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.
My late wife once worked for the Board of Education in Chicago and was very upset when one of her colleages was "coaching" the kids.
I do not believe the teachers should be fired since they did not make up this exercise nor do I believe the child was anything but confused. Such an exercise MIGHT be appropriate for an older child in some cases but not this young. This was the beginning of THIRD grade when children are generally just beginning to be able to write at all and such a question would confuse many of them.
He does not sound like a troublemaker at all just because he didn't join the lemmings.
That's a great thing that you did. Calling my kid a liar in front of class will get you in big trouble with me.
It just seems to me they are inviting the kids to come up with wise guy answers. I know I would have, might have gotten me kicked out of school. Ha Ha
Perhaps, but a teacher can't tell that right away . I'm in the process of grading 200 plus HSPA essay test. If it's blank it's a zero for that section.
I agree with your figures .
you are most correct. If you skip an answer in a test it gets counted off. Teachers should not interfere with a child that is testing. By state standards, the only thing that a teacher can do is help you understand a question not answer it for you or re-word the question or give you any subtle hints of any type or fashion.
Failure, maybe; but I would say, "Suspension is entirely inappropriate."
I could see my own, younger son in this situation, and predict how he might react. If it is a test, he would be expecting that there is a "correct" answer. But given the inanity of the premise, there is no "correct" answer, even if he did have the nerve to call the principal a witch (or similar); and that latter point is a legitimate concern for a child in such a situation.
But they couldn't very well just let him "flunk" the standardized test, could they? It reflects poorly on the school, and that's what had their tidy whities in a bunch: 100% concern for themselves, 0% concern for the child.
Homeschool.
Like you, I took the side of Right, not a child or teacher.
My kids thought I was a hardass but now think I'm great.
One incident with my older boy was extremely interesting. He was a gifted child but wouldn't do his work. So I had a meeting with the Teacher, Asst. Principle, School Psychologist, District Psychologist, School Social Worker where they tried to convince me that he needed counselling. I refused to take him and told them that his only problem was that he was extremely stubborn (but also very charming and able to manipulate most adults.)
He had been seeing the school psychologist during school and I went to pick him up early one day only to find him and the s.p. playing Chess (he was in fourth or fifth grade). So I thought that was rewarding him and was nuts. His mom refused to go to the aforementioned meeting (she was a teacher herself) saying that they would just wind up blaming her.
Anyway I stuck to my guns and refused to go along with their program. He remained a problem (could have legitimately called a punk) until finding something he liked. Turned out to be theater and he was a natural actor unbelievably good. Never had been on a stage in his life yet won the English Speaking Union's annual Shakespeare contest at his school (3,500 kids) and was as good as any at the Regional contest where he didn't win for political reasons. Graduated with a Computer Science degree and is now a Navy Nuke.
This is a principal reason why I believe it is time to END public education. The lunatics are totally in charge. DC calls all the shots because the schools take federal money.
The teachers can't discipline the inmates. The screwels are forced to teach illegal aliens on OUR dime. Property taxes are crazy because of feeding the school diety. It time to just END IT.
Public schooling can not be fixed. During most of our history, there were no public schools. Before "public toilet schools" we were a better nation. Screw diversity, screw the public education indoctrination system, JUST SCREW EM.
They have spent the last 40 years screwing over the public, who has to pay for their madness.
It's time to laugh at them. They are evil fools. A joke.
End of rant.
Yea , I agree. The problem is that there is no incentive to work hard. If you're "friends" of the local Democrat politicians you really have it made. I know teachers who make 80K and sit and read the news all day . I also know teachers who make 38K and do more for these kids than you can imagine. we have some real good people in my school and even 2 other conservatives besides myself. The younger teachers , for the most part , have liberal /leftist college educations and don't know much about anything . I had a classic education and i try to teach that way .
As I said in my earlier post had the child written something that was politically incorrect he would have been punished.
Like you I would have been in big trouble had I gotten the assignment.
Good for you.
It just goes to show,that some kids need to find a subject they take interest in and then the rest will fall in place.
He drove his poor mom nuts. She just didn't understand how boys are sometimes being from an all girl family. I had six brothers so I know the breed very well.
I am just very sorry she passed away before seeing him achieve success.
I had an ancient Electronics teacher back in the day who literally slept in a barcalounger through Advanced Electronics. We spent the time teaching ourselves to build binary relay computers and cattle prods.
One of the reasons the South lost the Civil War was precisely because of the lack of public education there. In contrast New England and the Midwest had excellent public schools. You really need to know history before making such comments.
Virtually all of our military was educated in public schools. Public education is one of the signs of a modern nation and will not go away since it is not the problem. Transforming the teachers unions is the major problem.
Homeschooling can never replace public education either.
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