THE FAILED EDUCATION "REFORMS" (12-year old cuffed for puddle jumping)

NewsWithViews.com ^ | April 14, 2003 | Tom DeWeese

[fight_truth_decay]

Sometimes a single incident can reveal the widespread rot that has affected the nation's school systems as they strive to indoctrinate the children entrusted to their care while neglecting to teach them the Three R's.

In Inverness, Florida, a 12-year-old boy was cuffed*, arrested, and taken in a patrol car to jail where he was held for two hours. His crime? You aren't going to believe it! Kyle Fredrikson was walking back to class from lunch when Deputy Tim Langer saw the boy "purposely stomping in the water" after being told numerous times by school personnel to stay with the group and out of the rain. Little boys like to stomp on puddles. Always have and always will.

He didn't comply and Officer Langer took the sixth-grader to a school office where he was handcuffed and taken to jail. Kyle was charged with disruption of an educational institution, a misdemeanor. After sitting for two hours by himself in a police holding room, the police released the boy to his mother and grandmother.

His parents were understandably outraged. "The inmates had access to him. Can you imagine that for stomping in a mud puddle?" said his father. Lt. James Martone, who oversees the school resource officer program, said Langer made a proper arrest. "He did his job," Martone said. "It's a fine line any officer in the schools walks."

Why was it a good arrest? Why do these things happen to children today, when earlier generations of children never faced such lunacy? The answer is that the school "curriculum" today is 100 percent behavior modification, not academics. Kyle was being a little boy, expressing his individuality and his indifference to overzealous authority. In today's educational environment, both are affronts to the "system" and must be dealt with quickly and severely. To the system, students are intended to be properly trained human resources. In the world of education today there are no children anymore.

An item from the Education Reporter reveals how, under the Socialist concept of Sustainable Development, schools are being restructured to enforce "cradle-to-grave life-long learning." Preschool, formally known as kindergarten, is becoming mandatory. Parents are told it gives children a head start, but it only gives schools a head start in their mission to indoctrinate them. It gives the school the priority of determining the children's values.

Retired educator and former Fulbright scholar Margaret Brogley who spent nearly 40 years in the classroom says public education is failing because of the methods and materials used, not because there aren't enough toddlers enrolled in preschool.

Mrs. Brogley noted that, over the past 40 years, education has been dumbed down, from fuzzy math to the dearth of phonics reading instruction to the inability of many students to use cursive handwriting. "For 50 years, we have heard of the necessity to improve education," she wrote to Arkansas state education leaders, "How long will it take? Every time the 'experts' fix the situation, it becomes worse. Now the child is to learn to read by the 4th grade. Why so long? I am no genius, but I learned to read before the first year was over."

"Will education be improved (by enrolling young children in pre-school)?" Brogley asked rhetorically, then answered her own question: "No, but it will cost billions of dollars…adding more school years to a child's life will accomplish nothing."

With preschool showing poor results, it should come as no surprise that the more than one billion dollars a year of federal aid for after-school programs in 7,500 public schools nationwide has not helped most children academically, according to a federally funded study.

The report, "When Schools Stay Open Late," conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., said children who attend after-school activities at public elementary and middle schools are more likely to encounter bullies, vandals, thieves and drug users than those who do not. The after school centers, says the report, have limited influence on academic performance, no influence on feelings of safety or on the number of "latch-key children; and some negative influence on behavior. Middle school participants are "more likely to report that they had sold drugs and were somewhat more likely to report that they smoked marijuana."

From being arrested for stomping on a rain puddle to the ineffectiveness of both preschool and after school programs, and everything in between, the failure of the US education system continues to demonstrate how thoroughly trashed it has been in the past half century of "reform." The reform that is necessary now is the return of control to local school boards, the reduction of the control that teacher's unions exercise, and an end to the disastrous federal involvement in the nation's educational systems.

It has been several decades since a government study revealed the failure of the nation's education system and nothing has changed, except for the worse. A new American Revolution is needed to take our schools back from those who have been deliberately dumbing down our students. We need real teachers in our classrooms, not "facilitators." We need a renewed emphasis on the basics, not the judgement-neutral curriculum that is more concerned with "self-esteem" than teaching children anything.

Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report and president of the American Policy Center, a grassroots, activist think tank headquartered in Warrenton, VA. The Center maintains an Internet site at http:www.americanpolicy.org

[wbill]

How fast does society go downhill?

I was a HS freshman in '85. One of the seniors got pregnant and it was a very hush-hush type thing. She dropped out, if I remember right.

By the time I was a senior ('89), around a dozen of the freshman class were pregnant. It was no big deal.

[yooper]

"The school my kids would go to has pregnant 5th graders attending class with the other kids, ..."

How many times have these pregnant 5th graders been held back?! You'll pardon my raising my eyebrows at this statement.....

[MangoCrazy]

Just a question: There is no report in the wider press of this arresst.

The only report or mention of this is by Tom DeWees, poster and orignator of the article. If there is more documentation of this incident, please post it so we can verify.

Thanks.

[ladylib]

I read about this story last year. It's not current and besides, it's not that unusual a story anymore.

[OldEagle]

"How many times have these pregnant 5th graders been held back?!"

Held back??? Not real commom any more.

[fight_truth_decay]

*The above referenced "puddle boy was cuffed". Did it really happen? Yes.

Read my comment to the story I posted and the links..all right there. First thing I do on stories are check the sources. This was not so much about a boy cuffed..but what the bigger picture is.

Respectfully

F_T_D

[MangoCrazy]

FOLKS - WE WERE DUPPED!

THIS HAPPENED 4 YEARS AGO. HERE IS THE ARTICLE AND THE LINK:


Updated December 8, 1999, 10:25 a.m. ET

Fla. sixth-grader who stomped in puddle arrested



INVERNESS, Fla. (AP) — There was no kid-glove treatment for a 12-year-old boy who stomped his feet in a puddle and sprayed classmates and a school official.

Deputy Tim Langer hauled Kyle Fredrikson off to jail Monday and charged the boy with disruption of an educational institution, a misdemeanor, for the incident.

His parents, Chuck and Brenda Fredrikson, are outraged. "The inmates had access to him. Can you imagine that for stomping in a mud puddle?" said his father.

Authorities say Kyle was walking back to class from lunch when Langer said the boy "purposely stomped in the water" after being told numerous times by school personnel to stay with the group and out of the rain.

At that point, Langer took the sixth-grader to a school office where the boy was cuffed, put in a patrol car and taken to jail. After about two hours in a holding room alone, the sixth-grader was released to the custody of his mother and grandmother.

Lt. James Martone, who oversees the school resource officer program, said Langer made a proper arrest. Inverness Middle School Principal Cindy Staten said she and sheriff's officials discussed the incident Tuesday but didn't elaborate.

Kyle's family say he has a hyperactive disorder and is in a class with similar children. Langer should have taken that into account before arresting him, they say.

Kyle was back in school Tuesday.

[ladylib]

With the No Child Left Behind Act, lots of kids are being held back in school because they can't pass their "high-stakes" test which is mandated by the federal government.

[ladylib]

You weren't duped. These stories pop up all the time now. They aren't unusual.

[MattAMiller]

Are schools out-of-control dicipline-free hell holes or socialist gulags? Lets make up our minds here people. I hear both frequently. And it's not like it comes from ideaological opposites.

[fight_truth_decay]

If you dumbed up and read the whole article and the comment you will see we already know "when" the article was written. Its not about the boy as much as the whole picture.

Take the time to read!!!

F_T_D

[fight_truth_decay]

The ' duped ' Mango might be part of what we are talking about. ;)

Sorry, Mango. Try to absorb the article for more than jumping in puddles..that's not the story..read the comments so many have taken the time to so constructively post.

Respectfully
F_T_D

[redheadtoo]

Lt. James Martone, who oversees the school resource officer program, said Langer made a proper arrest. "He did his job," Martone said.

A cop, or his supervisor, who thinks that arresting a twelve year old for splashing in a puddle is just doing his job needs to find another line of work. Giving a gun and police authority to someone who is this gung ho is just asking for trouble. What will he do when a couple of kids take a swing at each other... shoot them?... break their heads?

The school can discipline the boy by giving him detention or making him write an essay. The parents can ground the boy for the weekend and not let him watch any T.V. That would be proper discipline for the "crime" of splashing.

[ladylib]

Mango could also do a search on zero-tolerance and come up with a whole bunch of stupidity foisted on public school students today.

[Windcatcher]

I'm hearing that too. I think it would be very, very bad for religious institutions to become dependent on government money. Right now, the only thing that saves them is their independence.

[Windcatcher]

I graduated in '87 from a Catholic high school (all boys, so no pregnancy stories, hee hee). The worst thing that ever happened then was a kid got hauled off to jail for dealing coke. JUST ONE KID. It was the talk of the school. We generally knew who the handful of potheads were, but that's as far as it went. If kids got in a fight they could look forward to having it broken up by the principal, who usually did so by beating them into submission. THEN he sent them to the dean, who just happened to be a USMC Major.

We're dinosaurs today. Old farts. I'm 33 and it scares the hell out of me.

[ChemistCat]

Mmmph, I don't think so, though I wish you were right. My husband is a military retiree. That tells you right there that while we have some security, we aren't exactly doing well. The most productive years of my husband's life were spent in the service of his country, and when he got out, he wasn't prepared to do the job he wants--teaching. Now he's jumping through all the absurd and crazy hoops of the educational unions & colleges.

My husband is working two jobs and going to school full time, while *I* am going to school 3/4 time, and we could definitely qualify for food stamps. If my husband quits one of his jobs, or is fired, we likely WILL NEED food stamps.

[TLBSHOW]

Its because its communist infiltration. Read None dare call it treason by John A. Stormer it was written in the 60's and most of it is coming to pass, the education section the culure section the church section the Russia and china section.


Its all there every single thing that he said is happening in America. The schools are infiltrated by commies in America!

[wbill]

One dinosaur to another.....If your upbringing was anything like mine, the punishment at home was 10x what they could dish out at school.....

Of course, I got my learnin frum a public skool. :-)

Also, it was a rural school. The boys brought rifles during deer season. No one thought anything of it. Times have changed.....

[fight_truth_decay]

The democrats nationalized education under LBJ, created the union monster, and the decline in education in America correlates perfectly with the establishment of the Federal Department of Education under Jimmy Carter.