Posted on 03/28/2009 9:16:51 AM PDT by getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL
Please share your thoughts with me after reading the following:
Background:
Private co-ed Christian school.
65 students in this grade level.
Student elections for Student Council.
Positions on the Council: Two Officers & unknown number available for specific events.
11 students running - all girls.
All students required to make one poster and give one short speech to the 8th grade class.
FFw to speech & election day. All students presented their speeches. Prior to students returning to their respective classrooms to cast their votes, the students were told that the ballots would have all 11 girls' names listed. Each person would receive one ballot and that *all* students would be "elected, unless someone were to feel a person/persons would not make a good council member." In this case, students were directed to place a mark next to every student's name indicating a vote for each candidate...*unless* you were choosing to NOT vote for someone.
If you were *not* wanting a person running to serve on the student council, you would then need to state your reason why, next to that person's name. You would also need to sign your *own* name next to the written reason.
Can anyone help me understand what the heck this was?
The "everyone's a winner" thing is evident, and I'm completely opposed to this philosophy.
But what on earth is behind this voting *against* someone, stating your reason and signing your name to the ballot? Is this happening in other schools? What school of thought is this?
Who’s in charge of reading the ballots, a student or the administration?
is ACORN involved?
A more "benign" reason might be to discourage negative votes altogether.
It’s very clear - it’s a directed election much like those held in Soviet Russia, Iraq under Hussein, and Cuba.
It’s all designed to prepare these kids for the America of the future if Dear Leader succeeds in a non-violent coup.
I would assume the advisors (who are two junior high teachers) and perhaps the upper school principal. I really don’t know.
I was told that the student council president came to collect the ballots from the students.
Lol (I think).
Not that I’m aware. :)
This sounds like a learning opportunity to teach kids about overly complex government bureaucracy. Unfortunately, for all their positives, private schools do have some negatives. The one I went to in high school, for example, had a situation where a girl and her boyfriend (both probably about 17) where caught ‘making out’ outside school. They where both made to get in front of the entire school and say what they did and why it was wrong, then the principle made them sit in front of everyone for about an hour preaching at everyone. I remember the girl was crying the whole time in embarrassment and all the principle would do was mock her and act all pious.
The worst part was this young girl was from a great family but ended up really messed up, and I bet a lot had to do with this.
Some private schools play political/social games worse than public.. (I have hundreds of stories like this..)
If it was a student, I’d say they were just being nosy.
I can’t think of an innocent reason for a teacher to demand this.
Sounds like you could save your money and send them to publik skools. Maybe you should consider homeschooling.
There is nothing wrong with Biblical principals but I don’t think this is Biblical, granted, all the important leaders were elected by God but they did have leaders.
All girls are running and I’m assuming the administration who made these rules are women....It’s the feminization of our country where women want to control the outcome of everything. And yes, I’m a woman.
Because I’m not exactly sure what you mean, would you expand on your statement a bit?
Initially I thought, “My child (who’s the pureest of hearts and intentions *and* also straight A-Honors) wouldn’t dare speak ill of someone else. Come to find out, she did comment about one candidate that “she’s running for the wrong reasons.
Wow; that’s horrible. Sounds like a military camp.
Vote for Ron Paul.
My Catholic school was just as bad. I was sick on day and asked to go to the restroom. The nun wouldn’t let me. I threw up on my desk and she made me sit there and not clean up in the restroom until 3:30. I was out for three days and when I came back, she had me clean my desk and yelled a me for stinking up her classroom.
A boy in our class had a bone disease. There were at least three times he fell and broke a bone and the nuns wouldn’t call his parents or do a thing about it.
Theree are many more such stories from my two years there. I swore I would never send my kids to a private school.
Preposterous! Sounds like the PC Police want to re-educate students who may not quite be ‘on board’ the PC train...
Stop it before it grows.
Taking Stalin’s “it’s who counts the votes” to a new level.
That’s despicable, particularly as it was health-related and not behavioral, as was the making-out post.
Wow. I’m sorry that happened.
I have a similar story from Catholic School. In the 7th grade, I was called with a few others to the principal’s office, right after lunch.
The principal had pulled brown bag lunches from the trash that still had food in them. We all had to stand there and eat what was pulled out of the garbage as penance. After all, there were starving children in Cambodia who had nothing.
The school we’re in is non-denominational given all the news of the Priest issues over the past decade.
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