this, the parent was called in and the two fourth graders were threatened with suspension for "conspiracy to bully." Huh? So, does that mean every school kid must talk with, play with every other kid? Do moms/dads have to make sure every kid gets invited to the birthday parties? After all.... Reminiscent of my own kid who was suspended in 8th grade (it was kept secret from me until several months after the fact, during the summer). Some kids were playing keep-away with one of those 5-pound flour bag baby dolls (oh, so trendy! writing and reading and math be damned!) from the girl who "owned" it. My kid intercepted the doll and gave it back to the girl--the girl admitted that my son did just what he said, came around the corner of the hall, was tossed the doll, and returned it to her when she claimed it was hers. Well, a teacher saw the very end, just the tail end, when my kid had the flour bag. She turned him in and he was suspended for, hold on to your hats, "endangering the lives of students." Yep, those 5-pound bags of flour are lethal! When I did find out, although it was too late to do anything about it, I sent letters to the superintendent and director of personnel stating my disbelief at this stupidity. I also sent a copy to the principal, who issued the suspension. Of course, I received no response. Later, when some other parents were up in arms over this same principal, the director of personnel told the local newspaper that there had never been any complaints about this principal before. I wrote him saying, "This isn't exactly true, is it?" At least he responded to this letter, pretty much saying, "Oh, yeah."

And, in another story elsewhere, a 5-year old, a kindergartner, was suspended for sexual harassment of a classmate.

If these are the decisions these people make, what kind of people do you think they are hiring to teach? What kind of curricula and policies do you think they have?

Don't think this goes on only in other schools and school districts. Well, you can think that if you want to--it's still a free country. But who knows for how long?