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A child who throws a chair - twice - and spits on other students deserves a suspension. Is the American education system really that different to the Australia

• kqr2 12y ago
  She's arguing that the punishment / discipline is not fair. One after another, white mothers confessed the trouble their children had gotten into. Some of the behavior was similar to JJ’s; some was much worse. Most startling: None of their children had been suspended.
  • fiatmoney 12y ago
    And who are we to be skeptical of a motivational speaker's anecdotes?
  • newaccount4228 12y ago
    Why would other mothers admit that their children were suspended? It's entirely possible that unfair punishment is occurring but she needs a lot more than "the other mothers told me so" to prove it.
    • anigbrowl 12y ago
      If they wished to conceal information, why admit to bad behavior on their child's part in the first place? On hearing of the suspension of the author's child, they volunteered information about their own children, including one story of a child that caused another to be hospitalized, but was not suspended for it.
    • crpatino 12y ago
      You know, you cannot always expect evidence of the type that scientists or courts demand. Specially when dealing with a victim of systematic injustice, you have to take their claims seriously. Not at face value, mind you, but seriously enough to get up and gather your own set of evidence to either confirm of refute the claim. What you just wrote is a thought stopper. There is no hard evidence of discrimination, therefore there's no discrimination at all. Maybe it is that you, personally do not discriminate... but this attitude is exactly what enables the bigots amongst us to keep going with impunity.
  • deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
• steveeq1 12y ago
  Yes, I agree. Suspension was appropriate. I wish the article had described the "much worse" behavior of the white children. It's important to communicate this to make the author's point.
  • anigbrowl 12y ago
    There is one example: “My son threw something at a kid on purpose and the kid had to be rushed to the hospital,” another parent said. “All I got was a phone call.”
  • forgotpasswd3x 12y ago
    Do you believe that the suspension is likely to result in a positive change in behavior of the child? If not, it seems completely misguided, favoring punishment over positive reenforcement.
    • bengillies 12y ago
      Without commenting on this specific case, it's often a lot more difficult and nuanced than simply what is best for that individual child. If you're in a class full of around 30 children and one child is misbehaving to the extent that they're a danger to others around them, then sure, ideally you'd spend the time with that child and do what's right and best for them, but in reality you also need to think of all the other children in the class and what's right for them and often, the amount of time you'd need to spend with such a child would unreasonably distract you from helping out the other 29 children which simply isn't fair on them. Often, punishment in such cases is simply there to enable the teacher to continue teaching the rest of the class (with the limited resources at their disposal) so that at least the majority can learn and benefit.
• bloat 12y ago
  Whether you believe that or not, the actual point of the article is that a white child behaving that way is much more likely to remain in school than a black child.
• forgotpasswd3x 12y ago
  What exactly does suspension teach a four-year-old child?
  • robzyb 12y ago
    It teaches the parents that they have to do something about their child. Teachers aren't a magical fix for your misbehaving children.