Comments on: The Golden Rules Days

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 04 May 2013 20:34:08 +0000

I’m going to assume that the confusion about the teacher was caused by the use of the expression “garden variety tools” in the complaint his attorney filed. That makes his case even stronger. If the curriculum mandates that he teach about common tools and their uses, he would have to talk about pocket knives, because they are one of the most ubiquitous tools in the world. There was a time when students were almost required to have a ‘pen knife’ to sharpen pencils and make quills.

The fact that the tools were kept in a locked tool box on a high shelf meant they were not accessible to students.

I don’t see how you can suspend a teacher for fulfilling the requirements of the curriculum, Badtux, but that will be left up to the court.

Yeah, Steve, it was a different world. When I was in school it was assumed that every boy had a pocket knife. No one ever used one when it came to a fight – that was something that only happened in cities.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Sat, 04 May 2013 16:17:38 +0000

My late father used to say that if he had been born in a later generation, he would never have survived as a schoolteacher. As it was, in his own time, he won awards. I believe the intervening change in the nature of school administrations points to a dim future for our nation’s youth. YMMV.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sat, 04 May 2013 06:31:40 +0000

In the case of the teacher, one of the “tools” was a pocket knife. That was what he was suspended for, not the gardening tools. The story you linked to was misleading in that regard, it made it seem like he was suspended for showing kids gardening trowels and such, but a quick Google turned up the pocket knife detail. Apparently a parent complained that teacher had a pocket knife when one of her other kids had been expelled for having a pocket knife, and at that point, policy kicked in.

Given the current climate regarding knives in schools, Mr. Bartlett displayed poor judgement and the short unpaid suspension probably was the closest thing to a slap on the wrist allowed by the law regarding weapons in schools. On the other hand, the 16 year old displayed poor judgement too, but has the excuse of being 16. I performed somewhat similar experiments when I was her age, but was at least smart enough to do them in our back yard or driveway, where all I risked was the possibility of burning down the neighborhood :).