My Second Grade Son has a Capitalist Barter System in order to go bathroom

[Taverner]

My son is in 2nd grade. Unlike any other teacher at his school, his teacher set a system up where the kids get a certain amount of money at the beginning of the term - and with that money they can (1) Go to the bathroom, (2) Sharpen their pencil or many other things. On that list is also the ability to talk to the teacher. If they don't have the money, they don't get the 'privilege' of going to the bathroom or sharpening the pencil if need be.

Tell me this isn't pre-fascist.

Tell me this isn't an authoritarian regime.

What kind of power crazed maniac would set such a system into place among SEVEN YEAR OLDS!!!

---------------------------------------------------

We're complaining. Partially because the amount of homework he is getting is absurd (easily 3-4 hours a night - did I mention this is second grade??)

But also because of this Ratfink fascist system they have set up - I mean, come the hell on!

[mzteris]

1. absolutely ridiculous.

complain to the principal. complain to the school board if you have to. I'd get the kid transferred to a different classroom.

I always wrote a note at the beginning of the year that my child had bladder issues and MUST be allowed to go to the bathroom whenever she needed to go - no questions asked. I think restricting use of the bathroom is abusive.

[surrealAmerican]

2. Fascist or not, it's a very bad idea.

Does this teacher really want kids wetting their pants and not having a usable pencil because they haven't developed good budgeting skills?

This is totally not age appropriate.

[woo me with science]

3. Pay to TALK to the TEACHER?????

EXCUSE me??????

I would complain, too. That is OUTRAGEOUS.

[Mojambo]

5. That's the one that gets me.

Demand a conference and kick some motherfucking ass.

[tigereye]

4. that doesn't seem right - is this a school with a lot of discipline problems

for kids? That might account for the somewhat draconian - and pretty unkind- system. I mean, I think the 3-5 strikes rules and various loss of privileges can make sense for some kids, but to go to the bathroom and talk to the teacher? Not cool.


Kids in second grade should only have 20 minutes homework per night, if that. :shrug:

[pacalo]

6. Bathroom *needs* shouldn't be thought of as a privilege.

And if the teacher wants positive results when it comes to students finishing classroom work, she shouldn't regard sharpening pencils as a privilege, either; obsessive amount of trips to the sharpener by certain students can be dealt with by setting limitations for them.

Weird. I'd talk to the teacher, but changing teachers mid-year may not be best for your son. Teachers tend to stick together & if you were to alienate the teacher, you might put a stigma on your son.

[demmiblue]

8. I disagree... the other teachers probably think that that teacher is an asshole. n/t

[pacalo]

10. How would I know? It would be the son who'd have to deal with any repercussions.

[demmiblue]

12. Huh? This makes no sense. n/t

[pacalo]

15. Which part? That I wouldn't know which of the other teachers are friendly with the son's teacher?

Or that going beyond a reasonable parent/teacher conference may cause repercussions for the son?

[demmiblue]

16. The assumption that other teachers find this acceptable...

and would treat this child differently due to some sort of friendship with the teacher. That part.

Hence, my posit that the other teachers probably think that said teacher is an asshole.

[pacalo]

17. I still have a friendship with my son's first grade teacher & I can tell you stories that

would make your hair stand up. You really believe in your assumption, that teachers are above holding grudges against certain children? That teachers wouldn't stick together?

[demmiblue]

20. No, teachers do not generally stick together in some sort of grudge toward a child.

Sounds very Palinesque.

This just does not happen. Most teachers I know would be disgusted by the behavior of the teacher described in the OP. And I know a lot of teachers.

I guess our experiences differ. :shrug:

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pacalo]

38. Very naive. I stand by my opinion in the post that you had the moderator delete.

[demmiblue]

7. Wow! Usually children at that age earn token currency based on positive behavior.

This is very bizarre.

I would have a huge problem with the bathroom issue. This is just asking for problems related to constipation and urinary infections. :wtf:

[Taverner]

9. My son has severe constipation btw...

[demmiblue]

11. Hmmm...

a) talk to your pediatrician.

b) get your child out of that classroom.


Good luck! :hi:

[CC]

13. If talking doesn't work organize

a shit in. Sorry couldn't help it though I bet it would make the point.


What is it about some second grade teachers. I slid on ice and landed on the back of my head on the way to school in second grade. My teacher told me to get over it. An hour or so later I was sick to my stomach and ask to go to the nurses office. The same teacher told me I was faking and just wanted to get out of work. I then threw up all over her. Got sent to the office really fast then. BTW I had a severe concussion and that teacher walked on egg shells around me after my mom was done with her. Still have a large chip out of a vertebrae from that hit.

[marzipanni]

18. Ha! I like the shit-in idea

That's awful about your experience in second grade. I was a health tech (low cost substitute for a school nurse) and would organize a 'concussion teach-in' for teachers if a teacher responded that way to a child who is in distress.
I'm almost sixty, but I have a friend my age who remembers vividly raising her hand over and over again to no avail while in a circle of chairs as the teacher read a book in first grade. After repeated ignored attempts to ask the teacher if she could go to the restroom, the "trickle down" began and formed a puddle under her chair. :(

[CC]

32. I was too sick to care

and by the time I might of my mom was so mad that it was taken care of. Oh and the other kids thought it was so cool since nobody liked this one teacher. :rofl: That was the second run in with that teacher. Luckily most of my other teachers were pretty good and I never lost my love of learning.

[madinmaryland]

14. What. The. Fuck. You need to raise some hell, RIGHT FUCKING NOW!

[Initech]

19. We had that in fourth grade, but they did it to teach us a lesson on protesting.

Once the class started getting really pissed about the situation - we started protesting, and they did away with it.

[sakabatou]

21. Get your son to organize a protest

[SteppingRazor]

28. Yeah, have him lead a Marxist revolution. That'll show the teacher.

:)


Seriously, though, the kids ought to create a co-op. Everyone pool their money -- from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The teacher's head'll probably explode.

[NuttyFluffers]

23. the broke kids should poop on the teacher's shoe.

it'd be funny at least. it would also teach about the dysfunctional nastiness of a capitalist state falling into end game decay.

[LostInAnomie]

24. On pair of pissed pants would end all that.

Especially if a law suit is threatened.

[orleans]

25. complain? i'd be fucking crazy about this crap

you should go in right away and have a nice meeting between the three of you: parent, teacher & principle

tell that crazy ass that you have decided to opt your child out of participating in such a fucked up situation and that your kid has permission to use the fucking bathroom when necessary and sharpen a fucking pencil in order to write and has your permission to speak to that fucking teacher whenever he wants to because that teacher WORKS FOR YOU AND YOU ARE PAYING THEIR SALARY!

i would also point out that if you wanted your kid in military school he'd have been sent there.

no wonder there are hours of homework--they spend all their time playing around and keeping track of this creepy ass bullshit.

then, while you're there, ask the principle where s/he gets off approving of such a stupid set up like this teacher has going on.

good luck with this. next stop--the district office.

[rug]

26. This is interesting.

There are no Federal labor or employment laws that require employers to set specific intervals or even make time for employees to take work breaks or eat meals.

However, the Federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("health care reform bill" passed in March 2010) requires employers to reasonably provide unpaid work breaks in private areas for nursing mothers "to express breast milk." Employers with fewer than 50 employees are exempt if they can prove undue hardship.

Fewer than half the states have laws that require employers to make time for employees to eat meals. Even fewer states have laws that require employers to make time for employees to take work breaks. (See Work Breaks and Meals State Laws below.)

Although there are no Federal and few state laws that require employers to give bathroom breaks, the Federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has interpreted a section in its Sanitation Standard, to mean that it "...requires employers to make toilet facilities available so that employees can use them when they need to do so. The employer may not impose unreasonable restrictions on employee use of the facilities."

http://employeeissues.com/breaks_meals.htm

[WinkyDink]

27. And this relates to seven-year-olds in school how?

[Pacifist Patriot]

30. Adults are expected to be treated like human beings while school children are not?

[Pacifist Patriot]

29. This really bothers me.

Not just the authoritarianism, but also the materialism. Some things in life should never ever be tied to monetary transactions. Bodily functions would head the list in my opinion.

This is wrong on so many levels!

[LynneSin]

31. As someone who has had a lifetime of bladder issues that is just wrong on so many levels

No, I didn't wet myself (I was a quick train)

But I do have a small bladder and prone to infections.

Someone needs to bitch about what that school system is doing.

[applegrove]

33. One of those corporate charter schools I bet.

[jmowreader]

34. There's an easy fix to this...

Get your son a condom catheter and a mechanical pencil. Junior applies the cath (it rolls on--giving him a foley cath would be cruel and unusual punishment) and runs the hose down his pant leg before first bell. Also equip him with a milk bottle or something to hold the expressed urine.

When the teacher calls you to complain about the piss bottle under your son's desk, just explain that you used American Ingenuity to sideskirt a dictatorial situation, just like our Founding Fathers did hundreds of years ago. My bet is, he'll only need to do it once.

[mia]

35. In Florida it's against the law to associate discipline with food, rest, or toileting

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/FileStores/Web/Statutes/FS08/CH0402/Section_0402.305.HTM

Perhaps your state has a similar statute.

[Lucian]

36. Wait...how is going to the bathroom a privilege?

So if they don't have the money they can't go to the bathroom? What happens then? Do they shit and piss their pants?

Definitely seems pre-Fascist. I'm surprised America's workplaces don't implement a system like this. Wait...did I just give them an idea? :yoiks:

[Odin2005]

37. That is INSANE! Complain to the school ASAP.

That is completely unacceptable! :grr: