Obedience
Another scary story from our modern educational system:
One imagines that the "no cell phone use during school hours" rule isn't intended to prevent a student from having what may be his last conversation with his mother. Soldiers die in Iraq. She may not come home. You'd think they would cut the boy some slack.
It's not like the kid was chatting with his friend, or text-messaging test answers, making a drug deal or any other of the possible bad uses of a cell phone at school. But, as with the small girl who was handcuffed a while back, the school "professionals" felt that zero tolerance is the way, and the failure of a student to respond immediately with obedience is a crime worthy of arrest. How very generous of them to only suspend him. Way to support the troops!
This is not the way to raise children. And I fear it is the recipe for training Hitler Youth, not citizens for a participatory democracy.
This student is going to be voting next year. I'd hope that we could be treating him with the respect due a person able to make sensible decisions. And to respond heatedly when Authority exceeds its sensible limits. It's not surprising that he used profanity when he was taken to the Principal's office for refusing to immediately hang up on one of his parents who is serving in a war zone. I might have too.
When did we decide that education was an adversarial process?
COLUMBUS, Ga. -- A high school student was suspended for 10 days for refusing to end a mobile phone call with his mother, a soldier serving in Iraq, school officials said.OK, so, yes, it is important to give respect to systems of rules in our society. But we presume that such rules are made and applied with a bit of common sense and mutual understanding.
The 10-day suspension was issued because Kevin Francois was "defiant and disorderly" and was imposed in lieu of an arrest, Spencer High School assistant principal Alfred Parham said.
The confrontation Wednesday began after the 17-year-old junior got a call at lunchtime from his mother, Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, who left in January for a one-year tour with the 203rd Forward Support Battalion.
Mobile phones are allowed on campus but may not be used during school hours. When a teacher told him to hang up, he refused. He said he told the teacher, "This is my mom in Iraq. I'm not about to hang up on my mom."
Parham said the teen's suspension was based on his reaction to the teacher's request. He said the teen used profanity when taken to the office.
One imagines that the "no cell phone use during school hours" rule isn't intended to prevent a student from having what may be his last conversation with his mother. Soldiers die in Iraq. She may not come home. You'd think they would cut the boy some slack.
It's not like the kid was chatting with his friend, or text-messaging test answers, making a drug deal or any other of the possible bad uses of a cell phone at school. But, as with the small girl who was handcuffed a while back, the school "professionals" felt that zero tolerance is the way, and the failure of a student to respond immediately with obedience is a crime worthy of arrest. How very generous of them to only suspend him. Way to support the troops!
This is not the way to raise children. And I fear it is the recipe for training Hitler Youth, not citizens for a participatory democracy.
This student is going to be voting next year. I'd hope that we could be treating him with the respect due a person able to make sensible decisions. And to respond heatedly when Authority exceeds its sensible limits. It's not surprising that he used profanity when he was taken to the Principal's office for refusing to immediately hang up on one of his parents who is serving in a war zone. I might have too.
When did we decide that education was an adversarial process?
posted by Paul at 11:02 AM |
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