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Voting Out Alex
Posted by TheBigRuski • 5/30/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: alex barton, asperger, autism, education, kindergarten, teacher
A Port St. Lucie, Florida kindergarten teacher Wendy Portillo left us dumbfounded this week, leaving us to ask “why?”
Prompted by Portillo, Alex Barton’s Morningside Elementary School classmates were allowed to say what they didn’t like about him and take a vote about whether they wanted him in class or not. By a 14 to 2 margin, 5-year-old Alex lost.
Alex is being evaluated for Asperger’s syndrome — an autism spectrum disorder. Guess how Portillo thought it best to deal with an apparently very trying day with Alex…not just send him out of the classroom to school aides, but to have his classmates rag on him when he came back.
Why?
thescroogereport.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/voting-out-alex/
User Comments
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I would like to knock that woman upside her head! Totally disgusting.-
yeppers!
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Teacher watches way too much TV.-
Seems like it, huh!?!
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Pure idiocy.
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While the teacher is being dealt with, I wonder if anyone will go to the class that did it and have the children do a group apology.
I think it would help the healing of Alex to hear from his classmates.
The class can learn from their mistake if they are shown that when people are different it is a time for help and understanding not mockery and isolation.
Alex can learn that relationships can be worked out with forgiveness and understanding.
I hope that those involved see the opportunities for healing as well as they see the wrong.-
Excellent thought! There is a LOT of healing to be done!
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I think they'll all learn more from seeing the teacher fired quickly and with no waffling and a clear explanation of the reasons than from any kind of forced insincere apology session. -
I still think the teacher should be fired ... I felt that the children who were misguided should have to address it. This will help them to realize that it was wrong and give them a chance to learn to apologize.
What she did to Alex was wrong and what she taught the other children was a seed planted for more wrong.
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Without doubt the teacher appears to be in the wrong but where oh where was the school trustee and the school board on this?
edited: to remove irrelevant Canadian experience
P.S. I agree with Madame X - no insincere apology session.-
edit cuz of edit which said/did what i was gonna say.
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i think the school board /trustee was waiting for the official diagnosis. (if i'm following the question correctly)
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@ender
That's the problem with forums. We cherry pick specific cases that the media has pre-selected due to their sensational "value". The media have insured that their writers have already been written up the story in their own special way (in accord with selected slant) and then we the readers make judgments without actually knowing the facts.
Now what will happen is that that single teacher will be demonized and those who demonise her will feel self righteous.
As a "gifted" person, who has learning disabilities and, as a former caregiver I have very strong feelings about the way public schools are being run today. -
TT, on a personal level I definitely identify with the issue you raise--my daughter taught herself to multiply and divide in kindergarten, but when she started acting out in 2nd grade it was her teacher's firm conviction that the work was too hard for her...until many, many meetings and arguments and tests later, some results came back that shifted the perspective, but still provided no help: the principal told me that they really couldn't offer anything that would challenge her until fourth grade, when the gifted program started!
All that said, I don't think the other problem that you mention here is specific to forums, or to education. It is the very same problem that leads, for instance, to the tidal wave of ill-informed but passionately-held political opinions. The American public as a rule is not interested in learning the intricacies of the issues and being educated...and the media is only giving us what we tune in for. -
@ender
Sorry about the editing.
@Madame X
Sigh - Yes and I've even said it myself- the media feeds us what we demand.
I could easily write a huge rant on both subjects.
@Pamela
I'd like to ask you to reconsider your idea of a mass forced apology labeled as "healing". The teacher asked the kids what they thought and they spoke their truth. IMO any attempt to orchestrate a brainwashing session featuring admonition, guilt tripping and shaming them into making an insincere apology to Alex would be a worse offense than the original offense. -
@TT: I've got a webzine that might be a good place for those rants...
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@Madame X
I'd like to talk to you about that at another time if I may. I feel the need to rant come on very strongly. lol
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After they voted him out she should have put the other two kids up for a vote to clear out the classroom of any weak links.
(I'm kidding) -
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Funny what people do when they are not only at the end of their rope...but have a skewed foundation.
I hope she gives up her defensive posture soon, if she hasn't already. -
Alex
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@bigruski
Thanks but I was able to see the image well enough at the link provided above. I'm wondering what your motivation for posting this image into the thread is. I would feel the same way about an UGLY looking child as I would about an attractive looking one. Wouldn't you? -
More than likely I would have posted regardless of his appearance...children are beautiful period!
I posted thinking this was an addition to this discussion, not a subtraction.
BTW...what is an ugly child? There are none, in my mind! -
Have you seen Madonna's daughter?
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@pointlessbanter
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TT I do not think that an apology should be forced.I do think that if they are told more info about the reaction of Alex to this, that many would be truly sorry. They were encouraged to handle negative in a negative manner.
I do not think that the children should be brainwashed, but teaching that your actions touch others is a part of teaching responsibility. If you do not know that your actions are hurtful then what is the motivation for change? -
I have been through several "healing sessions" with my charges. They were brainwashing sessions conducted by adults who aimed to extort specific behavior from children through the use of manipulative shame and blame techniques. I walked out of 4 of them each time herding my charges before me.
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I agree Pamelabaker. These children were told to do this by a trusted authority figure. If they are not told how her behavior was wrong and cruel, what is going to stop them from doing this again? Of course children will be children and will say mean things to each other, but to be led into a group bashing of one child is flat out wrong. They need to know this. Hopefully however it is handled will not shame the classmates though, they only did as they were told and they were also wronged in this situation.
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I agree that they need to be told that, Kelly--that's why I said she should be fired quickly and the reason clearly explained. That's a different issue from forcing children to apologize for answering a question honestly. That sends a pretty confusing message, too.
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I agree and often shame comes from situations that do not have the closure of an apology. This can be true for both sides.
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So, Pamela, do you feel that the children did wrong by honestly answering the question that the teacher asked them when she told them to?
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Wow TT that is awful.
MadamX The children were asked to tell the truth it is what they did with it that should be addressed. You can not help what you feel but you do have a choice as to what you do with it.-
Leaving the politically correct, manipulative mass brainwashing sessions at the school was not awful. I removed the children and their parents discussed the issues with them one on one. The children made up their own minds free from any adult pressure to insincerely conform with any belief system or healing process that had been engineered to brainwash them into thinking any specific way.
IMO manipulating the minds of children is awful.
They were asked. They spoke their truth.
Their truth ought to be respected.
@Pamela
What they did with it? They spoke their truth. -
Truth can be spoken in a way that builds up and solves or in a way that tears down.
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And this truth, according to all reports I've seen, was spoken in the way that the teacher requested it. Would you really expect children of five to have the judgment to deem their teacher's order inappropriate and refuse to comply?
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Of course not but that is the whole point. If they are not told in some way that what the teacher did was wrong, then what they will remember from this experience is that it is okay to gang up on someone and be cruel. They were not at fault but should be told how the teacher used poor judgement.
I don't see how this situation resembles manipulative brainwashing in any way. The children were poorly instructed and now they need to be told that the teacher was wrong, not them. What is the big deal in that? -
Kelly, I haven't heard anyone say that the children shouldn't be told that what the teacher did was wrong. I think they need to be told that very clearly, and I don't think TT has contradicted that idea (apologies if I'm wrong). What I object to is telling the children that THEY did something wrong by honestly answering the question put to them by an authority figure, and forcing them to apologize for telling the truth in response to that question. This isn't a situation in which one child walked up to another and made a nasty comment: they answered a direct question put to them by their teacher. What kind of confusion results if they are now reprimanded for doing so?
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I agree that they should not be shamed or treated like they did something wrong. I have said all along that they should be told the teacher was wrong, not them. I think if it was handled correctly, an apology could be helpful really. Some of the kids might feel guilty anyway because I bet that some of them knew it wasn't quite right. This might give them a chance to feel better about themselves. It does not have to be dramatic or anything. Personally, if one of my sons was involved, I would explain how the teacher was wrong but that what happened made the boy feel really bad and sad and that both of them might feel better if he was to say sorry. Can anyone honestly say that even if their child didn't know better in a particular situation, that it takes away the need to apologize? Come on MadameX, you used to be a lawyer, right? Ignorance is not an excuse to disobey the law? Well, this really falls into that category. It is quite possible to apologize without feeling ashamed. It is all a learning process when you are growing up. What really threw me off (and still does) is how manipulative brainwashing factors into this?
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Kelly, I wasn't going to belabor this any more, but your very objection proves my point--these children DIDN'T break a law in ignorance. They did exactly what their teacher instructed them to do. While the instruction was wrong and the children need to understand that this other child was hurt by the fact that ON HER INSTRUCTIONS they shared opinions that should not have been shared with him, they CANNOT be told that they were wrong to do what they were instructed by the person charged with their care, whom they've been instructed to obey.
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When you ask a child for truth -- they give it to you.
When you ask an adult -- most filter what they have to say.
@Madame X
Good point - they are only 5.
leaving thread to eat lunch-
@Madame X
You read me correctly. I remained in the sessions with my charges for the first part only where explanations were given. In one case the topic was "bullying". When the sessions began to deviate from simply explaining what bullying was, what negative effects it had on both the kids being bullied and the bullies, I removed the children, who were my charges just as their parents had instructed me to do.
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My son is autistic and i s now 11 yrs old. At age 5 his social skills where inept at best. Kids can be cruel. It doesn't help that this teacher is a moron. the public school my son goes to made special arrangements to have a special helper on hand. It has paid huge dividends. He attends regular school with only minimal interference now in 4th grade (we held him back a year) I say fire the teacher and look in to the administration's policies of the school.-
that teacher was definately over the line
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@kellybax
I don't understand what you mean by this statement. "Ignorance is not an excuse to disobey the law? Well, this really falls into that category. "
Which law are your referring to? Which law did these 5 year olds break? They were asked by the teacher to speak their truth and they did so. They did nothing wrong that I can see.
You have also said: "I would explain how the teacher was wrong but that what happened made the boy feel really bad and sad and that both of them might feel better if he was to say sorry."
That's exactly how the parents of my charges felt and how what they did one-on-one with their own children. The school session defined what bullying was, what effects it had on those involved and what consequences those who acted like bullies would have to face within the school.
"Can anyone honestly say that even if their child didn't know better in a particular situation, that it takes away the need to apologize?"
The 5 year olds have nothing to apologize for. They did nothing wrong. -
I don't believe public schools are prepared to deal with children, let alone children with special needs. This comes from a very long,tiring personal experience.-
Many public schools aren't. It is a battle making sure children are enrolled with a competent teacher as a minimum.
It's just like going to the doctor. YOU have to be your own health advocate or there's a good chance you will be messed with. -
@rearvumirr
I could not agree with you more...
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