Things are getting rather out of hand, I think...

[Lady Sidhe]

LESS THAN ZERO TOLERANCE: Sharon Huff got a call that her son, Marcus, 7,
had said a "bad word" at his Lafayette, La., school. When he got home,
a note from his teacher at Ernest Gallet Elementary informed her Marcus
had used the word "gay" to describe his mother, who is a lesbian.
Marcus was sentenced to in-school suspension and forced to write "I
will never use the word 'gay' in school again" for an hour. He was also
made to write a "behavior contract" about what he did wrong. "I sed bad
wurds," he wrote, and in the future he should "cep my mouf shut." After
a public outroar, school Superintendent James Easton declared "An
apology is not due" to Marcus or his mother. (Washington Post) ...No
apology for punishing him for telling the truth, and no apology for not
teaching him how to write.

[russotto]

Damn, next they'll be punishing students who describe their randy female canine pets as bitches. Assuming they don't have a conniption at "randy", that is.

[Beestie]

Why can't we have a zero tolerance policy on stupidity in the teacher's union?

On the other hand, its reassuring to know that there is a school district with even more and bigger retards in it than in the District of Columbia's

[Kitsune]

"I sed bad wurds," he wrote, and in the future he should "cep my mouf shut."

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I think there is a bigger problem when a seven year old is writing this badly.

[SteveDallas]

Yes well, you're probably right, but some elementary school language arts programs emphasize fluency over accuracy of spelling in the early years.

[Kitsune]

Well, I'll give them a break just this one time. It is Louisiana, after all.

[wolf]

Originally posted by Kitsune
"I sed bad wurds," he wrote, and in the future he should "cep my mouf shut."

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I think there is a bigger problem when a seven year old is writing this badly.

I second that comment.

Also, I think this particular news item is a year or more old.

Does the school wish the child to use more appropriate terms such as "queer" or "faggot" in keeping with Southern tradition?

[Happy Monkey]

It's only two months or so old.

[Whit]

      Yeah, I think this was discussed in the Gay marrige thread last month, but that thread is way to long for my lazy ass to go through to double check. The school does suck in this case.

from Beestie:
Why can't we have a zero tolerance policy on stupidity in the teacher's union?

      Simple answer, if they did that they wouldn't have enough teachers. Class rooms are packed to tight as it is. You can't fire the incompetant teachers without breaking rules on class size. Nor can you find new, better people to work as teachers for the low pay and less respect.

[BrianR]

Simple answer, if they did that they wouldn't have enough teachers. Class rooms are packed to tight as it is. You can't fire the incompetant teachers without breaking rules on class size. Nor can you find new, better people to work as teachers for the low pay and less respect.

QED

My old English 101 teacher would run out of red ink correcting the grammar and punctuation of that quote.

Brian

[dar512]

Simple answer, if they did that they wouldn't have enough teachers. Class rooms are packed to tight as it is. You can't fire the incompetant teachers without breaking rules on class size. Nor can you find new, better people to work as teachers for the low pay and less respect. [/b]

Pay for school teachers, especially grade school level, is abysmal. In any other profession, a college graduate working 50-60 hour weeks would be paid much more.

There are two problems. One is that most of the money for K-12 schools comes from the local level. Many (most?) people see school taxes as the only ones they have direct control over. If they vote down the school tax, that's at least one tax they can make sure doesn't go up.

The other problem is the perception that teachers work short hours and only part of the year. My wife is a third grade teacher and I can tell you she puts in a lot of time in class preparation, grading and so forth. Also, it's true that teachers get the summer off, but that doesn't mean what it used to either. School goes from the last week in August to the second week in June around here. Given, that she starts prepping for the next year around the beginning of August, that's only six weeks off for the summer.

Given the amount of time she puts in during the school year, it ends up being more than a full time job.

When the country starts paying a decent wage for that kind of dedication, you'll stop seeing dipshits teaching and running the schools.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I think the adminitrators are a bigger problem than teachers. The teachers I know, who I grant you are older and probably make more money, tell me the aministrators are the ones driving good teachers out.

[Lady Sidhe]

Well, I can tell you that I definitely would not be a teacher in a public school. I know several teachers, and they have a dangerous job...kids these days are bringing weapons to school, cursing out teachers, etc. and the parents often don't do anything about it. They expect the teachers to discipline their children. What they don't realize, or rather, don't want to accept, is that it's not the job of the teacher to do such a thing. Teachers are there to TEACH. The parents are the ones who are supposed to socialize their kids and discipline them so they WON'T be little heathens in the classroom.

Also, not all schools in Louisiana are abysmal. I LIVE in Louisiana, and the newer schools are much better. For the most part, all of the schools I attended throughout my life were the better public schools, with the exception of Valley Park Middle in Baton Rouge, which was a cesspool of punks and gangsta wannabes. Very scary place. The teachers didn't hesitate to throw whatever was close at hand at a misbehaving student. They got pretty accurate, too, and the kids didn't screw with them. But as I said, most of the schools were very academically oriented. I think the problem with most schools, no matter where they are, is the fact that they're SPORTS oriented. In other words, athletes could get away with not being able to spell their own names, as long as they could play well. Not so at my high school. Our coaches were all teachers, and if you didn't pass your classes, you didn't play. Louisiana IS getting better.

[deepandchilled03]

Feel free to email them here.

webmaster@lft.k12.la.us

[headsplice]

The quintessential American author, Sam Clemens said it best (and I say it a lot myself):
"Everything in moderation, including moderation."