Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Where Are The Adults?

Here are two education-related stories that made me wonder, "where are the adults here?"

Wearing said the charges were filed after an incident last Thursday when a 5-year-old boy apparently tossed out his lunch of chicken nuggets and a banana from the school cafeteria. The teacher then allegedly went over to the garbage can, pulled out the food and forced the boy to eat it in front of her. link

A Rhode Island woman is facing charges after allegedly punching and biting her 11-year-old son's school principal after being told the boy was being suspended. link


These snippets speak for themselves; I have nothing to add.

4 comments:

Ellen K said...

Darren,
I truly think that our society is breaking down. We've removed all barriers, struck down all the attributes of honor and shame and alleviated anyone from responsibility for their own actions. I am sure that the idiots in question will have sufficient legal representation and will probably barter out a decision that doesn't really admit fault, but bears no penalty. These are just the stories you hear. Every teacher has a collection of unbelievable but true stories.

Unknown said...

Another argument for privatizing food services. That was notable for being one of the very few intelligent decisions the university made over about ten years.

Ellen K said...

prof, just for the record, my district contracts out their food services. The kids complain because while prices go up, food quality and amount goes down. And, teenage boys are restricted to just one meal. That mean four chicken tenders, jello and a salad. Do you know any normal teenage boy who can survive on that little? So the kids bring their own food, skip off campus for lunch or find ways to eat a big breakfast and use lunch as a social hour. The other issue is that the service company hires lots of illegal immigrants. Supposedly they check identities, but I have had several tell me they would cross back and forth illegally. It's not too far fetched to think someone with criminal intent could get a job at one of these companies as a custodian, maintenance worker or food person. I had one maintenance guy refuse to move a screen printer by saying it was broken. I later found out he would say things were broken, take them to the dumpster and come back after hours to claim them to sell on craigslist. You can't make this stuff up. Everything comes with a price. I wish we had control of all the school's personnel so that some of those who didn't work and spent time eating in my room at night watching ESPN would get fired. But only the contracted company can do that, and they won't.

Unknown said...

To only one contractor? At IU, there is a food court at every dorm, at the library, and two at the student union. They're always full.

Privatization doesn't work without competition. That's the whole point. Course, that would take the schools out of the health nazi business, but that's a good thing.