Posted on 11/07/2006 12:15:26 AM PST by Antioch
Nine year-old Tyler Stoken, a student in the Aberdeen Public School District, didn't know how to answer an essay question on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test. As punishment for leaving the question blank his principal suspended him for five days.
Tyler paraphrases the question saying, "You look out one day at school and see your principal flying by a window. In several paragraphs write what happens next." He's asked, "So why didn't you answer that question?" He says, "I couldn't think of what to write the essay without making fun of the principal."
He refused to answer the question even after his mother was called to the school. Tyler's mother Amy Wolfe says, "And he said he didn't know the answer. He just didn't know what to write. And they were telling me to make him answer the question."
He still didn't, so Tyler was given a 5-day suspension. In the letter that went home to mother, the principal writes, "The fact that Tyler chose to simply refuse to work on the WASL after many reasonable requests is none other than blatant defiance and insubordination." Shortly after receiving the suspension letter they received a phone call from Superintendent Marty Kay apologizing for the suspension.
"Because I think a mistake was made and over reacting to Tyler's refusal to complete the test," said Aberdeen school superintendent Marty Kay. ... The superintendent wants Tyler immediately re-instated at school. But Tyler’s mother says the damage has been done. Mom tells son, "Well, nobody will scream at you again. I promise you that." Tyler doesn't want to go to that school any more and you can't blame him. He was manipulated and then punished because he couldn't answer a test question.
WASL opponents also believe the principal and teachers broke the law by interfering with the WASL test. It had better have been a violation of the testing rules. If a teacher and principal browbeating a test taker into answering a question in any particular manner is not against the rules then the test is worse than useless.
LOL! Actually, they'd probably love it. The counselling would be reserved for the kids who wrote about the Rapture.
And there are even more gullible and moronic people that think that if they get some bible class in their high school that they'll be all set.
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Absolutely on the mark! They are fools!
Anyone who thinks that government education can be reformed is a fool!
There is only one solution: We must begin the process of privatizing universal K-12 education. Gradually parents must be expected to pay for their child's education, and charity extended to those child who are poor.
Why the heck are kids being assessed on "creative writing" in the first place? Isn't there a less subjective manner of measuring writing skills?
That's cause Daddy just threw him off the roof......
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No mention of a daddy in this article. If there were a daddy, perhaps the principal would have handled this differently.
I think he should be returned to Cuba...? oh wait, wrong kid.
LOL yeah, that sounds like what a boy would write.
Follow the money!
Schools are paid on the basis WASL tests completed.
ROTFLMAO...
You owe me a new keyboard... ;-)
"You're driving through a seedy part of town when you see your principal making a meth buy in an alley. He's also having sex with hooker who's on her knees. You recognize her as the Prsident of the local NEA. He's see you and fires off several rounds from an Uzi wounding you. Write what happens next!"
He should have just written it was obvious she was picked up by a tornado and he was horrified by how gross it would be when she went SPLAT as she came down and all the putty knives and Brillo pads that would be wasted recovering her remains. Either that, or he could have theorized that she'd sat down in a fighter plane's cockpit and just pulled the ejection seat's lever with the same results.
I feel like I'm missing something, too. I did essays on stupid topics all the time when I was a kid in school. I think it's ridiculous that he outright refused to write anything after being asked multiple times and his mother is whining that the poor little thing couldn't answer it. I have a feeling this wasn't his first time in the principal's office.
By the way , I'm teaching 10 years and male 41K . I'd like to know how to get the big money you speak about .
( actually in my district kissing the asses of the DEM politicians and buying political dinner tickets can move you into a great position)
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Why are you supporting,contributing to, aiding, and abetting a totally corrupt system?
Why shouldn't we blame teachers? It is teachers and principals who open the doors to these houses of ignorance and dysfunction every day! It is time to blame you and every one of you who do this!
Oh? So home schoolers should feel obligated to send their kids to public school to get ruined just because others kids are? No thanks. Ruin your own kids if you want, don't try to force me to ruin mine.
It's bad enough that as many kids as there are, are stuck in that mess but homeschoolers sending their kids to school isn't going to fix anything; it's just going to result in more messed up kids. At least now, there's hope for the future as well adjusted, educated homeschooled kids enter the workforce.
This is also one thing that stuck out at me. The kid here wasn't being asked for a couple sentences; they were asked for several paragraphs. For the life of me, I can't figure out how someone could stretch such a stupid topic out that long to begin with. That's good enough reason not to bother answering, too, IMO.
Probably a grad of Columbia's Teachers College too.
If you don't know the answer to an unaswerable question do you lie about it? The kid left a test answer blank that's it. The moron in authority who yelled at and suspended the kid for five days over it deserves the criticisim here, not a nine year-old.
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