A letter, a lego, and a lot to think about...

I honestly appreciate our educators and their willingness and abilities in teaching our children, however, some recent education-related news I have read suggests that some schools have perhaps become less focused on "teaching" and more concentrated on other issues that most would deem immensely petty...

For example, in Phoenix, Arizona, an administrator decides to write a "sarcastic" letter (too say the least) to several students' parents, whom the district felt had fallen behind in their studies. Instead of offering some positive encouragement or suggestions to help those students, the principal instead writes this:

"The math we do is really easy," said the letter from Litchfield Elementary School principal Ron Sterr. "If your child is either too lazy or too stupid to finish it in class, I'm sending it home so that you can work with them and judge for yourself whether it is laziness or idiocy that inhibits your child's progress."

Excuse me?! What the heck was this guy thinking sending this to a group of parents of second grade students? Yes, second graders...

According to Sterr, nothing in the letter represents "his views" toward children and that he openly opposes those views. He told the Associated Press (AP) that, " The purpose of the letter was to mock those views and point out how ludicrous they are." He added, " I have always loved the kids, and I believe they know it. For anyone to assume that I have those kinds of views is uninformed."

So what was the point of the letter again? I'm lost Mr. Principal? Or should I say "Former Mr. Principal." (He was suspended, faces a demotion and possible termination.)

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A Fourth-grader and his friend are at the lunch table playing with legos when he pulls out a plastic, faux, 2-inch machine gun and stuck it into the tiny hands of his lego soldier. (The boy loved the toy because his father is a retired police officer, says Mom.) In a matter of time, the student is abruptly escorted by school administration to the principal's office where he is interrogated about the incident and forced to sign a statement as his mother is called. Meanwhile, the student's friend keeps his toy lego man, who is toting a less offensive plastic ax... Huh?!

Obviously, the boy's parents were shocked at how the school handled the matter.

"I was in disbelief," the still-fuming mother said. "Why didn't anyone step up with an ounce of common sense and put an end to the harassment of my child?"

"It's a 2-inch gun," the child's father said. "She (the principal) went overboard. She should have said, 'Put the toys away,' and that would have been the end of it."

Although the school nearly suspended the boy over the matter, his parents and administration were able to arrange for him to return to campus. However, after the traumatizing event, the boy was afraid to go back. Typically an eager and well-performing student, the boy asked his mother if he could not return to school because he was afraid the principal was mad at him. The mother said she expects an apology and may sue.

"The toy gun is not the issue," she said. "A lack of common sense is the issue."

A handful of parents agreed, including the mother of the other student who was not disciplined.

She told reporters that her son felt bad for his friend. "They're taking things way too far ... No one is saying guns are okay.

"Come on, it's a Lego," she added.

***

And finally... "Shaggy gets suspended"

Apparently, schools are not only concerned with lazy, idiotic, lego toting children, but they are also now the "style police." Watch out Joan Rivers!

A pre-school student in Texas was suspended in recent months because of the length of his flowing locks. Taylor Pugh, 4, was forced to spend his days not in the classroom with the other students, rather in the school's library, alone, serving in-school suspension because at Floyd Elementary School, boys' hair must be kept at the district's desired length and style... out of the eyes and cannot extend below the bottom of earlobes or over the collar of a dress shirt. This is a public school, not private. Before suspending little Taylor, the same school district also sent home a seventh-grade kid for wearing black "skinny jeans." His parents chose to pull him out and homeschool him instead of letting him return.

Do you think the pre-schooler should have been suspended because of his hair? What does it have to do with education, you know... the reason he is enrolled in school in the first place?

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Are districts overreacting on these kinds of issues? Does it really matter if Billy likes to paint his nails blue like the girls at lunch table number nine, or if Sally likes platform shoes that make her a couple of inches taller than the boys on the basketball team? What about Arnold who likes to highlight his black hair with strokes of red and wear vintage Rage Against the Machine T-shirts to school? Is it really that much of a distraction... what does it have to do with 2x + 7 = x + 18???