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square_root_of_pihttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/30/earlyshow/living/parenting/main4140155.shtml
Intense Support For Spurned Kindergartner
Article behind cut.
NEW YORK, May 30, 2008(CBS) Alex Barton may have been voted out of his kindergarten class, but he's being showered with public support, and from some very far-flung places.
Alex's mother, Melissa Barton, says she's outraged and mulling legal action after his classmates in Morningside Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Fla. voted 14-2 last week in favor of removing Alex from the class -- an action Barton says was led by his teacher, Wendy Portillo. Before the vote, Barton says, Portillo had the students tell Alex, one-by-one, what they don't like about him.
Since then, according to the Fort Pierce (Fla.) Tribune, Portillo has told local police the vote was only meant to be for the day, not for good.
The newspaper also reports that Alex has now been officially diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism, and with Attention Deficit Disorder.
School district officials tell the newspaper Portillo, who's been a teacher for 12 years, nine at Morningside, has been reassigned to the district offices, and that an on-going investigation of the incident could take up to two weeks.
Portillo's brother was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the newspaper adds.
Barton, who spoke with Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith earlier this week, gave Smith an update Friday, along with Dr. Jed Baker, a clinical psychologist and an expert on autism spectrum disorder behavior and education.
Barton told Smith she's getting hundreds and hundreds of e-mails of encouragement, from places as far away as the Netherlands and Australia.
The writers, Barton told Smith, "really care about the children right here in our country and the education they're receiving. And above all things, they care about discrimination and how it's just not the way to go."
Barton says she's keeping Alex home from school the rest of the year, explaining that, "I still have a lot of things to think about and to find the right program for him and the right school and the right situation. You know, he really needs an understanding and an appreciative teacher who works with differences and he's not like all the other children."
Baker has penned several books, the latest of which is, the most recent being "No More Meltdowns: Positive Strategies for Managing and Preventing Out of Control Behavior."
He says he's concerned about "the message we're teaching our kids. (Are we teaching) impressible, five-year-old, kindergarten kids to accept each other and to value diversity and to teach people to help those with special needs, or are we encouraging intolerance? And I think, when a teacher takes the lead in allowing this to happen or encouraging that, it's a form of bullying, because she has quite a bit of power in that situation."
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My two cents:
I don't agree with the action the teacher took in dealing with the child.
I can not claim to fully understand the stress our nation's teachers undergo on a daily basis and how said stress can accumulate.
However, she is an adult. She needs to act like one. If she is having severe difficult with one of her students and said student is taking away from the education of others, follow the state mandatory procedure needed in order to remove said student from the classroom. Yes, most likely it will be a ridiculously long and mind numbing procedure. Yes, odds are good that going through the procedure will take more time than gritting your teeth and muttering the mantra "Only three more months" under your breath at the beginning of each school day.
But, if you feel this student will continue to take away from the education of the other students, take one for the team. Sure, this school year is ruined for you, but you will (hopefully) help put a child in the proper program for his learning level and disability and isn't that what it boils down to? Helping the children.
(Alright, that last sentence made me vomit a little in my mouth. I think the current statistics hold that two out of every ten new educators is in it for the student, five out of ten are in it because they have spent too much time working on a degree in education to turn back and the remaining three out of ten hold a degree in some other field and are working as teachers because it's a job.)
There is a time in childhood where we protect our offspring from the harshness that is life.
But there comes a time when children learn that life is not fair.
Life is hard. Sometimes you have to work when you would rather play.
Not everyone will like you. Some people even hate you for the most ridiculous reasons.
That time is called elementary school.
What has this situation taught the student?
He has learned that teachers are humans with emotions and prejudices like the rest of us.
He has learned that he has a disability that should not paint his entire personality, but force him to develop the perseverance and strength needed to work harder to achieve his accomplishments.
....
In a perfectly cognitive world, yes, that is what he would gain from the situation.
In reality, he learned:
He is a special and unique snowflake and the teacher is a poorly educated individual who doesn't have what it takes to nurture his unique snowflake personality.
Also if you get in trouble, you get to stay home from school and CBS will interview you and your mom.
Intense Support For Spurned Kindergartner
Article behind cut.
NEW YORK, May 30, 2008(CBS) Alex Barton may have been voted out of his kindergarten class, but he's being showered with public support, and from some very far-flung places.
Alex's mother, Melissa Barton, says she's outraged and mulling legal action after his classmates in Morningside Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Fla. voted 14-2 last week in favor of removing Alex from the class -- an action Barton says was led by his teacher, Wendy Portillo. Before the vote, Barton says, Portillo had the students tell Alex, one-by-one, what they don't like about him.
Since then, according to the Fort Pierce (Fla.) Tribune, Portillo has told local police the vote was only meant to be for the day, not for good.
The newspaper also reports that Alex has now been officially diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism, and with Attention Deficit Disorder.
School district officials tell the newspaper Portillo, who's been a teacher for 12 years, nine at Morningside, has been reassigned to the district offices, and that an on-going investigation of the incident could take up to two weeks.
Portillo's brother was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the newspaper adds.
Barton, who spoke with Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith earlier this week, gave Smith an update Friday, along with Dr. Jed Baker, a clinical psychologist and an expert on autism spectrum disorder behavior and education.
Barton told Smith she's getting hundreds and hundreds of e-mails of encouragement, from places as far away as the Netherlands and Australia.
The writers, Barton told Smith, "really care about the children right here in our country and the education they're receiving. And above all things, they care about discrimination and how it's just not the way to go."
Barton says she's keeping Alex home from school the rest of the year, explaining that, "I still have a lot of things to think about and to find the right program for him and the right school and the right situation. You know, he really needs an understanding and an appreciative teacher who works with differences and he's not like all the other children."
Baker has penned several books, the latest of which is, the most recent being "No More Meltdowns: Positive Strategies for Managing and Preventing Out of Control Behavior."
He says he's concerned about "the message we're teaching our kids. (Are we teaching) impressible, five-year-old, kindergarten kids to accept each other and to value diversity and to teach people to help those with special needs, or are we encouraging intolerance? And I think, when a teacher takes the lead in allowing this to happen or encouraging that, it's a form of bullying, because she has quite a bit of power in that situation."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
My two cents:
I don't agree with the action the teacher took in dealing with the child.
I can not claim to fully understand the stress our nation's teachers undergo on a daily basis and how said stress can accumulate.
However, she is an adult. She needs to act like one. If she is having severe difficult with one of her students and said student is taking away from the education of others, follow the state mandatory procedure needed in order to remove said student from the classroom. Yes, most likely it will be a ridiculously long and mind numbing procedure. Yes, odds are good that going through the procedure will take more time than gritting your teeth and muttering the mantra "Only three more months" under your breath at the beginning of each school day.
But, if you feel this student will continue to take away from the education of the other students, take one for the team. Sure, this school year is ruined for you, but you will (hopefully) help put a child in the proper program for his learning level and disability and isn't that what it boils down to? Helping the children.
(Alright, that last sentence made me vomit a little in my mouth. I think the current statistics hold that two out of every ten new educators is in it for the student, five out of ten are in it because they have spent too much time working on a degree in education to turn back and the remaining three out of ten hold a degree in some other field and are working as teachers because it's a job.)
There is a time in childhood where we protect our offspring from the harshness that is life.
But there comes a time when children learn that life is not fair.
Life is hard. Sometimes you have to work when you would rather play.
Not everyone will like you. Some people even hate you for the most ridiculous reasons.
That time is called elementary school.
What has this situation taught the student?
He has learned that teachers are humans with emotions and prejudices like the rest of us.
He has learned that he has a disability that should not paint his entire personality, but force him to develop the perseverance and strength needed to work harder to achieve his accomplishments.
....
In a perfectly cognitive world, yes, that is what he would gain from the situation.
In reality, he learned:
He is a special and unique snowflake and the teacher is a poorly educated individual who doesn't have what it takes to nurture his unique snowflake personality.
Also if you get in trouble, you get to stay home from school and CBS will interview you and your mom.
