Education Dialogics: Criminalizing Normal Childhood Behavior

Welcome - Let's Talk.

Politicized education serves none well. Let's take the diaglogue back to what matters, assuring a good education for the children of this nation.

This blog calls out the half-truths, myths, and downright lies that continue to scapegoat schools and teachers. The best schooling always required a partnership among the community, parents, and schools. At one time we could add the church to this list, but in our efforts to avoid controversy we now pretend that churches hold no sway with our young people.

A caveat is in order. Politically correct dialogue frequently strips the message of its power. Sensitive subjects will find their way to this blog. My hope is that we can engage, even disagreeing, in civilized, respectful discourse. You can be forceful, politically incorrect, and passionate. If you choose to be verbally abusive, profane, or bigoted you will be banned from the site.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Criminalizing Normal Childhood Behavior

Let's talk about Zero Tolerance Policies. These are policies that purport to have zero tolerance for certain behaviors in schools. Typically these behaviors include fighting, having weapons or drugs, and engaging in sexual harassment. No problem. Who could disagree with such policies?

The problem with these policies lies in the lack of discretion used by those who are charged with enforcing the policy. We've all read the stories.

A kindergartner is expelled for kissing a female classmate. Then the parents of the little girl sue for sexual harassment.
A whole 4th grade class is suspended after a field trip to the National Aquarium and their teachers are docked a day's pay because the children bought laser pointers for a souvenir.
A third grader is suspended for having a teeny, tiny Lego gun (not 1/2 inch long and plastic) in his backpack.
Countless young women suspended for sharing a Midol or an aspirin.

Where is the common sense? If young men get in a fistfight, a fairly common occurrence when I was in school; now the police are called, assault charges are filed, and young lives are derailed. There must be a better way. I remember my various brothers having to shake hands, apologize, and agree to work harder at understanding the other person. You have to wonder if the escalation of consequences has also signaled upping the ante with various weapons and continuing grudges being the result.

The five-year old sexual deviant has to be one of my favorite examples of the adults in charge failing to understand anything about developmental levels and normal behavior. I distinctly remember first tackling, then straddling, then kissing a little boy in my first grade class. When the same little boy and I were in third grade we got in a fistfight - more of a shoving match - but a fist fight by today's standards. In high school we dated some. I think this sequence could have been predicted. Had we had ink wells in our desks and had I worn pig tails, then he probably would have turned my blond hair blue. What was considered innocent and normal in the 1950s is now deviant and criminal.

Until the adults in charge of schools can demonstrate some basic common sense let's do away with Zero Tolerance Policies.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: What a great first topic! Zero tolerance policies terrify me. As a mother of 4 young children, 3 of them boys, I often worry that normal childhood behavior could damage their futures because of the lack of discretion used by so many schools. When I was in school, there were fistfights. It was extremely rare to hear of weapons being brought to schools. It seems that since the zero tolerance policies have come into play, it happens all of the time. Almost as though the mentality of many youths is now that if they are going to be arrested for fighting, they may as well make it worth it. I think it is much more frightening to send your children to school now than 20 years ago. Zero tolerance policies, as I understood them in the beginning, were to protect our children from school shootings and knife fights. When did a lego gun or a plastic butter knife brought to school by a 5th grader in her lunch box become weapons? There is a case right now in Florida, I believe, where an 8 year old has been out of school for 2 years because he brought a toy gun (an obvious toy by all those involved) to school. He didn't even know it was in there, he left it in his backpack when he was playing over the weekend. Does anyone feel safer because this little boy is no longer in school? I say do away with zero tolerance policies and teach our children how to handle conflict. Save 911 for the real emergencies.; October 8, 2010 at 9:48 PM