California law says: public schools can’t suspend students for disobeying teachers. Joke? Nope. Take a read or listen to the news report from KRON TV. Will this creep to Washington State? Based on his past actions and his being a self proclaimed "social warrior" State Superintendent Chris Reykdal probably loves the idea. Wait...during his 3 year tenure he has put new rules in place that make it dramatically harder to discipline students or suspend them. Instead, if there are issues and a student should be suspended, they are now placed in a special classroom. This way the school district still gets money; the district and state can say there are fewer suspensions and use that to tell … [Read more...]
Why Are Kids Impatient, Bored, Friendless, and Entitled?
When our children head to school their mental state is critical. If we don't create the right home environment there is no way the schools can teach. The following article comes to us from Deep Roots at Home. Give it a read... “Kids today are in a devastating emotional state! Most come to school emotionally unavailable for learning. There are many factors in our modern lifestyle that contribute to this.” ~V.P. In her practice, my friend Victoria Prooday, OT is seeing something so widespread and alarming that I asked if I could share her thoughts. Due to the overwhelming interest and conversation on this topic, I am re-sharing her post. I encourage every parent who cares about … [Read more...]
The Long-Run Effects of Disruptive Peers or Discipline disruptive children and increase your child’s future earnings
How many parents refuse to discipline their children because they are afraid of hurting their feelings? How many parents are afraid to discipline their children in public because they think someone will turn them in? Schools have long stopped applying discipline and the children know that and exploit that going so far as to tell teachers and aids to F off. Children get passed on to the next grade even if they are failing. There IS a financial impact to those choices. By NOT dealing with disruptive children YOUR child's future earnings are REDUCED...BIG! Want to know more? Read the findings of a new study. Jay Fitzgerald, in the National Bureau of Economic Research tells us just what … [Read more...]
Battle Ground School District – Suspensions 2014-2015-2016
How many suspensions occur in your school district? How do you find out? How have they changed over time? We filed a Public Information Request with the Battle Ground School District asking them for data on suspensions by school for the three (3) most recent years. In the table below we share the information we received. In this blog story you will also find links to the actual data spreadsheets by year along with the “key” describing what the reason was for each suspension. We encourage you to do the same for your school district, assemble the information and share it with us for publication. This is NOT an attempt to say that the school district is doing a good or bad job. It’s not a … [Read more...]
Discipline Lost…Children Running Amok
At the risk of being called "old school" or a "disciplinarian" I would like to offer some thoughts about the state of children in public schools today. Yes these are broad generalizations. Yes there are exceptions. What are my qualifications for making comments? Well...65 years of living. 4 children. 11 grandchildren. Lots of education (including teaching). Involvement in the local education scene. Observation. Stories of teachers and people involved on the periphery who clean up after the kids and help transport them. And finally, application of reasoning and logic. Over decades we've moved from discipline in the classroom and schools to the inability to physically touch a child or … [Read more...]
Spokane schools suspending first-graders, kindergartners more than high schoolers – Is this happening in your school district?
We came across this story at The Spokesman. It was written by Eli Francovich The story follows in a moment but it got us to wondering what the school districts in SWW suspension rates look like. We filed a Public Information Request (PIR) with the Battle Ground School District for their data for the last three (3) years and will be doing the same with the other eight (8) districts in this area. When we get that we will write a story. In the meantime here's the Spokane story.... She’s an engaged little girl who “tries hard to make friends” despite having a developmental delay that impacts her speech, making her hard to understand. Her name is Jaleesa and she’s on the autism … [Read more...]