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.
McCarthy
Yes, I think so. The boy said he didn't know what to write. I have a third grader who wouldn't either. A question like this throws him for a loop. It's the way his mind works. It's an impossible situation and he'd be entirely confused. Insisting and threatening would likely bring him to tears. Again, it's just the way his mind works.
Give the kid a zero. Fine. But someone at the school whose supposed business is education needs to get a clue.
It was wrong of them to punish him and suspend him.
It was also wrong for his mom to let him get away with this, she should have just said "Son, make something up".
The greatest source of mental illness and dysfunction are those who cannot tell the difference between a real problem and a purely hypothetical, speculative, nonsensical one.
So they go about solving imaginary "problems" -- often created by the media and other demagogues, while they are totally unaware of the real catastrophes wrecking their lives.
That's why the real genius is able to solve real problems in their daily lives -- rather than all the imaginary ones of such "intelligence " tests, that really are the delusion of most elitists (liberals) that they know anything worth knowing.
Considering what his answer would have been,(she must have been a witch on a broom stick) what do you think the reaction of the principle would have been?
Remember that saying, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all."
Please tell me what possible educational value there is in a kid writing about the scenario where the principal goes flying by the window. The principal and the teacher were at fault here.
I'm not really feeling sorry for this punk who wasn't smart enough to make up some stupid crap up to get though the test.
You are one seriously constipated person to say that about this kid.
There is a bit of irony in your question. I got a perfect score on the math section of the ACT - because I left one question blank where there was no right answer as an option.
"You look out one day at school and see your principal flying by a window. In several paragraphs write what happens next."
is an idiotic question, and a bright 9 yo boy can reasonably be expected to see it as such. Had I (at that age) been presented with such stupidity, I would probably have written a very brief story involving "crashing and burning", and gone on with life.
In those halcyon days, the powers that be would have ignored it.
In this age of political correctness and "zero tolerance" for "workplace violence" ... the powers that be are completely capable of misinterpreting such as a "terroristic threat", and imposing all manner of psychological maltreatment on the boy.
And many FReepers would applaud them.
The boy was smart to dodge that "question".
This is Bureaucracy gone amok.
Fire that stupid principal!
>>>This whole thing stinks.
>>>And for the life of me, how could a kid not have something to write. He sounds like he either a punk or a baby.
This question looks like a psychological projection question for young students. The boy spoke rationally that he didn't want to write bad things about the principal. Why are they putting such psychological questions on a test in the first place? And, why did the principal act so irrationally when the child objected?
Schools should be educators, not amateur shrinks. The adult was the child, and the child was the adult in this situation. And clearly, schools are anti-boy.
The boy probably had too much energy and perhaps had been in trouble before. That's why he had difficulty with the question. He could spot a setup a mile away.
There are plenty of neutral type essay prompts that could have been put on that test. The principal needs flushed from the school and this Hitler needs to resign from education.
The public schools here in western Washington gear ALL daily assignments toward WASL testing.
We had moved our daughter from private Christian school to the public system this year for 6th grade. The home work was insane. Only "math" came home, and the majority of the questions were similarly worded to the example given.
Our daughter started back at the private Christian on Nov. 1st.
My bad.
Thanks for correcting me.;)
You're so right. The left appears to have such a strangle hold on the education system that people are generally just disgusted and dismayed by it. Just about every leftist leaning silly PR ruling seems to come down from some Clinton appointee or the other. This double standard that has eradicated any vestige of the Judeo/Christian ethic in schools and seems to be in the process of elevating Allah and Islam or Buddha or whoever needs to be faced squarely before it is too late - all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.
It seems like the little boy in this article couldn't figure out any way to tell a story about his principal flying past the window without seeming to make fun of him. May have thought he would get in trouble for ridiculing the guy, but, too late, the principal had already done that to himself with the silly premise of flying (or being shot out of a cannon?).
Exactly. They are fanatical about WASL testing here.
government educators do not know how to teach grammar-aged students how to write... a kid cannot put onto paper what is not in his head... he didn't deserve a bad grade because he left that one section blank... not if he did well on the rest of the test... all they needed to do was give him "no credit" for the blank section...
A href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1281466/posts" Government wants all children to have mandatory mental-health screening.
a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1287529/posts" Attempt to stop mandatory mental screening fails
what is wrong with not answering a question on a test? how can you force someone to answer? take his non-answer and give him no credit for it... why does he HAVE TO answer it? not everyone has the kind of imagination that that particular essay prompter required... so he's not quick on his feet... fine... don't suspend him for five days!
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