Tejek, "Ten years ago," says Shelbyville principal Tom Zobel, "if we had a problem student, the plan was, 'OK, let's figure out how to get rid of this kid.' Now we have to get them help."
cnn.com 
Remember how much harder school was during those couple of years just prior to when trouble makers got old enough to be kicked out of school? And when they did get kicked out, suddenly the overall productivity of the school jumped many notches higher because teachers and students can really focus on their education and studies?
While I definitely agree that 30% drop out rate is horrible and believe they should fix this, I definitely don't think innocent children that simply want to go to school, study and earn money for college, should continually pay the price for other students that cause trouble (or that bring in dangerous weapons to school and other such things in today's environment) - school is hard enough when you are working many hours to earn money, than to be tossed into an environment where it's not safe, disruptive and burdensome.
I think they should fix it by having different tracks for different students based upon whether a child threatens another. I would add they should include those students that misbehave by picking on the mentally retarded from the special education classes, because it apparently continues to be a field day to pick on those less fortunate because they know they won't get in trouble for it.
I remember this one student next to me in my biology class (who never bothered me because I always said hi to him), but he and the biology teacher got into a physical fight. He was a threatening person when he would lose control of his temper and that really is disruptive to learning because you always have to be on your guard with someone like that, rather than focusing on what the teacher is saying.
I think people that attend private school (that have zero tolerance to any poor behavior) have no clue what it is like or how hard public school is for children that simply want to learn, read, study and grow, so they get fancy notions in their heads that all the dangerous children (that should be kicked out) should not be kicked out. The poorer the school district the harder it is - and then they want someone to come along and tell you that you have tolerate even more bad behavior because they don't want to kick the bad kids out? Yeesh. They should get consistent rules in place and publish them and have zero tolerance to violence, threats, name-calling, etc. When a child goes to school nowadays, they don't even know what the rules are so too many of them are in an ever-present-state-of-fear because the rules aren't consistent nor published nor consistenly applied, so they are shut out from studying safely.
Of course, the opposite extreme exists in some places like Palo Alto where I hear children get kicked out for the most mildest things. |
