There's often more to these kind of stories than the initial news reports reveal, and I'm leery of allowing public institutions too much 'creativity' in their punishments in any case. But I do wonder: would this 10-year-old really have been better served by the default week-long suspension (or the alternative cop-out, no punishment at all?)
Posted by Alan Allport at June 11, 2004 05:14 AMBut I do wonder: would this 10-year-old really have been better served by the default week-long suspension (or the alternative cop-out, no punishment at all?)
Probably not, but there must be a more appropriate reaction than the punishment that was applied and the two alternatives you mention.
BTW I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on the relation, if any, between the washing of children's mouths and a reduction in foul language.
Posted by: Gene Zitver at June 11, 2004 01:45 PMI guess things don't change.
My mother's first professional teaching job was in an inner-city Rochester school in the late 1950s. She was shocked to find most of her fellow teachers were curdled, brutal, frequently racist time-servers who appeared to hate children. It upset her so much she was prevented from quitting the teaching profession only by a transfer to a more humane district.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at June 11, 2004 10:47 PMWhat stands out to me is the fact that no one has even bothered to give School 22 a name.
It only just occured to me that mouth-washing is very much based on magical thinking. Must be a very old form of punishment.
Posted by: Alan Hogue at June 12, 2004 12:18 PMMagical thinking? Nah, sounds more like a twisted sense of irony.
They called the school where my mother taught by its number, too, but she says it was formally named after some great man of the past, she forgets which one. Maybe "School 22" has a fancier name that nobody uses too.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at June 12, 2004 04:16 PM