Posted on 07/03/2003 4:22:38 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
AUBURN NY--Theodore R. Connors, whose daughter was a seventh-grader at West Middle School this spring, said an English class assignment requiring pupils to write a suicide note was highly inappropriate.
"It's a very dark, dark assignment," he said.
Connors, who recently ran unsuccessfully for the Auburn school board, wants the assignment dropped next year and said the school district should advise parents of pupils who completed the assignment to talk with the children about suicide.
Auburn School Superintendent John Plume said Wednesday he didn't think the assignment, as described by the school's principal, was inappropriate.
Plume said he's talked to the principal three times about the issue since it first came to light and that Connors has reached a conclusion that "is not based on fact."
"I'm not a teacher, but I know that's not an appropriate assignment," Connors said late last week. "So how is it a teacher would not think that that's not an appropriate assignment?"
State Education Department spokesman Bill Hirschen said the matter is a local curriculum issue, and the state isn't involved. He said the state does not require districts to teach about suicide in the health curriculum, although Connors said the middle school held a program on suicide earlier in the year.
Attempts to reach teacher Kristen Bartolotta and West Middle School Principal Deborah P. Carey for comment were unsuccessful.
Connors, who earlier this month lost election to the school board by two votes, said he is also unhappy that school officials did not cancel the assignment after he brought the matter to their attention.
The assignment required pupils in Bartolotta's English class to read the poem "Richard Cory," by Edwin Arlington Robinson. In the poem, Cory is a well-to-do figure who commits suicide.
The pupils divided into groups of five to complete five writing assignments based on the poem: a newspaper feature story, a television broadcast, a first-person account of the person finding Cory, an obituary and a suicide note Cory might have left.
Connors said the pupils were told to write the note in the first person "using their own personal information."
"I don't think in any way shape or form, whether it's a suicide note first-person, third-person - any kind of suicide note," Connors said, "I don't think it's appropriate."
Plume's impression of the assignment was different. "They were supposed to write that in the first person, but that first person was supposed to be Richard Cory," Plume said.
Plume said that when he taught English he had his students read the poem. He said state and district curricula require students at this grade level to learn the differences between first- and third-person points of view and be able to write in them. He said the teacher was trying to do that.
The school superintendent did not speak with the teacher personally. Instead, he asked Carey, the West Middle School principal, to look into the complaint.
"There were some elements of what (Connors) said that I actually agreed with," Plume said. "I found, for example, a first-person narrative of a suicide note (using the students' personal information ) would, in fact, be inappropriate." But that's not what happened, he said.
Connors is unhappy school officials didn't stop the assignment.
"It could have been changed; it could have been modified," he said. "That's what I was looking for. . . . I was waiting for them to do something about it, but they didn't do anything about it, because obviously, they didn't care. That's from me, from my perspective, they didn't care."
Plume said there was no delay in responding to Connors' complaint. Connors said he discussed the matter with several school board members June 3 and with Plume on June 4, a Wednesday. Plume said he then told Carey to look into the matter. The assignment was due June 9, a Monday.
"In my opinion there was not a lot of time to curb this particular one, given that time frame," Plume said.
The superintendent said no other parents complained about the assignment.
I think they could have learned the difference between writing in the first person and the third person, by writing about some other event, than a suicide.
True, but in the old days, we read and analyzed literature, and discussed fictional characters and their motivation, without everyone's going into a Spasm all the time.
Part of the problem, I suspect, is that students today (I've been told by teachers) aren't clear on the distinction between fiction and nonfiction. Perhaps they could read some current news reports on the Kennedy-Bessette or Cuomo-Kennedy situations, and discuss why people who seem to have every advantage might reasonably despair of life.
Thinking back to the kind of wiseguy I was, I can envision some nice suicide notes:
1: If Ms. Bartola gives me one more enema after class I am going to kill myself!.
2: Ms. Carey touches me so much Down There that I feel dirty and worthless and am throwing myself in front of the school bus.
(steely)
Might even prevent some of the kids from getting involved with drugs in the future, or off them as soon as possible if they are already into them.
But, you mentioned the Kennedy/Besset item, and yeah... makes you wonder sometimes, doesn't it?
I can see it now. Next class assignment: "Blowing away your schoolmates and teachers."
Now, now, I'm sure that's not "socially and organizationally acceptable," whatever the FReep that means! Nice adverbs, though.
By the time you read this not, I will have been crushed beneath the cruel treads of the nazi imperialist zionist heavy earth mover of mass destruction, defending the dwellings, escape tunnels and dope caches of the heroic Palestinian defenders.
When the zionist earth moving bulldozer passes over my frail body, the semtex belt that I am wearing underneath my flourescent vest will explode with enough intensity to vaporize the tank and the cruel evil nazi zionists driving it.
As a dedicated member of Lesbians for Jihad, I will then rejoice with my 72 virgins in Paradise.
Pass out candy to the little children, do not mourn my passing but dance in the streets of Gaza as the occupiers flee in terror!
Yours forever in eternal Jihad, Rachel Corey.
I like it when articles like this identifty the government employee who screwed up. I hate it when the press lets them be anonymous.
"Oh.....no gun? We're sorry......it's for the safety of the children, y'know."
The village nods approvingly.
Or: "Oh. Your father's a cop?" (automatically putting kiddo in the at-risk category)
Later, at the chief's office: "We're concerned that your officer isn't securing his gun in accordance with state law and department policy. We suggest you have a talk with him, just in case."
So much for the concerned to do. So little funding.
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