Re: What are we teaching?
Alan Wolfson (alanw@MDLI.COM)
Wed, 6 May 1998 13:23:29 -0700
At 05:15 PM 5/5/98 -0700, you wrote:
>I am also an educator and I have to say that some of what was done to these
>children makes sense.
I'm not an educator, and I think what was done to those children was
flat-out nonsense!
>I teach at an alternative middle school for at-risk youth and we, as a
>staff, discuss every discipline issue before exacting any discipline. A
Question: do you exact discipline or exact punishment? I thought the
definition of discipline was to train, or teach.
>...couple of years ago we had a student who was a Boy Scout bring his
knife to
>school accidentally. We decided as a group to suspend him for three days
>and let me explain why. There are those students whose parents do not take
>an active roll in their children's lives who, if we did *not* suspend this
>child, would think that it was ok to bring a knife to school.
Ohhhh, now I understand - punish the child because the parent doesn't take
an active roll (sic) in the child's life. How does suspending the child
teach the parent that s/he should participate more in the child's life?
Will the act of suspending the child be an epiphany in the life of the
(not-very-involved) parent and cause him/her to become more involved? I
don't think so!
It _should_ be ok to bring a knife to school! What is the rationale for
their prohibition? I can understand having rules against the incorrect, or
dangerous use of a knife, or using it to threaten another person. I know
that when I was a student in junior high school more kids were attacked
with thumbtacks made red hot from rubbing on desks than were ever harmed
with knives. Why haven't thumbtacks (or paper clips and rubber bands)
become illegal in school?
>Whether you like it or not, sometimes we have to punish a student when it
>goes against our better judgement (because it is a *good* kid), but the
>fact is we have to be fair in our rules and their consequences.
I think the key phrase here is "...fair in our rules and their
consequences." I believe that the majority of school teachers and
administrators don't understand the definition of "fair." My definition of
a "fair" knife policy would be to demonstrate proficiency in the use and
care of a knife - presentation of a Toten Chip card or equivalent would be
more than acceptable. If a student was found to be in possession of a
knife without the appropriate training or certification, _then_ the
appropriate punishment could be meted out.
>Isn't that what scouting is teaching kids, to be fair? Would we want them
>to be excluded from the rules because he only broke it a little? What are
>we teaching them if we say that it is ok to break the rules , but just a
>little. Kids don't understand that and we should never give the impression
>that it is ok.
Yes, but kids also have am immature sense of what is fair. They don't yet
understand that life is basically unfair. As adults, we should be doing
everything in our power to foster fairness in their lives (it would also be
good to inject some fairness into our own lives, but that's another post. :-))
We, educators and all of us ordinary people, need to introduce our
children to the concepts of common sense, self-reliance, and personal
responsibility. The school policies that have been discussed on this list
during the past few days don't appear to teach our children any of those
qualities.
Yours in parenting,
Alan
Alan Wolfson Boy Scout Roundtable Commissioner
wolfson@scamp.mv.com Arrowhead District, Daniel Webster Council
alanw@mdli.com Nashua, NH
I used to be a bear (NE-CS-36) Co-leader GSUSA Cadette troop 7
I used to be a fox (NE-I-184)
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
