I don't call these "zero tolerance" policies, but more accurately "zero judgment" policies.

Zero judgment policies are adopted because they are easy for bureaucrats to implement. "I was just following the policy."

These policies are also meant to be a shield against litigation. In this case the child is accused of making a "threat." That arguably is defamation and the appropriate response is to file suit. I hate to advocate litigation, but if implementation of zero judgment policies routinely and consistently resulted in litigation the bureaucrats would stop using them.

Bill, that's all true, but it's also clear that a main goal of the public education system is to emasculate boys. The only time you ever hear about girls getting this treatment is when they engage in boy-like behavior.

I've long noted that a significant number of people who go into primary education (and yes, nearly all of them are women) seek to teach the lowest grades; few have the desire to tangle with a room full of high-schoolers. I know from a relative that in our local system, there's a waiting list of teachers looking for grades 1-4 jobs, but a shortage at the high school level. And both from what she's told me and my own observations, a lot of those low-grade teacher applicants don't want to do it because they want to teach second-graders, but because they want to be a second-grader. They regard the little tykes not as students or charges, but as peers. Needless to say, trying to have an adult conversation with them is bizarre.

From the quote: There seems to be a severe deficit of the very sort of critical thinking that the education industry purports to be instilling in kids.

One suspects that "critical thinking" in the education industry's sense, means "thinking that leads to the results we desire."

Making public policy based on anecdotes reported in the news is fabulous. He who serves up the most entertaining reports *wins*.

A friend of mine is a high school science teacher. He taught for a few years at the private school we had attended to gain work experience. He had then applied for a job at a large public high school for better pay and benefits. He was offered the job right away. He then found out he was the only person that had applied for it and was told they have a really hard time filling middle school and high school positions because they get so few applicants but have way too many applicants for the elementary school positions and those teachers don't want to consider teaching higher grade levels.

It's already well-established that education majors have the lowest test scores of any college major....

A study a while back found that education majors were the least likely of all college students to read a book outside the class reading list (i.e., just for fun or enlightenment).

And both from what she's told me and my own observations, a lot of those low-grade teacher applicants don't want to do it because they want to teach second-graders, but because they want to be a second-grader. They regard the little tykes not as students or charges, but as peers. Needless to say, trying to have an adult conversation with them is bizarre.

The rash of female teachers caught sleeping with their students is probably caused by them thinking of their students as peers; as if being a high school teacher is a second chance at high school popularity.

Adults today seem to be afraid of being seen as adults.

"Adults today seem to be afraid of being seen as adults." - Conan the Grammarian

This is what I always thought was odd about teachers. I can't imaging liking school so much that you want to go to it for the rest of your life. It was hard for me to hear my teachers talking about what goes on in "the real world" when I knew full well that they hadn't done anything outside of the academic world since graduating from high school. Even my parents, who were both teacher, had no clue about the obstacles I faced on a daily basis as an adult. It would be nice to have teachers who actually experienced life outside a classroom and worked minimum wage and low-paying jobs for a few years before going into teaching.

> This is what I always thought was odd
> about teachers. I can't imaging liking
> school so much that you want to go to
> it for the rest of your life.

☑

I totes ♥ Fayd.

Is it the third, or is it the fourth time that I've published the link this year?

Does it matter?

Typical academics, on the other hand, are not oriented toward political reality: “They tend to be unworldly. They are, most of them anyway, the people who have never left school. Their milieu is postadolescent.”

I can't find a comment I disagree with on this.

I hate when that happens!

(It almost never does.)

A female classmate saw this infraction, tattled to a teacher, and the principal gave Jones a one-day suspension for making a "threat" in class.

So, you've just taught the inmates that they can get any of the other inmates suspended by simply telling a story to their teacher? and that they'll be taken at their word?

Wow. Or is it just the female students they take at their word?

Zero judgement policies aren't just for "weapons" and weapon shaped imaginary objects. Here, in what is arguably a very good district, they have a firm cut-off for kindergarten entrance. BUUUUTTT....

If your child is 5 by the end of Sept, they can go to kindergarten. But you can hold them one year. Once they are six they have to go (or be home schooled, etc).

So, there is flexibility in one direction, but not the other.

So, little Susie who is born on Oct 1 and is almost six when school starts, can wait a year - until she's almost 7 - because Mom thinks she's not quite ready (or in an actual case I know of, has asthma and the doctor recommended it so she'd be likely to miss less school).

But little Johnny who is also born on Oct 1, has an IQ of 200, was reading at age 2, has great social and self-help skills, is tall for his age and has good fine and gross motor skills cannot start when the kid born a week earlier starts, but has to wait until he is almost 6 to start (and is then bored out of his mind).

This is what happens where I live. You don't even want to know how other things, like special services, are handled.