VERY Bad Socialization

 

Well, for any of you would-be elementary teachers out there, there should be a new position opening soon at Port St. Lucie’s Morningside Elementary School.  VERY soon.  In case you want to inquire about the position, their number (listed on the Internet) is 772-337-6730.

According to a story that broke May 23, elementary school teacher Wendy Portillo took a somewhat unusual approach to dealing with Alex Barton, a student in her kindergarten class who, due to what is most likely a case of Asperger’s Syndrome, has proven somewhat difficult to manage during the year.

She had him voted off the island.

According to the news reports, Wendy Portillo required five-year-old Alex Barton to stand in front of the class and encouraged each one of the other kindergarten students to say exactly what they thought of him.  Among other things, his classmates told Alex that they thought he was “disgusting” and “annoying,” and voted, by a 14-to-2 margin to have him removed from the class.

Think for a moment about what this must feel like. 

The worst part — by far the worst — is that this emotional savaging (can we call it anything else?) was orchestrated, encouraged, and in fact dreamed up by the person in the class who is supposed to have the greatest responsibility and wisdom, and whose betrayal, therefore, was by far the worst: Wendy Portillo .  It’s one thing when a group of children savages another child on the playground; it’s another thing altogether when an adult is giving her sanction and blessing to it.

Everyone out there who’s been a teacher has had students who were disciplinary nightmares, whose management basically took up the entire class and prevented there from being any teaching whatsoever.  That’s why many states have some kind of “escape hatch” clause in their school’s discipline plans that essentially says, “Okay, we’ve tried everything; now we have to remove this one kid for the sake of the other twenty-nine.”  That’s fair and reasonable, provided that the teacher really has worked through the hierarchy of steps, from consulting with the student to having a sit-down with the parent, principal, and counselor.

But this is far different.

I don’t just feel sorry for this child, although I do.  I also regret to say that I believe this incident has the power to shape the minds and morals of the other children who were invited, with this adult’s sanction, to deride and ostracize a little boy.  They learned that if an authority invites you to do so, it is legitimate and licit to call someone “disgusting” or “annoying” to their face without, I presume, any fear of physical or verbal reprisal.  They learned that it is permissible and right to vilify someone whose mental condition makes them different.  They learned that if an authority figure says it’s okay, it must be okay.

Too bad they’ve never heard of the Milgram Experiment.

You know whom I applaud?    The two kids who voted against the other fourteen.

That took balls.  Or ovaries, take your pick.  Hard enough as it is to oppose your peers, it’s nearly impossible when you’re FIVE.  It’s harder still to oppose a teacher whose idea of justice begins and ends with the kangaroo court.  To do so requires moral integrity, more moral integrity than was present in the rest of that classroom.  Those parents should be proud.

And Alex?

Here’s hoping they homeschool.

 

~ by adsoofmelk on May 25, 2008.