Educational Silliness | Eastern NC Now

I read an article in a newspaper about how schools administrators are becoming so Politically Correct and/or Afraid of Litigation that they are going to ridiculous extremes. One of the following bullet points is true and was contained in the article I read. The other four I made up. Can you tell which one is true?

1. Two third-graders (a boy & girl) were each suspended for one week for holding hands in the cafeteria.
2. A school principal was quoted as saying that students should not be allowed to think but must be programmed to instinctively react as society norms would dictate.
3. A student basketball player was suspended from his team for insensitivity (3 games) because he shot and made a 3-pointer with 5 seconds left in a game in which his team was ahead by 42 points at the time he took the shot.
4. Some school administrators have banned musical chairs because the inevitable elimination, which is the object of the game, invites ridicule.
5. During gym at one school, all students are now required to wear warm-up pants because of a parent's complaint to the school board that her daughter's legs were unattractive and she has repeatedly been humiliated because other students have been singing jingles about her having chicken legs.

The “winner” (the true one) is number 4. The losers are our children.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

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Lagniappe (Lots of Lagniappe):

The above Blog Posting was published in July 2007 and actually was included in my Little-Read Book. (Yes, I meant to say “Little-Read” not “Little Red” because it is not a Red Book but it is actually a Green Book and the passing of time has proven it to be Read by a Small Number of People.)

I decided to see how close one of my Made Up Happenings above came to being an Actually Happened. I searched on one of them and did not find exactly what I searched on but I did find this Educational Craziness below…

My 2Nd Grader Suspended from School!!!

The Mother’s First Comment…

A few years ago, my husband gave my son (who is now 8) a bullet to put in his "treasure box"--just because my son thought it was a really neat thing. Well, we found out today that my son took the bullet to school--only to show his teacher his "treasure".
She took it away and let the principal know. Then the principal shows up at our house after school and tells us that our son is going to be suspended for 3-5 days and that he is reporting this incident to the Sherriff. After talking to my son we knew that this was an innocent thing and that he wasn’t' trying to show off or hurt anyone. And it was just a bullet--NOT A GUN!! We tried to explain this to the principal but it didn't do any good. He wants us to meet w/him at the school on Monday morning to further discuss this. He told us that our son is lucky that he is only getting a 3-5 day suspension instead of being expelled!
My question is--should we try to fight this suspension thing? I feel like they are over reacting. My son obviously wouldn't be showing his teacher this bullet if he knew it was so wrong. AND he's only in the 2nd grade! What are your thoughts?

The Mother’s Second Comment…

So What Happened?

I just wanna add that the bullet is an old Russian bullet that doesn't fit any type of gun in the US. So there is no way he could fire it if he wanted to. And YES, my husband and I do realize now that it probably wasn't a good idea to give this to him, we probably won't fight this now, but I WILL explain to them our side of the story and how I DON'T agree w/ the punishment.

 Soo…This is what happened...

We did not fight my son's suspension, but we did sit down w/the principal and explain our side. He was actually very understanding and let us know that he was just doing his job. We told our son that this was not his fault, but that we cannot ever take anything to school like that ever again. He didn't really understand what the fuss was about but we explained that bad things have happened to children with guns/bullets/etc. I guess like a lot of you have said, this was a lesson learned. But I do still think that all of this could've been handled differently--oh well.
By the way...some of you are so judgmental! I thought this was supposed to be a "mothers supporting mothers" website, I guess not. But thank all of you who DID support me and give me advice even if you didn't agree w/what went down. Thanks :)

The Mother got many comments. They were not all supportive. Here is one of the non-supportive ones…

I don't think you should fight it. Personally, i don't think it was a very good 'treasure" to have. And if your child was in my child's class and i found out he brought a bullet to school, i would definately be wondering what he would be bringing next and be quite terrified that he would innocently bring in a gun to show his teachers. Zero tolerance is Zero tolerance, it isn't meant to be personal. Teach your son that this is the consequence for bringing banned items to school, and have him discuss with you what other items would not be appropriate for school.

(I left the incorrect capitalization and misspelled word in place as the writer had entered them because the writer deserves to have his/her work of silliness preserved for prosperity to read and be “enlightened” by exactly as written.)

This is Fella again… Aghhhhh!