And People Wonder...

...why I wouldn't want to put my child into an institutionalized education system.

If the clip below won't work, go here to see/read what got my panties in a twist.




Not emotional abuse? If the child voted out of the class wasn't hurt by this, then how about the kids made to vote him out? At that age, kids are easily swayed by the adults in their lives - if they think they'll get into trouble unless they do as they're told, a child will do anything an adult asks. When they're older, they remember what they did, and it will absolutely do them harm.

Kids this age are easiest to abuse, because they are easy to convince that they must do as they're told and that if they tell, they will be the ones held at fault, the ones blamed and punished.

This teacher didn't just have the kids voting - she had them give reasons why they didn't like him, pointing out how he was different and indirectly driving home the point that different is wrong and should be excluded. When a child wanted to vote contrary to the teacher's idea of a correct outcome, she pressured him until he did what she wanted.

Let's raise a classroom full of cruel bullies, shall we?? Let's teach kids that they should be exclusionary of anyone who doesn't fit into "normal" or may be an inconvenience. Let's show them that there will be no consequences for being ugly, as long as the person bullied is "special needs", and lets drive the point home to the child in question by telling him he's not wanted anywhere else, either.

And this isn't abusive how??

I know that this isn't a reflection of all public schools. I know that a child with Autism or Asperger's can be more than a handful, and in a classroom full of other children needing time and attention, one special-needs child can wreak havoc. I know that this is an aberration, and that most folks would be horrified. A number of folks would even pull their own children from the class when they learned what their kids were forced to participate in. I don't care. That it can not only happen but be sanctioned as appropriate by the school system (their inaction, defense of the teacher, and claims that it wasn't abusive as much as say "Hey, we're fine with this") is horrifying.

Shame, shame, shame.