Last week there was a news story out of Philadelphia about three students who were suspended from school: one for hitting a pregnant teacher in the stomach, one for exposing himself, a third for stabbing a classmate with a pencil.
Were these rowdy adolescent boys? No. They were kindergartners! And they were among 33 kindergartners suspended from Philadelphia public schools in the first four months of a new school district chief’s tenure. This compared to one child suspended in the same time period last year.
The article basically asks whether or not it’s appropriate to suspend such young children. And it also pretty much answers it in the negative by including only those experts who think it’s a bad idea.
So, what do I think? Let’s see – beating on a pregnant teacher, stabbing classmates, exposing one’s genitals. I think I would agree with the school district that perhaps these children are not quite ready to be in close contact with others of their species.
The article goes on and on quoting a Yale University child psychologist who says he doubts that young children “get the connection” between an action in school and the ensuing suspension. What’s to “get”? They can’t go to school because they’ve done something bad, and he’s not sure they can make the association between what they have done and being thrown out of school? That’s preposterous.
I absolutely believe that children 5 and 6 years of age very well understand when somebody says that because you’ve done something bad, you can’t do something – in this case, go to school. I grant the psychologist that the chance they will change their behavior because of the suspension is probably not great. But “get it,” they most certainly do!
He goes on to say, “I think it’s a bad move, because it absolves the school from feeling that it’s necessary to deal with that problem within the school building.” (Right, it should be dealt with in the Police Department!) The good doctor from Yale says, “You push it out into the community, into the family home, and that’s where it all started to begin with.” (So why if the problem begins there, shouldn’t it be solved there?)
Wait a minute. The school is supposed to contend with stabbing, punching flashing? I don’t think so. The school’s responsibility is to get those kids the heck out of there, so that the other children have a safe learning environment.
Despite the passing reference to the families “where it all started,” nobody wants to look too closely at exactly what kinds of families we are talking about – the kind of families that incubate homicidal rage and sexual acting out. Are there two parents in the home? Is there any parent in the home? Who is teaching these kids the proper way to behave? Is anyone modeling civilized behavior for them?
We are not given that data. No, we are given a lot of liberal pap. Guess what, the problem is all about racial profiling and poverty. The school is picking on, singling out the _____ kids (fill in the blank: black, Hispanic, poor, etc.). This is what I mean when I say that the liberal mentality doesn’t really help people. It protects them from the truth, and without the truth, people can’t take action to make their lives better.
Oh, and my favorite “cause” of this shocking behavior from babies (babies!)
is that they didn’t get enough preschool. This brilliant insight comes from a spokesperson for Connecticut Voices for Children. See, if we institutionalize them at a tender age, they’ll be happier, well-adjusted kids. Lack of preschooling leads to an epidemic of crime in kindergarten!
Tom Brokaw has written I don’t know how many books on “the greatest generation” – you remember those guys – the ones who left the comforts of home and family, fought two enemies at once on two fronts, sacrificed their lives for their country or came home disabled. History does not record that any of these people assaulted their classmates or teacher for want of a preschool experience.
This is not about racism or poverty or inadequate institutionalized daycare. It’s about children growing up with no guidance, no supervision, no religion, no love nor discipline because no one has the experience or the motivation to provide it.
The Yale psychologists had it right. It starts with families, and that’s where it has to be fixed. The problem is the disintegration of the family. Taking steps to make families healthier would go a long way toward stopping Philadelphia’s kindergarten crime spree.
