Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Harmless Joke, Or Cruel?

It's harmless if you're the teacher, cruel if you can use it to extort money from the school:
The mother of an 8-year-old Arizona girl who was presented with a "Catastrophe Award" for apparently having the most excuses for not having homework believes her child was humiliated by her teacher.

Christina Valdez said her daughter, Cassandra Garcia, came home one day from class at Desert Springs Academy in Tucson, Ariz., with the paper award.

The document, which looks like a colorful card, contained the following message: "You're Tops! Catastrophe Award.  Awarded to Cassandra Garcia. For Most Excuses for Not Having Homework"...

 "I think it's cruel and no child should be given an award like this. It's disturbing," she said, adding that she was not aware her daughter had a problem with homework"....
And that says it all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look people, its obviously not about the daughter , the award or the teacher. Its about the mom wanting some easy money. When life gets you down... sue someone. Sorry lady, looks like you'll still have to go to work on Monday, but when you get home check you're daughters homework. You now know she does in fact have homework and that she LIES to you about it ALL THE TIME!

Scott mccall said...

I'm sure the student found it funny or entertaining. But why wasn't the parent informed of the problem?

Ellen K said...

Depending on the age of the child, maybe it's mean BUT having said that, I have this year experienced more helicopter parenting that ever before. One kid was absent, with Mommy's note, 28 times out of 90 days. He's hardly a frail flower of a child being a strapping six footer. He just doesn't like going to school. Mommy is a social butterfly and leaves the house for her various activities before Jr. wakes up. Then he texts her that he feels bad. The other kids know he's faking. The attendance office knows he's faking. But he treats it like a big joke, making up seat time after Mommy calls. He's 15. God help us when he reaches maturity at 40.

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

Meh. When I was a kid there was a "Golden Shovel Award." It's a spray-painted gold plastic shovel, the kind you use for sand at the beach. It's for the most poopy-shovellin' essay. Winner is read before the class.

It was all in good fun. Hard to tell if this award is or not and to me that makes all the difference. :)