Posted on 06/14/2007 8:18:08 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
INDIANAPOLIS -- Sixth-grader Matt Porter didn't enjoy getting "Most Likely Not To Have Children" and "Sir Clowns-a-Lot" awards from two teachers at his school.
His parents aren't pleased, either.
Matt said he received the awards in front of classmates during a ceremony at the Decatur Intermediate Learning Center at the end of the recently finished school year. His mother and his stepfather have asked the Decatur Township school system to reprimand the teachers, and they want an apology.
"Words cut deeper than any knife could. They hurt," said his stepfather, Joseph Sims. "When you hurt a child like that, you not only hurt him mentally, but it does hurt physically because you withdraw within yourself. That is what Matthew has done."
The certificates were signed by the teachers who distributed them. Matt recalled what the ceremony was like.
"I was standing in the middle of (the two teachers), and they (were) reading them off," he said. "Everyone was laughing."
Matt felt humiliated.
"They (were) putting us down and everything," he said. "That is not what their job is for, to put kids down. They are supposed to teach us."
Amy Sims, Matt's mother, said she met with a school official over the matter but was not satisfied with the response.
"She just told me that the teachers would call and apologize to him, and we've not heard anything at all," Amy Sims said.
Gary Pellico, spokesman for the school system, declined to say whether the teachers have been disciplined. He said system officials regret the incident.
"We don't feel like it was an appropriate awards ceremony at all," Pellico said. "It wasn't part of the school's award ceremony, and it will not happen again."
Amy Sims said her son needs counseling because of the awards. The school has offered it, but an agreement on who will provide it has not been reached, Thomas reported.
Oh dear. Two soppy humorless parents raised in the self-esteem culture and a milquetoast whiny brat who can’t take a joke.
Bring back the dunce cap and let kids get a serious taste of the real world.
Doesn’t sound like that school is onboard the “Self-Esteem is Everything” express.
Yo, Matt!! Think you can milk this for all it’s worth???
The teachers shouldn’t have given these awards publicly, just
to themselves, yes, but my goodness, it’s not like the child will be traumatized for eternity, let’s get some free bucks from the school system to make up for our lack of parenting skills, okey dokey mom and dad?!
Hope Matt’s learned his lesson and next year will win “Best Behaved Student in 7th Grade!”
Anyone want to bet no child of ‘color’ endured this type of thing?
Just a thought.
So you'd be OK with this if it was your kid?
What an idiotic thing for teachers to do.
Don’t worry, they’ll just put him on the “juice”.
When she graduated elementary school she won the award for being a chatter box.
Every kid got something and none of the awards were flattering, it was all in good fun.
She’ll be staring her third year of college and she still has them prominently displayed in her bedroom and she loves them and the memories they rekindle.
IMO some one should have taught this kid how to lighten up and roll with it.
O, for the love of Pete.
I now crown him, “Sir Sniveling Little Rat Faced”
This is the parents’ fault, as well as the kid’s and teachers.
His behavior shouldn’t have been so bad during the year that the teachers felt a need to do this to him.
I got no sympathy for the kid or the parents. Good behavior=good consequences. Bad behavior=bad consequences. Pretty simple.
On the other hand, my mother always said, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but little words do not harm me". I like my mother's approach better.
How about calling him “Brave Sir Robin” instead?
If you're a wuss they do. Life is tough, wear a helmet.
I missed that in the story. I'll have to go back and read to find where it says that his behavior was so bad during the year that the teachers felt a need to do this to him. Thanks for pointing it out.
This is why “hate crimes” laws are incorrect.
Bring back the dunce cap and let kids get a serious taste of the real world.
Award ceremonies can be fun and can be humorous. I'm all for that. But teachers should not use insults or demeaning humor toward students in any setting but especially not a public setting like this. It was totally inappropriate and the parents are absolutely right to be angry.
BFD!!
We had awards like this in my 6th grade chorus... I think I got the “Handwriting most resembling chicken scratch” award or something..
It was true, my handwriting was ridiculous! I laughed, and moved on!
I feel bad for this kid though.. this preciously guarded little hothouse flower is going to have a tough time in the real world, where not everyone will think he is perfect like mommy and daddy do.
Dear Parents: STFU!!
Fire them. The teachers were completely in the wrong.
Then if anybody objects we will say they just can't take a joke.
Only a “breeder” would be awarded “Most Likely Not To Have Children”. The alternative lifestyle kids would not be subject to having their lifestyle choice (in the sixth grade no less) questioned.
I agree, but would add that the parents need a lesson in that as well.
Yesterday was the awards ceremony at my daughter's school.....she was more excited about the one she got in the classroom from the teacher than the one she got during the school ceremony.
From her teacher the award is "Most likely to become Cat Woman"
At the school ceremony she received the Principal's Award, which is for Straight A's and Honor Roll for the entire school year.
(She could have very well earned a chatter box or drama queen award)
Future Doctor award?
I don't have a problem with "Sir Clownsalot." That sounds fairly good natured. But "Most Likely Not to Have Children"? What does it even mean?
My son just returned home from a 4-H trip where one of the chaperones had called one of the kids "fatty" to his face and made him cry (the kid is a fourth grader and, according to my son, is overweight).
Does that square with you? Is this kid whiney and insecure?
I agree. Sounds like they place a higher priority on stupid end-of-year games and handing out frivolous awards than on teaching English, history, math, science, etc.
Years ago, when my sons were in school, I was involved with the Gifted Children programs - Most often, a child with high intelligence gets bored silly with the dumbed down curriculum of today's schools. They are likely to be, out of sheer boredom, the one's who "day dream" and/or become the class clown's -
The school's and teachers (and the teacher's are often less intelligent and resent these children - I even had the President of the California Dept. of Education say that to me!)
It is bordering on criminal what they have done to this young man.
They now bring criminal charges against parents for "verbal" abuse. Why wouldn't this fall into same criteria?
May I suggest you go suck an egg -
Yeah, those stupid teachers!! What do they know? They had a bratty kid in their classrooms for an entire school year and had to put up with God knows what kind of crap while getting little or no support from the parents or the school admin...sheesh, why are these stupid teachers even breathing?!
/s
And at the other end of the spectrum are schools who have teachers give awards out to every student, so as to not hurt a child's self esteem. Gone are the days when, if awards were given out, they were given out to the top students.
At the end of my son's 6th grade year, the teacher "forgot" to give an award to this one student..whether on purpose or on accident..don't know. I still remember her crying because she was so embarrassed.
If that was enough to drive her son into counseling, then he has problems deeper than a couple of joke awards. I say this as an adult who was a withdrawn, frightened, easily hurt child. There are other issues here.
(Not defending the teachers, mind you. It was a tasteless thing to do.)
Thank you!
Maybe it’s because I’m a woman but damn if I don’t think this is mean as all get out.
I understand very well we live in a culture where someone can get “offended” and the world curls up into a ball and sucks its politcally correct thumb.
But I swear to the good Lord this thing is just plain MEAN. I mean...it’s MEAN with no purpose at all.
I despise mean people. In general only liberals are mean. Mean-ness is a waste of time and resources. I could see these teachers sitting around and laughing about this sort of thing....when no one’s listening and it’s time to let off steam.
But to say this sort of thing to a young child? Why am I flabberghasted. What purpose does it serve but to hurt someone’s feelings?
Did other students get these kinds of awards or just this child? If this is done every year and known in advance that it is a joke I do not see the problem, however, “Most Likely Not To Have Children”...wonder what he did or did not do to get that award?
Where do I go to sue?
This is what scoreless little league games has wrought.
My son’s high school band gave out a Most Improved Award every year or as the kids called it “ You Really Sucked at the First of the Year”, nobody got upset about it.
You don’t think there’s a difference in self-esteem between losing a competitive activity, and being put down by your teacher?
Stories like this provide fodder for the self-esteem crowd..
Whatever happened to the “teachers should be positive role models” movement ?
The Sir Clowns-A-Lot award was probably well deserved and should be acceptable, but the “not likely to have children” is way, way too personal. The teachers were out of line on that one.
Bring back the dunce cap and let kids get a serious taste of the real world.
You got it....
It's one thing for a teacher to discipline children - it's quite another to belittle them.
I remember today with horror how when I was in grade school a teacher encouraged me and the other children to make fun of a child who showed up to school late and who wore an oversized coat to school.
In reality, he was late because his father had left his mother and she was working nights to support herself and her children. He came in to school late sometimes because his mother had to drive straight from work to his grandmother's house to pick him up and bring him to school, since his grandmother couldn't drive but was the only person she trusted with her children.
He wore an oversized coat because his mother couldn't afford to buy him a new winter coat and instead altered one of his father's coats for him.
That teacher was a vicious c***, and the worst part is that she encouraged myself and other 8 year olds to mock and laugh at another little boy who was going through hell.
Thank God my mother is a Christian woman who set me straight on that one.
Don’t judge a book by it’s cover—years ago I had the most angelic looking child in my class, smart as a whip—and I swear on a stack of Bibles, demon possessed...he would go off on other students for no reason, throwing desks over his head at them...cursing at them with language that would make a sailor blush, and guess what I was told by admin?
Ignore it. He’d been classified ‘special ed’ due to his behavioral problems and legally I couldn’t do *ANYTHING* to try to correct his behavior. Put up with that crap for half a year, until finally his parents had him institutionalized—the mom was pregnant and he would draw pictures of him stabbing the baby to death and make statements about all the horrible ways he planned to kill it after it was born—when he started saying he was going to cut it out of the mom, they locked him up. Order was restored to my classroom, finally, but those other students in my class were the ones who suffered because of his behavior.
Give the teachers the benefit of the doubt—until you hear their side of the story, you just never know.
Yes!!
I know just what you mean, and I was thinking that as the article states he was clowning around in class. Maybe he was just bored to tears with the wimpy, mind-numbed, feminized, communitarian, politically correct, boy-hating curriculum and culture in today's classroom!
I suspect this kid will go a lot farther in life than either of these worthless "teechurz" give him credit for.
Don’t EVEN get me started on *that* subject!!! Grrrrrrr. >:-(
“Only a “breeder” would be awarded “Most Likely Not To Have Children”. The alternative lifestyle kids would not be subject to having their lifestyle choice (in the sixth grade no less) questioned.”
WeeGee, you have some serious issues.
This isn’t a thread about homosexuality, ok?
This is about a kid getting being teased by teachers. Do you think you might be able to comment on it without yammering on about your #1 obsession?
Holy crap, anyone would think there’s a gay pride parade on your front lawn every day of the week the way you go on.
I'm not a woman and I believe you have absolutely nailed it.
Exactly. What the hell?
“Future Doctor award?”
It might have been exactly that!!
Holy crap... are you Mrs. Stick????
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