School Daze
Posted By Kathleen David on June 9, 2004
I have a number of friends who are teachers and librarians. Some I have known for years and others I met on the internet through various newsgroups and lists. Some of the internet people I have met at conventions that I have been to. Really kinda neat putting a face to a name.
In a larger city in the Midwest, a teacher had a conference with a parent about the student who was acting out in class and disrupting. The teacher knows that the student is intelligent and can do the work. He
God, Kathleen, you are 100% right on both counts.
The weight grading thing is appalling. Hard to believe it will last. When some overweight kid commits suicide right after getting an F for weight, well, back up the money truck on THAT lawsuit. Which is probably a scarier thought to the school system than the dead kid is.
As for playing the race card…kids will try this on almost every teacher but, in my experience, it won’t get far if the teacher plays it right. In my case, I fix them with a sly “I know something you don’t” grin and ask them if they really REALLY think that I’m prejudiced against (whatever) and let them explain their logic in the accusation–all the while keeping up the wink wink expression. Half of them think my mom is black by this point. Which is not the case but my family is a bit removed from pure sliced white bread. But as I’ve said on a few occasions, “Go ahead, you tell the principal whatever you want. I’m more convincing telling the truth than you’ll EVER be telling a lie.” Which pretty much shuts it down right there.
Mind you, some of these are good kids–they’re just trying to see if they can get away with something. Taking it too seriously just encourages it.
It’s funny how things time out sometimes, isn’t it?
I’m currently studying to become a teacher, specifically an english teacher, and I was just thinking of this the other day – how to deal with kids who speak improper english, be it southernisms or ebonics, because allowing them to continue with that is doing them a disservice later in their lives.
Thanks for posting this story. It gives me some hope that my thoughts were on the right track.
I agreecompletely.
When did proper use of language become such a bad thing?
And grading a students weight? Far better, I think, to grade a school administrations pay to usefulness ratio.
By the way, we DO grade popularity. Columbine may be the best example. I’m not absolving the guilty of responsibility by any means, but I am saying that the popular kids get away with far more than the unpopular kids because the staff is often fooled as much as anyone else. I’m suggesting that the outcome in that case could or rather ‘should’) have been different.
Wouldn’t it be cool if our education system focused on educating rather than fad cirricula (sp?) and reactionary policies?
Salutations,
Mitch
One point I have constantly made to people and with quite a few I remain unpopular over my strong views is that everyone is equal and by trying to be ‘fair’ and by trying to make rules that will stop discrimination of any kind, they are in fact causing it.
There are rules and laws that govern most work places (and maybe some schools but I dont know to be honest) that say that if you employ 30 staff members, at least some of them must be from an ethnic minority or female but in saying that, you are discriminating against them. Positive discrimination is still discrimination and only by removing discrimination of all kinds can society move forward in accepting people from all walks of life no matter how they look or who they are.
Singling out childrens weight is not only stupid but extremely dangerous to that childs mental health. Children pick on other children for the littlest things and having a teacher speak out on something against a child is counterproductive to both that childs personal development and to society.
I think that all children should be taught proper and correct english (or the language they natively speak) without slang or as little local accent or dialect in the teaching as possible.
It is in my view, long past time that society realised that above anything else a person is a person, they shouldnt be classed as white, black, asian, japanese, gay, straight, male, female, fat, thin, short, tall, smart, thick or anything else… Before I am any selection of those things, I’m me, I’m a living creature who deserves to be treated with the same respect that any other living creature on this planet deserves.
To directly quote some lyrics taken from a song in Disneys Little Mermaid 2, “I hear each voice singing, with a special quality, and when we sing together, we bring music to the sea!”
~~Emma
Y’knows, growin’ up a po’ black chile in de south as I’se did, I’se can simpathize wit’ dem chil’ens.
Alright, enough fun. Actually though, when I was growing up in the south, a teacher (white) did indeed impress upon me the importance of being able to express yourself clearly by using correct english.
In the south, though, I faced two obstacles; a) sounding white, which a number of my black brethren expressed their discomfort with (often through threat of physical intimidiation), and b) the fact that EVERYONE down south talks like that (so I also got ridiculed by my white contemporaries for trying to sound proper.
But you know, what often amazes me, even today is the looks I often get when people meet me in person after talking to me on the phone from people who thought I was white. I know pretty much for a fact that I have actually lost a job because someone thought I was white when they asked me to come in for the interview, but was shocked to discover I was black.
When I was on the radio I used to play r&b overnights on my college station. Sometimes the morning jock would show up late, so I’d have to switch to the rock format and hold down the fort . You would not believe the number of calls I received from listeners (rockers) who thought I was white and asked me why the station had to play that “jungle music” overnight. The girls who called wanted to know who I was and if they could meet me. When I told them I was black , they often didn’t believe me.
When Kathy and her sibs would come into our house in Atlanta and ask: “Mama, Dayudee, kin ah rahd mah bahk?” Her mother and I would look at them and demand, “What?”
After a short staredown, they would shrug their shoulders and ask, “Can I ride my bike.”
When Kathy and her sibs would come into our house in Atlanta and ask: “Mama, Dayudee, kin ah rahd mah bahk?” Her mother and I would look at them and demand, “What?”
After a short staredown, they would shrug their shoulders and ask, “Can I ride my bike.”
As an overweight adult I would like to make serious comment about the school grading in Arkansas.
At first glance I read “grading kids on their weight” and had to question first, what in the world would give the schoolboard the idea they have such a right? Then I took the time to investigate the story about how the state of Arkasas has a serious delima with overweight adults and see an even more serious delima developing with kids who are following on the same path and large numbers of people developing “type 2 diabetes” there. Obviously the state has some serious concerns for its citizens, and I agree that “fat grading” may not be the right alternative to eliminating the problem, but what is the answer?
School has always been a place with peer conflict and popularity contests. I can remember 20 yrs ago, being a 130 lb, 5’7″ teen girl in my class and thinking I was the most obese kid on the planet because all of my girl peers were in the 90 lb range. Even though my mother was just around 100 lbs, she never judged me on my weight and just encouraged me to eat properly. I knew the difference between junk food and healthy food and I also knew that if “I made the choice I had to be satisfied with the result of it, or I had to make better choices to acheive better results.” I was a kid basically making adult choices for my life.
Now I have a loving husband who never says a word if I gain 10 pounds or lose 10 pounds. I know this because I have gained about 45 pounds since we married, basically because neither he or I ever say anything about what we know is true: Neither one of us appreciate ourselves when we gain weight, but we get into these periods when we don’t pay attention to diet or exercise, and weight sneaks up on us fast. We are both over 30 and firm believers that your metabolism slows as you age unless you maintain activity and good diet.
So my point is, NO— I don’t believe the school system has any place grading students on weight, but I also believe that if no one says anything to a child, they aren’t equipt to control bad behavior on their own and someone should say something when it comes to their health or they are doing just as much a dis-service as the teacher who would look over a child’s poor speech or grammar usage.
From what I read on Foxnews, the school system is not grading the children in comparison to their peers, “your johnny is fatter than their joe”, but they are sending grading cards to the parents in the mail, to encourage them to take better control of healthy diet at home.
Our entire society needs to consider kids the most important resource of our future. We need to teach them important ideas and rules to guide them in how to make our future society one we can all live in well. Whether its grammar, or proper speech or healthy diet, we need them to become strong adults with smart ideas and intelligent minds.
Its very easy to become defensive when someone else wants to tell us how to control our kids or our life, but it will not be easy to control anything in the future if we don’t take to heart some of the things we are told and respond proactively. One of the reasons there are so many kids following bad speech patterns and other bad habits is because it was easier for “someone” to just ignore it and hope it would go away. I’m not going to say it was the parents, I’m not going to say it was the teacher, because I think that it should be a joint effort. Teachers see the kids for nearing 40% of their daily lives, and the other 60% is split amongst their family, their caregivers, their friends, whoever. So maybe this is why the school system thinks it should get involved.
I work with someone who has a 12 yr old daughter who comes to work with them occasionally. The 12 yr old daughter is on a medical weight loss plan. She is not what I would consider “obese” but she is overweight and she has a problem with snacking and sweets. We have a honor system for snack foods. There are all sorts of treats that we store at work for fast sugar fixes. Five or 6 different types of candy bars, chips, cookies, etc.. When mom is around the daughter is a.ok with not snacking, but as soon as mom walks away, kiddo is hitting me up for the permission to have a snack. “I’m hungry!”… “I won’t get to eat for at least another 3 hrs!”… Now if I said okay, eat anything you like, what would be the result? Mom may never find out, but I know that I would not be helping the child by allowing it. I don’t point out that too much junk food will make her fat, I just tell her that if she is truly hungry we can get something healthier to eat, together. Is that wrong? Am I forcing the daughter to think negatively about herself and setting her up for a teen suicide attempt? NO— I am trying to help in encouraging proper behavior, because I know she needs the encouragement as much as I need to give it, cause she’s a KID.
Once again, I felt the need to comment on this serious discussion, because I AM an OVERWEIGHT adult. I know that I am responsible for at least 75% of my weight problem. If I develop cancer or a heart condition or high blood pressure or any other of the hundreds of symptoms and conditions related to being overweight, it will be my problem and MY FAULT. But it will be everyone’s fault if we allow it to happen to the society of children amongst us. Do we want to be contributing factors to a disease or contributors to a strong society?
“You make your choice, but just know that you will be responsible for any result and you will need to accept it, because you won’t be able to change the choice to make it work a different way later.”
That’s what I wish mom had told me instead.
Hey, Pamela, I agree that obesity is a serious problem, particularly among adults, but also increasingly among kids, but this is just NOT the school’s jurisdiction.
God, I am so sick of people having children, but increasingly palming their care and upbringing off on the government. At this rate eventuially all public schools will become boarding schools and people will only see their kids on holidays and summer vaction, like Harry Potter.
Want your kids to exercise more? Here’s an idea. kick them off the computer until after dark, make them go outside and PLAY. Remember that? When I was a kid, I didn’t even want to come in when it was dark because we were having so much fun PLAYING. I wonder how many kids today even know what a jump rope is for? Or how to play hopscotch? And they’ve pretty much banned dodgeball.
Hmm… there’s a short science fiction story in there somewhere. Where’s my Word program?
As far as speaking english “being all soundin white”.That is so ridiculous,as chris Rock said yeah there is a way to speak, the way if you want a job and the way if you dont”.For better or worse people make judgements about your education
and ability based on your ability to speak and write proper english.
I recall getting a haircut once and hearing a young mom say her son was failing english because it wasnt his language it was the white man’s.Almost like it was trick to fool little black kids into failing.By the way the mother practiced poor grammar in her speech so there was part of the problem.Bill cosby was not wrong in his statements a few weeks ago.
As a former FAT kid let me say the weight monitoring by the schools is bogus.First lets have the schools evalute their lunch programs and menus.Second and most importantly thats a parental responsibilty.Stop letting other people do the parenting please.
Look i am now grown and thru exercise and watching my diet im in decent shape but i will never be a small guy.For many years i had problems with self image and self esteem cause i always saw myself as a fat kid.
Childhood is traumatic enough without being evaluted in school for your weight.I recall dreading the physical fitness tests in school because of the humilation that went with it.Just seems like bad idea……just my opinion ,i could be wrong
I’m a senior in high school who has recently been assigned to write a paper on the “Obesity Ratings” in Arkansas. I am supposed to provide my position on the matter and give reasons why. I found this website while looking up research on the topic and was inspired to elaborate.
I myself am not exactly at the proper weight, but I do not need anyone to tell me. I could only imagine the kind of blow my self esteem would take from the report card that I would get. I think administrators need a taste of their own medicine. Would they like to be graded for their weight? This is a most ridiculous proposition which the school has no place to get involved. School has the primary function of education. From my understanding, test scores have been slowly declining over the years. I think that we need to focus on academics, and leave the health stuff tot he parents.
When it comes to my health…I use common sense and I imagine that most of my peers do the same.