School administrators love those "zero tolerance" policies, because they don't have to use what few brain cells they possess to make a decision. It is a "yes-no-don't blame me" method of not making a decision, and therefore, not having to be accountable for anything.
So when a "zero tolerance" policy snags a stellar kid, hey, it's not their fault.
I can see why home-schooling is becoming more and more popular.
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3 comments:
All school administrators (elementary through university) ought to be forced to wear half-helmets and bibs, and be bussed to school on short buses.
A larger group of drooling, poo-flinging retards has never existed.
(Note: This is also DE. They need...special help.)
As a former teacher, I approve Cranky's suggestion. I only had one half-decent administrator during my entire teaching career, and the district demoted him to teaching a 4th grade elementary school class because he didn't paper over the school's problems but, rather, made a real effort to solve them -- which meant acknowledging the problems, which was something the school district wanted no part of because it made them look bad. Of the other principals: #1: Preacher man, scared of the parents, hid in his office most of the time. #2. Elementary school teacher bumped up to be principal via affirmative action (she met two criteria in one -- woman, and black!). She actually wasn't bad to start with, but by the time I came along she was just putting in time to retirement and not wanting to rock any boat that might interfere with her retirement. #3. Crazy black dude who insisted that all white teachers were just picking on those poor innocent little black boys when said hooligans were sent to the office for misbehaving. Note that 99% of the students at this school were black and that white teachers didn't send students to the office any more often than black teachers, but facts didn't matter to this guy. He eventually was fired because a teacher overheard a student saying he was going to run home and get a knife to "take care" of another student he had an argument with, and reported it to the office, and indeed the student in question ran home and got a knife and was intercepted by the principal and... uhm... sent home for a few days on a suspension, despite state law saying that if you brought a weapon on campus you were expelled for the remainder of the school year. And there was no question what this boy's intent was with this weapon. So anyhow, this principal violated the law, and was sent packing. #4. Former band teacher. Railed at teachers for not handling discipline in the classroom, noting to them that he had 100 kids in his band classes and not a single bit of misbehavior. Ignoring the fact that students voluntarily signed up for his band class, while they *had* to take English or Math, that voluntary bit makes a big difference, he only got the cream of the students for band, not the thugs and hooligans who had no interest in sticking around after school for band. #5: Crazy guidance counsellor who became a guidance counsellor because the principal wanted her out of the classroom because she was crazy and couldn't teach. Promoted to principal when the former principal retired because she had time in service and was all touchy-feely new-wavey, which apparently the superintendent liked. But utterly crazy.
Only two out of the six had any teaching skills, and that was at the elementary school level and they were high school principals. Different environment entirely. None of them were up to running a high school. They lacked the teaching skills to be teacher instructors, they lacked the people skills to motivate their teachers, they lacked the organizational skills to keep their school well organized and orderly. So Cranky's "a larger group of drooling, poo-flinging retards has never existed" is quite apt indeed.
- Badtux the Former Teacher Penguin
Sadly, though, BadTux, that appears to be what is required there. It's hard to escape the notion that these folks were put in the principal's office because they were just what the school board wanted - people who wouldn't trouble them with reports of problems at school, or requests for more money to fix the things that are wrong, etc.
There's usually a logic to these things. If something is done that consistently wrong, you need to look to the folks who are doing it.
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