What Are Kids Learning?

A 6-year-old gets suspended from school in the US.

His crime? Bringing a pocket knife to school.

The New York Times has another spectacular example of dementia:

For Delaware, Zachary’s case is especially frustrating because last year state lawmakers tried to make disciplinary rules more flexible by giving local boards authority to, “on a case-by-case basis, modify the terms of the expulsion.”

The law was introduced after a third-grade girl was expelled for a year because her grandmother had sent a birthday cake to school, along with a knife to cut it. The teacher called the principal — but not before using the knife to cut and serve the cake.

Wow. Calmly taking away the knife and calling the grandmother to not repeat the harmless scenario would have been just too hard.

Comments

[Mike T]

It's our modern American legal kabuki. They have to establish all of these legalistic steps making for a complicated legal drama so that if anything bad happens, they can deflect criticism. Many of the same parents who complain about this policy would roast the school officials if they showed common sense and "got it wrong." If the little girl brought a knife back the next day and stabbed someone, they'd say "YOU KNEW SHE BROUGHT KNIVES TO SCHOOL!"

I've come to the realization that most Americans deserve the tyranny that they're getting. Sadly, their kids are being dragged down with them, repeating the cycle.

[Cafe Alpha]

There seems to be no limit to how nuts we will act "for the children!"

And I don't buy that it's for legal reasons. That was a risk they could take. Any adult could look at a cake and a knife to cut it and see there was no legal risk.

There is a stench of panic in our schools.