IS THAT A PLEDGE PIN ON YOUR UNIFORM?!?! BLATANT INSUBORDINATION!!!
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.
This sort of thing is to be expected under socialized schooling. She needs to get off the socialized schooling welfare program and put the kid in a capitalist school or home school him.
Whew!
IS THAT A PLEDGE PIN ON YOUR UNIFORM?!?! BLATANT INSUBORDINATION!!!
Everybody is missing the point here. That comment shows me he had more respect for the principal than she deserved, and he was "rewarded" with a five-day suspension and being traumatized besides.
Seems to me the adults showed less respect and a whole lot more drama than the child in this case. The superintendent, someone with common sense, did the right thing, but the damage has been done. Since when does yelling at and haranguing a child help him to learn?
I can only imagine what went through this kid's mind...probably the same thing that went through my mind when I first read this and I would have been in trouble for writing something cheeky anyway.
This bring to mind the following true story. One of my friend's sons was taking Delaware's DSTP test and one of the questions was "how do you feel about your parents being divorced." He refused to answer it and they threatened to fail him if he did. He told his mother later that he was tempted to lie, but instead said it wasn't any of their business. So they failed him. By the time his mother heard of it and caused a ruckus with the school board, they gave him a test without the personal questions, and he passed it.
The public school monopoly didn't put Catholic schools out of business! The lack of sisters and brothers who were willing to work for peanuts is what drove Catholic schools out of business. Now, tuition rates have to factor in decent salaries for teachers, and there goes the middle class to public school!
Here's a better question: Why were the teacher and principal interfering with a standardized test?
I agree with you to some degree. I have several children, and we've made use of public, private and homeschool. "Bright" children can get excellent educations in many public school gifted and honors classes. However, what passes for education for the masses is a joke. My kids were mostly in honors classes, but every now and then had to take a regular class due to scheduling conflicts. Oh.....brother!
By the way, I'm not an "elitist snob" when it comes to education, either. I have a couple of kids who are - shall we say - intellectually challenged due to brain damage and birth defects.
His test score should simply reflect the unanswered question and whatever consequences that normally entails.
...could be the "consequences" are less funding for the school (if failing scores are demonstrated), hence the gant/sledgehammer response from the principal...
The mother is displaying some real barf-o-rama victimization there.
From a personal perspective: my eldest daughter was a good grade "think outside the box"/apply world knowledge type of student until her fourth grade teacher killed her will to learn. If you want the grim details, FReepmail me. I will just say this woman had NO BUSINESS being around children that age and I hate her guts for doing what she did to my Taylor (who, by the way, at the age of four was playing Simon Says 'Touch your scapula' or 'touch your zygomatic' in pre-school to the confusion of other four year olds and the amazement of adults - she knew these terms from sitting in my sister's lap while my sister studied to be a PA)
From then on, my daughter hasn't put forth any effort in her school work, does enough just to get by and seems to have taken stupid pills.
All it takes is ONE PERSON to kill their spirit.
Smart kid.
How many "test questions" these days are not designed to examine the kid's knowledge, but rather to discover his thoughts and attitudes in order to know which kids need to be watched?
Neither would many famous published authors. Hemingway's simple english sentences would probably have been met with grave disapproval by your teacher
Had a similar situation with my oldest daughter. I put her on Hooked on Phonics before kindergarden, she knew how to read going into kindergarden, and knew long multiplication and division by first grade. The teachers called my wife in to get her to get me to stop because she was bored in class.
Instead, we took her out and homeschooled. She later started college at 15 and is now a chemical engineering major
Public schools here are gateways for CPS, and the WASL is a joke.
Bingo. You nailed it.
I think that's exactly what happened to this poor kid, too.
Unfortunately, when you have immature adults who get off on their power trips over little kids, and they will never, ever be held accountable, all we can expect is more of the same.
I endured a situation similar to yours. FReep me if you want, you sound like a kindred spirit. :)
My sentiments exactly.
I'm surprised theres so much discussion about "You look out one day at school and see your principal flying by a window."
Is this 9 yr old up to snuff in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, etc?
Or is this 9 yr old already slated to work at McD's with a degree in philosophy?
Yes, that's very true, Texas_shutterbug, that the lack of sisters and brothers is a big part of the reason for the closing of Catholic schools. These days there are not as many people willing to dedicate their entire lives to the Church.
But, the public school monopoly has a lot to do with it, too. I have a large, extended Catholic family, and many of my relatives put their children in Catholic school. They tell me the public schools are putting the Catholic schools out of business because other parents don't want to pay tuition when they're already paying school taxes.
Now, tuition rates have to factor in decent salaries for teachers, and there goes the middle class to public school!
That's part of the monopoly. Teachers can command higher salaries at the government-run schools, and parochial schools cannot compete.
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