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Fourth Grader Suspended After Refusing to Answer Exam Question [zero tolerance alert]
zerointelligence ^ | Nov. 3 | zerointelligence

Posted on 11/07/2006 12:15:26 AM PST by Antioch

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To: Antioch

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.


341 posted on 11/11/2006 9:58:42 AM PST by SUSSA
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To: Antioch
You can get suspended for having a bad case of....writer's block?

Whew!

342 posted on 11/11/2006 10:09:31 AM PST by Texas_shutterbug
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To: Antioch; Horatio Gates

IS THAT A PLEDGE PIN ON YOUR UNIFORM?!?! BLATANT INSUBORDINATION!!!

343 posted on 11/11/2006 10:20:18 AM PST by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (Life is tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid.)
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To: Navy Patriot
He says, "I couldn't think of what to write the essay without making fun of the principal."

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.

344 posted on 11/11/2006 10:21:08 AM PST by pray4liberty (School District horrors: http://totallyunjust.tripod.com)
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To: Tired of Taxes

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!


345 posted on 11/11/2006 10:22:39 AM PST by Texas_shutterbug
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To: Pacothecat
Why is it ok for kid to refuse to to do his work??? Again he just deserved a bad grade but should every kid get to deside if he/she likes the questions enough to answer?

Here's a better question: Why were the teacher and principal interfering with a standardized test?

346 posted on 11/11/2006 10:25:42 AM PST by NittanyLion
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To: justshutupandtakeit
Actually, the Founding Fathers had tutors as they grew older. Mothers, aunts, etc. often taught their younger children to read and do simple math.

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.

347 posted on 11/11/2006 10:28:22 AM PST by Texas_shutterbug
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To: DB

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...


348 posted on 11/11/2006 10:57:58 AM PST by Dasaji (...If you can't laugh at it, you'll go crazy!)
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To: Antioch

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.


349 posted on 11/11/2006 11:10:13 AM PST by Dasaji (...If you can't laugh at it, you'll go crazy!)
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To: Antioch
His mother said he didn't want them to know what he was thinking, that she was a witch on a broomstick.''

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?

350 posted on 11/11/2006 11:28:31 AM PST by SauronOfMordor (A planned society is most appealing to those with the arrogance to think they will be the planners)
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To: luckystarmom
However, she said my writing style was very simple, and I wouldn't pass English in college if I continued to write like that.

Neither would many famous published authors. Hemingway's simple english sentences would probably have been met with grave disapproval by your teacher

351 posted on 11/11/2006 11:38:28 AM PST by SauronOfMordor (A planned society is most appealing to those with the arrogance to think they will be the planners)
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To: Wilhelm Tell; CowPalace1964
In kindergarten and first grade my mother was called in and yelled at because she'd been teaching me to read and I was ahead of the other kids.

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

352 posted on 11/11/2006 11:43:00 AM PST by SauronOfMordor (A planned society is most appealing to those with the arrogance to think they will be the planners)
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To: Antioch

Public schools here are gateways for CPS, and the WASL is a joke.


353 posted on 11/11/2006 2:43:09 PM PST by MarMema
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To: Mila
I was wondering if each individual school, that has students participating in this test, is evaluated based on the cumulative scores of the entire student body. Do the schools with better scores get more funding perhaps? Are promotions based on the scores? Are the scores of each school published in the paper?

Bingo. You nailed it.

354 posted on 11/11/2006 2:46:49 PM PST by MarMema
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To: Dasaji
All it takes is ONE PERSON to kill their spirit.

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. :)

355 posted on 11/11/2006 8:44:14 PM PST by pray4liberty (School District horrors: http://totallyunjust.tripod.com)
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To: SauronOfMordor
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?

My sentiments exactly.

356 posted on 11/12/2006 3:43:08 PM PST by pray4liberty (School District horrors: http://totallyunjust.tripod.com)
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To: Antioch

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?


357 posted on 11/12/2006 4:21:11 PM PST by philetus (Keep doing what you always do and you'll keep getting what you always get.)
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To: Texas_shutterbug
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.

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.

358 posted on 11/12/2006 7:27:57 PM PST by Tired of Taxes (That's taxes, not Texas. I have no beef with TX. NJ has the highest property taxes in the nation.)
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