WIIIIIZZZZAAAARRRRDDDD!
 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354327,00.html

Ummm......LAWSUIT. Retirement account, off to the bank.

:lol:

wow thats insane, i cant believe someone would even fire someone over that



at first i thought you were talking about those alltel commercials :lol:

:lol:

Same here

How is Florida even a STATE anymore? :x

Seriously, no offense to our members there, but we need to eject Florida from the Union before they drag the rest of us down...

Well, I'm reserving judgement until I hear whether or not he floats or is made of wood.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9tqIluIi3_U
:lol:

No offense taken...Florida is becoming ridiculous.

It's teachers like this guy that made going to school tolerable for me, and it sickens me that this happened...though it doesn't surprise me at all. Alyssa's principals are total a$$holes at her school....we stopped by McDs on the way to school (lunch for her since she was allowed to miss the morning part), picked up lunch, and she took into school with her. Principal sees this, tells her she CANNOT eat the food she brought in, and when she tells him that she had no money to get school food, he said "tough". Believe me, both of us went in for a little pow-wow with him. He hasn't said a word to her since.

I can't stand the school systems of today. All these schools know how to do around here is how to teach kids how to pass the year-end test...that's it. No exploration of the imagination, no sitting down with the kids to explain hidden meanings in some of lifes simple things....I actually feel sorry for the kids that go to school nowadays. And it's THESE kids that will be leading us, fighting wars, and developing new technologies 20 years from now.

For those of us 25 and older...those years are going to be hell on earth compared to what today is like.

keep that in mind. you have NCLB for all of that. well, NCLB and crappy execution.


remember this folks. hes being persecuted for his RELIGIOUS BELIEFS!

oh, think he can teleport in some worthwhile textbooks?

That's why our son goes to a private Catholic school. Good ole fashioned learning...

I read it, but I'm not sure what's happening. My concern would rather be some kid getting pricked with a toothpick when trying to repeat the mentioned trick.

HOW do you not understand? Substitute teacher showed kids a "magic trick" where he made a toothpic "vanish."

They accused him of "wizardry" and FIRED him.

and also, for anyone who doesn't know, I am 19, and my 6th grade on in schooling sucked MAJOR. I got expelled from my middle school in 7th grade for getting into a physical fight with someone who had physically harmed me before I even touched him, and one time even had the nerve to make fun of my deceased father. I told the principal, school cops and nobody did shit. I was in the bd/ld class due to my ADD/ADHD (diagnosed at 5 or 6 years old. I'm currently "on" methylphenidate (generic ritalin) but I don't really take it because I'm learning to control myself more.) and having problems keeping up with schoolwork, and I was at 4th grade mathematics when I was in 6/7th grade. Anyhow, they expelled me for that, and I went to a BD school.. daily, I was belittled by the teachers, to the point of tears or just walking out of the school and sitting down outside. Nobody really helped me with a lot of things that needed helping.. and I agree with Brad? I think his name is brad.. (sandrock.)

For anyone who doesn't know.. I am 19 years old, I was in LD classes from 6th to 7th grade, I was far behind in Mathematics (Still am, too. Whatever..) and also have ADD and ADHD , diagnosed at 6 years of age. Anyhow, there was another student in this LD class who would take it upon himself to daily, routinely push me into my locker, make harmful remarks to me , and to others about me , and even a few times went as far as to say "Haha your dad killed himself because _insert BS here_" and I'd gotten into a few fights (physical.) with this student. The teachers, the school police officer, and my parents all knew it was happening. They did NOTHING because I'd always be the "louder" one, because I speak up when things are happening that I don't like.. pretty much gave the kid a few "Fuck you" 's , so.. I ended up getting expelled for those fights, and sent to a BD school for the remainder of 7th called Gages lake school. At 8th, I went across the street to the school Cyd Lash (8th through 12th BD/LD) and found a whole different ballgame. It wasn't like highschool at all, it was constantly being locked down in class all day. We came in at 9AM, went thru metal detectors, teachers search us / our bags, and you couldn't bring in food from restaurants (say Mcdonalds.) or drinks (even if your parents brought it to you..) The first time I felt somewhat normal was when I mainstreamed back to my regular high school for an hour a day soph. year to get my liscense, and then went to Technology Campus at the local college two hours per day for automotive service, with a lot of people from local high schools. That was pretty much all I've ever had.. But the teachers at the high school (Cyd lash) would belittle me, make remarks, treat me poor/unfairly with quite a few things.. Here's an example. I walk up stairs two steps at a time. My teachers tried GIVING ME A DETENTION for not going up one at a time. Another time, I was in typing class.. Mind you, I'm the fastest / most accurate person with typing in that entire class.. I never use my pinkies except for the enter/shift button on the right, otherwise it's my other four.. They gave me a lunch detention because I didn't type with my pinkies, so I stirred up enough trouble on purpose that they called my parents, and my stepdad/mother both laughed in their facesabout it, and asked what the problem was if I'm the most accurate one in there.. (85-90 WPM on average) so it's whatever. I've had quite a few poor experiences with schooling.

I've got a few threads posted here from my old screenname, I'll look 'em up and see if they're still here.

But anyhow, yeah schooling these days is messed up.

Eric, I fully understood the article. I'm just unsure of what's happening. Isn't anyone worried about kids messing with toothpicks?

i got sent home once because i had white shoe laces on 1 shoe and red on the other. wtf for real.

iirc they were 6th graders

Yeah school is just plain f***ed up these days. I could make a 50 paragraph post on everything wrong with schools and such, But I won't. It was torture for me from 4th and 6th grade (5th grade we briefly moved and went to a diff. school.) After 6th grade I told my mother that I wasn't going back, So we did the home school until the 10th grade. IT was mostly computer programs (virtual textbooks, Cheaper and more eco-friendly) and projects.

There is a HUGE and I mean HUGE Difference in home and public school. one teacher gets 20-30 students to control while its just me and my mother for 4-7 hours a day 4-5 days a week. There is more attentiveness towards me since I'm the only student in the class. Anyhow I won't bore y' all with the details.

Just google home schooling and you'll see all the stories and differences it makes.

its just amazing to me that "wizardry" is even allowed to be an excuse, cmon, the guy did a trick and now is fired, hell, ive had substitute teacher who would let me go early, imo thats a far more serious thing than someone making a toothpick disappear, its just sad what the world has come too :shake:


and no radomir, id be much more worried about kids playing with something far more dangerous than a toothpick

Because wizardry is quaint and dainty as compared to poking yourself with a toothpick, it's relatively more dangerous to show toothpick tricks to children than to show wizardry. I am not worried about kids playing with toothpicks, but tp tricks are a greater threat than wizardry.

Radomir, where I come from...we SOLD homemade cinnamon toothpicks for a quarter each or 6 for a buck I think. Not ONCE did anyone get hurt with them...unless they got a REAL hot one.

Also, where I come from...we brought all kinds of knives to school too. Mostly Swiss Army types, but also a couple Bucks and a butterfly every now and then. Hell, some of our teachers even taught us how to properly sharpen them. Wanna know somethin' funny? There was not one instance of anyone getting hurt with a knife, unless it was through fault of their own.

We also had a class on shotgun safety and then a skeet shoot. And in shop class, some of us built crossbows from kits approved by the school. And these weren't dinky models either.

I too was the social shunt of my school....grade school, junior and senior high school, I was the token geek. Every year I got into a fight because of it. One time it was so bad I was knocked unconcious...I came through and saw my gym coach...we were in the teacher lounge. He goes through the normal questioning..."how many fingers, what's your name, etc."...I answered them all, he smiled and said " I gotta give you credit...your body can take one helluva beating." That day, that bully got what was coming to him...and the issue was handled internally ;)

Schools these days are NOTHING like that anymore. Everyone nowadays are sue-happy and will sue over anything. That I think is the biggest reason why the school system is the way it is now :roll:

My wife is a teacher in Orange county ( who was just fired for next year because of funding issues but thats another post). The problems with the public school system are very difficult to pigeon hole. I will list some of the major ones briefly:

1. Parents who treat school as a day care center that they do not have to pay for. No joke my wife has a parent that refuses to help her son with the homework because " They have a teacher for that. I aint the teacher".
2. Schools are POLITICALLY funded. They cannot afford ANY negative PR. The have no choice but to ditch anyone the causes any kind of fuss. Guilty or not. (toothpics or not LOL)
3. Funding ( for years but hopefully this is changing) is provided based on a standardized test score. This is why we teach to the test..So we can afford to keep teaching.
4. The public school system pays for almost nothing. Each year my wife ( so by association, ME) pays for almost $1000 of school supplies out of our pocket,so the kids will have a more enriching experience in her classroom. And I am not talking about luxuries like computer games. I am talking water colors, posters, and even SOAP for the F'ing bathroom ( NOT PROVIDED)

Right now, the system is so flawed its amazing that any kids graduate meeting minimum standards. This year, instead of increasing funding to public schools the Florida Government passed bills that fund VOUCHERS so you can remove your child and put them in private school..So the message is we give up..try private school..

He got fired for something that doesn't exist? :roll:

Eric, wtf is up with your personal tirade above, and how does that even remotely relate to the subject matter of my topic?

you hit the nail on the head, completely. and add to that that the schools who DONT meet the standardized scores [read: those who need help] get their funding CUT. so they cut arts and phys ed, fire some teachers, increase class size to compensate, and somehow theyre supposed to raise their test scores? the whole system of high-stakes testing is an anathema to education and needs to be done away with.

vouchers are a federal program, if i understand correctly. the theory behind them is that "capitalism works" so its an attempt to capitalize education. and it has many school districts thinking about getting funding elsewhere -- from companies. i dont know about you, but i dont want Kraft or Ford determining my childs education. do corporations want free-thinking, out-side-of-the-box employees who question the way things are? because i want that to be my child. sure, they do for a couple of positions. but they employ thousands of people who are no better than trained monkeys. i dont want companies determining my education, and thats what vouchers are beginning to produce. throw into that that the entire theory behind vouchers is that "competition breeds betterness", and you have our students competing for their own education -- the free, public education that horace mann had in mind. in addition, you have each class of students competing for their education (if one year doesnt do as well as the one before it, parents take their kids out, and their money, AND federal funding gets cut), and each teacher competing to educate. competition has been undeniably proven to get results in most arenas, but not in education. in education it has been proven to reduce any sort of internal motivation a student might have to learn and instead focus on external motivation like grades, class rank, or teacher praise. id rather have my student internally motivated. id rather have my student want to learn because this sh!t is interesting. because it is. but when im teaching him how to take a test, i cant do that. how fun is bubbling things, really? anyone here enjoy it overmuch? and standardized testing is awesome, right? because art and phys ed [among other things] arent tested. so if youre a school district, told "were testing your students on math and english, and the outcome of those scores will determine your funding for the next couple of years", what are you going to do? cut art, cut phys ed, increase test prep. wonderful. what about the kid that the only reason hes coming to school is because of art, or because of football? hes not really important, right? but thats our system.

thats No Child Left Behind coupled with High Stakes Testing. NOT the fault of our teachers. our teachers are doing the best they can, and in most instances, paying upwards of $500 a semester just for basic necessities for their classroom. our teachers are trying to keep our kids interested in learning in spite of all of this sh!t that the federal government has decided since 1990 we need to do.

one step forward [accountability], three hundred steps back.

keep looking. if were lucky, were looking at major educational policy reform in the next 15 years. just hope we dont completely screw this generation up before they get it fixed.

[/rant]

"Gang involvement" is what they told me when I came in wearing a pair of white/black Converses I'd picked up for cheap cuz I needed shoes one time for Gym. I'm the whitest kid you'll ever meet- i don't touch drugs, alcohol, i don't smoke cigarettes. I see no point to any of it. Gang involvement is kinda stupid as well.. I understand where most people come from and why they join them for a feeling of belonging, but.. yeah.

about how messed up schools are these days.

They can't slap a kid on the hand with a ruler for missbehaving, otherwise that's a lawsuit..many parents just don't give a shit.. some staff are crooked in most cases.. it goes on and on.

As a future educator myself, the state of education is really quite pathetic. It almost made me change my mind about going into education but I've decided to stick with it because I want to be able to make a difference and make learning fun again.

When you ignore your own country's issues, such as education, things tend to go bad. No Child Left Behind is horrible and I can't wait for it to end. One thing that has irked me during the Democratic primaries is that neither candidate have discussed education a whole lot.

There was an article in the local paper the other day that talked about how we've forgotten about education and worry about things like war and money. Our future is looking quite bleak because of our actions and we're all going to pay in the future if something isn't done soon.

...and then the world exploded.