Child abuse? that is a heavy accuation, however, it may just be true.
Here is an example.
A 5th grade class was talking about making paper out of alternative solutions to making paper rather than just using wood. The little boy wanted to participate in the discussion and suggested using dryer lint.
Instead of the teacher praising the student for engaging in the conversation she considered the idea stupid and pointless and berated him in front of his classmates for coming up with such an idea. The teacher publicly humiliated him and embarrassed him. Note: Probably the reason the student brought up the idea is that at that time there were paper making kits for children that suggested using lint from dryers!
First, was the idea pointless or was it actually forward thinking and courageous of him of bringing up the idea? Isn't talking things out in the corporate boardroom how ideas are created and then actualized in a product that makes millions of dollars? Most likely this happens everyday in America. Granted, this is on a big scale but starting young is advantageous to out of the box thinking, right!
Secondly, why is this teacher still teaching? His mother complained to the principal and to the Curriculum administrator. Another parent contacted the Human Resources administrator. Neither of these administrators were willing to step in and help out. (The names of the administration positions are approximate - they may have "Director" in the titles.)
msw is not privy to the exact conversations of the parents with the Curriculum administrator, however, msw talked to the HR administrator after a meeting. He explained that the protocol of submitting a complaint against a teacher begins with talking to the principal. This protocol, in msw's opinion, is not the appropriate method of taking care of a bad teacher. For instance, msw was not getting along with the principal - she was not a popular principal. (Which is another topic to tackle - how to remove unprincipled and incompetent principals!) The principal was the last person msw was about to talk to about this teacher that THE PRINCIPAL hired! Yes, msw was told that is the principal is the person who hires the teachers. (I've since been told there is another method to teacher hiring).
So...the complaint by msw against this abhorrent teacher was dropped.
Two parents at least and probably more went as high as the MCPS administration and were met with unsatisfactory results when complaining about a very bad teacher that they considered harmful to children - thus the child abuse phrase in the title. And - nothing could be done in one case and in the other the protocol was an obstacle (perhaps on purpose).
Another aspect to this post is that this teacher who only had about 14 to 15 students due to her unpopularity, came from another MCPS school. The parents at the other school adamantly demanded that she not return to that school. That in itself needed to be the end of this teacher's teaching career for MCPS! NO! Wait. MCPS has an avenue by way a unpopular teacher can transfer to another school. At the moment msw cannot remember the exact term, however, it has the words, "Facilitated" and "Transfer". Perhaps it was "MCPS Facilitated Transfer for Teachers". Anyway, this is another aspect to the child abuse moniker for the concept of not being able to get rid of bad teachers.
And of course, there is always tenure. Tenure is when a teacher has been teaching for a certain amount of years and then because of the time issue with a district this teacher literally cannot be fired or at least it is very very difficult! We have thousands of teachers throughout our country that should not be teaching just because they have tenure. And they are getting good pay to boot.
The above explanation by msw is most likely just one of many more in the MCPS school system. As one can see it is very difficult to get rid of a bad teacher - and Missoula children have been suffering and likely are still suffering.
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