Wow, that is unbelievable. As someone else said, that was cruel to all of the kids in the class.
I did have one child in my class (4th grade) a few years ago who was keeping everyone from learning because of wild, erratic behavior, but I would never have asked the other kids if they thought this child should stay or go! I did talk with the principal and the child's mother, and the child was eventually moved into another class. The thing is, this child should have never been in my class in the first place. This child's father had died a couple years before and this caused terrible problems. Everyone agreed, even before placement in my class, that this child needed a male influence. This child was moved into a male teacher's class and while it did not eliminate all behavior problems, it did help a lot.
Truthfully, I am typically drawn to the children everyone else wants to give up on, and very often they became my favorites. If moving a child to another class ever becomes an option, children should not be involved, and it should be done in a way that lets the child know that it is not because he/she was "bad." Moving a child should only be done to help that child learn better. I believe moving a child to another class should only be done as a last resort. I know, from experience, that once a child is moved out of a class, many of the other kids start wanting to move (they
think they want to anyway--the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, as the saying goes).
I have always said there are two kinds of teachers--the ones who are there because they want to make a difference, and the ones who are just there to pick up a paycheck. Most schools have plenty of both kinds. The teacher in the article is obviously the second type and should be sent packing.
Barbara
Barbara
