Teacher Rant!!!

[harmony]

My kids school sends a permission slip home at the begining of every school year wanting to know if they have permission to spank your child. Now I do not let other people put their hands on my children, I know how to spank too, but this one kid hurt my daughter (bruised her bad) and went to the office and got a paddle.

[selzer]

Originally Posted by harmony

My kids school sends a permission slip home at the begining of every school year wanting to know if they have permission to spank your child. Now I do not let other people put their hands on my children, I know how to spank too, but this one kid hurt my daughter (bruised her bad) and went to the office and got a paddle.

I think that makes sense. Make the punishment fit the crime. Have an unaffected third person administer the punishment. You can make the argument that physical violence will not teach them not to be physically violent, but for the right reason, a good butt-whipping can make a bid difference in a child's development.

Our grade school was Lutheran, and you pretty much signed your kids' lives away when you sent them there. They could use corporal punishment with reckless abandon -- and did. And coming from that background, twenty years ago when I would have been the age to have a few kids in elementary school, I probably wouldn't have signed such a permission slip.

When we moved out here in the country when I was ten, we then went to a public school. I don't think they needed permission slips for corporal punishment. We knew they could, and they did to some of the people, but never to me so I didn't care about it. I would never dream of mouthing off to a teacher because my parents would have killed me. So it was never a question. But I think they called the parents before administering corporal punishment.

I am on the fence at this point on whether or not I would agree to such a blank permission if I had kids in school. I mean, if the kid knows that it is a possibility, then it is one big tool in the tool box. The best results would come from using it rarely or not at all, but making it count if you do.

The thing with physical punishment is that you will have to up the ante to the point of abuse to be effective with some kids. When they figure out that they are not going to die, and are willing to take the risk, then you have no power over them if you are relying on physical punishment for behavior modification.

[GrammaD]

I wonder if it is in a community's best interest NOT to charge someone with child abuse because if there is litigation down the line about the mistreatment of someone's child, having her convicted of child abuse would place the school system/community in a worse position in their legal stance. Just a quick thought, but I suppose it is possible. I mean if the lady was convicted of child abuse, and then the parent sued the woman and the school system for putting her in charge of the children without a solid background check, or whatever way they may have been negligent in using this individual, then the prosecutor might be pressured not to press charges. If our legal system actually did work like that, that would be criminal

With this particular school system I would say that is highly likely. In the 1990's my children attended there until I got wise to what was going on within it. We actually moved to get out of those schools.

GA schools was investigated by the Federal government for abuses of children with IEPs after it was found/exposed that they were locking children into a room in the basement below the gymnasium as punishment. They put pads on the walls but left the concrete floor bare and put a door with a small window in so a para-pro could "monitor" the kids they put in there. The administration thought this was all just fine and dandy since they had parents sign permission slips to do this to the kids. But a child from a background of abuse was tossed in there and had seizures and was injured. The local FD came and took the door off the room when parents who heard about the incident started the complaint process. The administration persecuted those parents to the point where one of their children was assaulted at school and nothing was done to the perpetrators but the victim's parents were threatened with the expulsion of their child for the child making "terroristic threats" in response to being beaten.

It was a "scandal" at the time, but ultimately no heads rolled and it sounds as if their processes have not improved over the years.

[onyx'girl]

GrammaD are you talking about Galesburg/Augusta?

[selzer]

Back 30 years ago, my sister was an education major. She went for 3 years in education. She did a lot of student teaching. One of our schools in the county, a poor black neighborhood, was one of the places she did some student teaching. She told me she watched while the teacher slammed first/second graders into the walls. After that, my sister changed her major to general studies. And then went to law school.

Education lost someone who would have made an awesome teacher because of how they were abusing children in front of student teachers. That, and she realized that the way they control the lesson plans, etc, and the tenure system, it would be next to impossible for her to make a serious difference starting out as a teacher.

Either way, I think Shakespeare had it right when he wrote, "The Evil men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones..." There can be tens of thousands of good teachers, good bus monitors, good police officers, good doctors, but you will remember the bad ones.

[harmony]

Lets take a vote and get rid of tenure crud?

[onyx'girl]

And it is the children that either blossom or wilt when influenced by either.

[harmony]

you have a job even if you can not perform it , so sad indeed!!!

[GrammaD]

Originally Posted by onyx'girl

GrammaD are you talking about Galesburg/Augusta?

Yep.

[harmony]

Originally Posted by onyx'girl

And it is the children that either blossom or wilt when influenced by either.

Kind of, but we still have us parents..