Is it me or the world?

Published: October 11, 2007, 3:22 am

Updated: October 11, 2007, 3:26 am

You know how during commercial breaks the anchor person for the local news will say "crash on the interstate causes 2 deaths - story at 11" or "suicide bomber walks into church and blows himself up - story at 11."

Well, all night I heard about a school teacher who committed a "violent act" against 3 students and "story at 11" so I made the point of keeping the local news on at - you guessed it - 11.

Here's the big headline. At a Collier County middle school, 3 boys were misbehaving during band class so the teacher ordered them to do pushups. One student became so disruptive that the teacher told him to hold the pushup position for 5 minutes (or was it 10? this is under investigation)

"An Immokalee Middle School teacher violated Collier County School District discipline policy when the teacher ordered a student to hold in a pushup position for 5 to 10 minutes for misbehaving in band class, a district administrator said today."

I don't believe in beating kids, but what's wrong with giving them some exercises to do to get them in line? Give this teacher the Golden Apple award for heaven's sake!

FYI: Less than 25% of Immokalee residents have a high diploma. Close to 40% live under the poverty level. If this happened in a wealthy town and the students were snotty prep boys, I'd feel the same way about discipline, but if these kids start behaving in class they might actually learn something, go to high school, graduate and possibly get college scholarships. On the other hand, I just tried doing a pushup and for me that is a form of torture!

Seriously, I think we should be more concerned about the teacher in Indiana who showed up drunk yesterday or the teacher in New York who had sex with his students.

Entry #86

Comments

Rick G - Oct 11, 2007, 8:37 am

I went to boys schools from eighth grade through high school. If you misbehaved you were punished corporally by the Franciscan Brothers in charge. This included "swats" (bend down, grab your ankles), punches, slaps and other physical means of punishment. There were no politically correct parents wringing their hands about it. If they didn't like it they could have pulled their kids out of the school...yet they never did. Needless to say there was very little misbehaving and 98% of our graduating class went on to college.

It was the best five years of education I ever received, discipline and all.

justxploring - Oct 11, 2007, 1:35 pm

Thanks for your comment, Rick. If I had children, I wouldn't want anyone hitting them. However, I do believe in punishment and discipline, as long as it's not cruel and severe. I was a timid child and my 1st grade teacher in Boston was mean, not to everyone, but she had her favorites..guess I wasn't one of them. She punished me for spilling my milk, as if I did it on purpose. (she did the same to my older sister 2 years earlier) She mimicked me when I talked too fast while the whole class laughed. She made the class point at me and call me skinny and said "maybe now you'll eat a good breakfast with bacon." I was crying so hard she made me leave the class to wash my face. She sometimes sent me to the principal's office to get the "rattan." Honestly, why would I lie now? I was a sensitive & shy little girl from an abusive family who never caused any trouble and school should have been a haven for me. Thank goodness we moved and I had wonderful teachers in my new school. If anyone knows a Miss Monahan who was an elementary school teacher in Jamaica Plain in 1956-57 tell her to drop dead for me.

jarasan - Oct 11, 2007, 8:25 pm

Kids need to fear consequences, all this stuff should be dealt with locally. Most kids today are OK, the problems start when the village starts getting involved unnecessarily. Discipline is discipline, every parent I know that was a good disciplinarian, the kids turned out well. The pushover parents are of course another story. You gotta be involved with your kids now, they have a myriad of distractions compared to 20-30 years ago. Too much info, too quick.

justxploring - Oct 12, 2007, 12:48 am

Jarasan, I agree with you. But many of these children come from families where 2 parents work 2 jobs or there aren't 2 parents. They're not necessarily "pushover parents" but if Mom can't be there when the kids get home from school, then the community needs to have programs that keep them out of trouble.

Is it me or the world?

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