Replies

I'm dealing with the school system right now. They gave my son a zero and detention for failure to follow directions. He did follow the directions, problem is, the teacher changed his mind about his own directions after my son turned in his work. Twenty other students received the same punishment. The class my son is in has thirty one students.

I went to see the Vice Principle to show her the directions he gave, and she produced her own copy complete with markup. I asked her why her copy was marked up and she said because she had a meeting with the teacher and her notes were to clarify the document. I said, well if it wasn't clear to you how could it be clear to my son? She said the two situations weren't related. She also said the document in question was to be revised pending all parental comments, further proving the document was lacking in clarity. I feel like I'm in bizarro world.

I also found out that two classes participated in the project, one receiving a zero and detention while the other received no punishment whatsoever.

Irrational rules and requirements, with arbitrary punishments, will eventually break down the spirit of the students. The techniques are very recognizable because they have been used in concentration camps and prisons of various dictatorships throughout history.

Do you have any other options for your child? Are there any affordable religious private schools? Can you home school?

I went to see the Vice Principle to show her the directions he gave, and she produced her own copy complete with markup.

Generally a good school has a great Principal. In my wife's teaching career we have seen a good Principal replaced by a hack. Almost immediately the quality of education suffers. Good Principals hire only good people and take good diciplinary steps and have good policies.

Some times it also maybe best to stay out of the way of the administration -- in your case this could be a learning experience for you child. You have to let your kid know that in the real world they will work for jerks and be surrounded by incompetents.

It is pretty easy to tell the quality of the school by looking a the statistics -- like SAT scores, absenteeism, drop-out rate and others. Most times the numbers are scrubbed or not shown.