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Sat 23 Sep, 2006 10:01 am
You decide what they say.
I recently had a student's case presented to me. The father of a 17 y/o senior asked for a meeting with the special education team during the second week of school because his son was already skipping class and the father wanted to nip the boy's absenteeism in the bud.
The father and son appeared at the meeting. The mother was absent. {Alarms immediately went off in my head: did the mother even know that the meeting was taking place? }
The father, a man of average height with a posture that bespoke a turn in the military and a manner of speaking that said he had not gone to college after high school, took charge, saying that he had physical custody of the boy and that the boy did less well in school when there was less conflict between him and his ex-wife. {Alarm: Did the mother voluntarily surrender custody or did the father force the situation?}
He continued, adding that the boy suffered from ADD and depression and that he took Prosac {odd choice} and another drug, whose name I have now forgotten but one which I recognize as an ADD treatment. "When he is with his mother, the drugs are not taken on a regular basis," the father said. "I don't really feel the ------------------ helps," the boy added. {Mother probably listened to kid and was not eager to have him put chemicals in his body. Father looked to villianize Mother.}
The boy then presented his side, saying that discipline was lax at the Technical High School and that he skipped many classes simply to smoke; that he had been suspended "three or four" times but never for drugs. He was once suspended for smoking on the school grounds; for gluing another kid's backpack together (a comment which drew smiles from the teachers, counsellor and the school's court liason). The boy then looked to his Father who added that the third suspension was for "an incidence on the bus." No elaboration given or sought.
Enough on the frontspiece, please see continuation in the first posting.
More details show that this student passed the state's NCLB test known as the MCAS in 10th grade after failing it in 4th and 7th.
During elementary and middle school, he earned grades ranging from B to D, depending upon the year and the subject but never a "B" average.
During the meeting, the father talked about how the boy worked as a plumber, yet, at the technical school, he earned "Ds" in plumbing classes.
He was a high C/low B average student at the technical school during his freshman and sophomore years, although his academic averages plummeted to Ds in his junior year. The boy declared that he wanted to attend a regular high school.
He was recommended for a sheltered program designed for kids who have difficulties relating to the school community at large. Depending upon the student and his/her situation, a few to all of their classes are taken within the program, which also includes survival-type team-building experiences and community service.
This student was to take auto shop, chemistry and one English class outside the program; the other English class, phys ed, history within.
The next day, the kid took his place in the program. The following day, he wasn't in school. The day after that, he started the school day, then disappeared at lunch time. That day, he was arrested for breaking and entering when the owner of the house he had come into returned home. The police found several bottles of pills on his person.
Now, for the other story:
I student taught in Detroit in the early 1970s. I was something of a pet at the university and was assigned the premier middle school in Detroit. Situated in the NorthWest part of the City, it was where the children of the politicians went to school.
One of my students was the son of the chief of police, a gruff, military type with an iron grey crewcut.
I had the boy for 8th grade. At age 16, he was killed, driving 100 mph, the wrong way, down a one-way street, behind the one on which he lived all his life. {Suicide.}
My questions are: Were the fathers too strict? Does this sort of discipline work? Are human wastes like Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton a result of the other side of the coin: too little discipline and no sense of responsibility?
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