ZeroTolerance gets an F

Luckily, we're well over the peak of the zero-tolerance solution to school misbehavior and violence. The problem, as often seems to be with flawed human rationality, is taking the concept far beyond its logical limits. So, the second grade girl with plastic knife gets suspended. That "news" story makes the whole world of education look mightily out of touch. That a principal could forgo good judgment to a "zero-tolerance" dogma is beyond me. But it happens. Often. The latest that I have run across is a recent news story that follows:

October 25, 2006
Texas: Art Teacher and District Reach Settlement

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

A veteran art teacher has reached a settlement with the North Texas school district that had suspended her after a student caught a glimpse of nude artwork on field trip. Under the settlement, approved Monday by the school board, the teacher, Sydney McGee, gave up her job but will be paid the balance of her $57,600 annual salary through next May. Ms. McGee, above, and the Frisco Independent School District agreed not to “disparage” each other, and the district agreed to add to her personnel file a 2004 letter of recommendation from a previous principal. The agreement ended a dispute that broke out after Ms. McGee led 89 fifth graders from Wilma Fisher Elementary School on a visit last April to the Dallas Museum of Art. Ms. McGee was berated the next day by the principal, Nancy Lawson, who later complained in a memorandum that “students were exposed to nude statues and other nude art representations, and time was not used wisely for learning during the trip.”

Holy hand grenade batman. Kids saw a nude work of art in a museum. So are parents who take children to museums now subjecting their kids to abuse? Pornography? Ok. I'm just going to stop here because the whole thing so flies in the face of any sense of . . . well, just any sense at all.

The whole zero-tolerance mentality needs to be thrown out with the rest of the educational trash that is a result of a lack of a good dose of solid judgment, panic, and lawsuit paranoia. It's been so stained by stories like this that we need a very new, and very rational new model.

Moving on.