School administrators are going nuts again with that zero tolerance thing. Or maybe it’s zero education. This time it was in Kermit, a thriving West Texas metropolis of 6,000.
According to the NY Daily News, Kermit Elementary suspended 9-year-old Aiden Steward for threatening to make a classmate disappear with his magical ring forged in Middle Earth’s Mount Doom. Yep. That’s all. Pretending with a pretend magical ring. No finger gun. No “pew pew.” Just a magical ring inspired by the Steward family’s recent viewing of “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies.”
Principal Roxanne Greer reportedly said threats to another child’s safety would not be tolerated – whether magical or not. She declined to comment on Aiden’s suspension, citing confidentiality policies. I wonder what she told Aiden. That imagination isn’t allowed in school? I’m not sure how education is supposed to work without stimulating imagination. And what must Aiden be thinking now? That educators don’t know “magic” rings are actually just make believe? Or maybe that they’re stupid enough to believe pretend magic poses a real threat?
Oh, but it gets worse. This is the third time this year Aiden has been suspended. The other two times were “in-school” suspensions, whatever that is. The first time was for “referring to a classmate as black” (Daily News). The Odessa American reported it as “referring to another student’s skin color.” Guess we’ll just have to imagine … er, guess what actually happened.
The second offense was really egregious. Aiden took his favorite book — The Big Book of Knowledge — to school. But the teacher discovered the book had a section on pregnancy. And it included a picture of a pregnant woman. Horrors! (See accompanying photo. Methinks Aiden already knew what a pregnant woman looks like.)
I hope the “educators” at that school kept Aiden’s book. They need it more than he does.
It’s Texas, what can we sadly what more should we expect than stuff like this
Yep, that’s pretty much what I was thinking. (I do, however, make an exception for those fine Texans I know who actually managed to learn the difference between “pretend” and “for real.”)
Someone in the Amazon review/comments has suggested buying up all the used copies of “The Big Book of Knowledge” and sending them to Kermit Elementary. The school’s information is available online. I am sooo tempted …
Someone in Kermit needs an education, and it’s not the kids (who are the victims here). Those who are so overprotective and believe you can legislate morality (and apparently imagination as well) will eventually find that keeping knowledge locked away protects no one. Not that they’ll admit that … ever …
I’m tempted, too, to send books to Kermit, but I fear they might just be fodder for the bonfire.
Well, maybe if you tore out the pages about pregnancy before sending them …
Because we all know babies come from the cabbage patch … 😀
Y’all are going to be sorry you made fun of Kermit when you disappear.
😀
It’s West Texas. A whole different country.
I suggest this child needs a school with educators instead of bland lock stepped individuals stuck in classrooms in public schools. He may be a continual problem or the school may be continually failing. Many really bright kids get into trouble because teachers are inadequately trained or inflexible or not as sharp as the kids. Have to be on your toes to head off trouble
(although this may all be playground stuff which kids used to sort out for themselves instead of demanding adults intervene)
I’d suggest home schooling or gather up others in the community fed up with the nonsense public education has become and start their own schooling group. .
In their attempt to please all and offend none, the schools are serving no one. Shaking in their boots constantly.
Brings to mind experience in our elementary school where one parent demanded the school remove all books/library books that had witches, devils, magic, ghosts…..and if they didn’t she would sue for freedom of (her ) religion rights. The school can’t afford lawyers to fight idiot lawsuits that some money hungry making a name for themselves lawyer brings, so they often back down before bully parents. We would have been sunk if the Wiccan parents hadn’t stepped up and protested (And where’s the logical reasoning of “it’s just fiction – get over it. And you are just one of many parents”. Gut it up school. Oh, lawyers…)
We need to go back to “grow up kid, a ring ain’t gonna hurt you – and neither are words, so stop whining we got serious work to do here.”
Blame the quick to protest and bully parents who protest every little thing(such as a book’s illustration or their child feeling “threatened”) as much as the school which ought to have a principal with a bit more experience handling situations like this…lady, teachable moments….they seen and heard worse on TV and from their parents. Gut it up and do your job – silencing kids/trouble makers is easy way out but counter productive.
In a town of 6,000, this is the only elementary school. That doesn’t leave many alternatives for the parents. And I’ve no idea how you would get new and better educators to move to a town that small.
As for the inter-parental politics, I’ve never seen a school that didn’t have some. And they can get vicious. Parents fighting for their kids can get carried away. But the adults need to remember they are the adults and they’re setting the example for the kids.
Boy, is your last paragraph on target.
There’s something going on with this kid – whether it’s he’s really smart or the school has just pegged him as a troublemaker, or the school is terrified of certain parents making demands I don’t know. But what I do know is that the whole thing is wasting valuable learning time for this kid and the parents need to step up which may mean homeschooling if this is the best available education. With the internet, and so many ready made curriculums/materials available it’s a lot easier now. We looked into several lessons by mail when we considered taking off in a sail boat. The Calvert School curriculum was started early 1900’s and is the best known. It is used by US Dept of defense families overseas. where classrooms are not good. Excellent choice. Solid lessons, accredited, and recognized by universities.
Australia also has a high quality distant learning curriculum and connects with cameras to teachers/classrooms.
Clock is ticking with that kid and minutes do count. The whole mess is disrupting his shot at the future. Parents need to look long term/big picture and make decision. Is it worth dealing with the idiocy of public education? win the battle, lose the war? No need for the kid to lose, though. Oh, the joys of small towns. (what no church schools?…out of the frying pan and into the fire with that, frequently)
You touched on what I thought about my son’s education. He’s got one time to get this right, one go around, one childhood. The best thing I can possibly do for him is make sure he gets the best possible education, as early as possible and for as long as possible. Having online options then would have helped a lot for those times when the schools couldn’t challenge him or didn’t offer what he wanted to study.
That poor child. He’s being robbed. 🙁
Yep. And he can never get these years back.