Outrageous Story -- Kindergarten teacher has boy who may have Asperger's voted out of class.

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: JS80
I don't believe in Aspergers

You better start believing. Thinking it is purely a behavioral problem based on inept parenting is foolish. Spend one day with a child or an adult with Aspergers or Autism and you will change your thinking.
I live with Autism every day. My 6 year old is one of the most severe people around here have ever seen. Yet my 4 year old is smart and was accepted into the Magnet School for the smart kids.
While it is true that some children with autistic symptoms are not truly autistic; some are actually allergic to wheat or milk or other such foods and the allergy to them causes the brain to fire differently, and getting them off of these foods can actually "cure" them. We tried it with our oldest and she did not respond.

Either way, the teacher needs to "go get her some more learnin" about the children she is going to have to deal with in today's world.

 

[cumhail]

Originally posted by: JS80
I don't believe in Aspergers

Man... between this inane post and your thread about Carter, you're really on a roll, lately.

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski

Originally posted by: JS80
I don't believe in Aspergers

You better start believing. Thinking it is purely a behavioral problem based on inept parenting is foolish. Spend one day with a child or an adult with Aspergers or Autism and you will change your thinking.
I live with Autism every day. My 6 year old is one of the most severe people around here have ever seen. Yet my 4 year old is smart and was accepted into the Magnet School for the smart kids.
While it is true that some children with autistic symptoms are not truly autistic; some are actually allergic to wheat or milk or other such foods and the allergy to them causes the brain to fire differently, and getting them off of these foods can actually "cure" them. We tried it with our oldest and she did not respond.

Either way, the teacher needs to "go get her some more learnin" about the children she is going to have to deal with in today's world.

I can't say whether or not Aspergers exists or not, but I know of at least one kid (young adult at this point) who's diagnosed Aspergers who probably didn't need the diagnosis.
I met him in college, and he's a fairly intelligent, very talkative person. He's socially awkward, and tends to get fixated on things (video games, book he's reading, whateva), but every nerdy kid I knew growing up was like this. I was like this until I got some more social experience.
He also has an overbearing mom who's always hovering around, and went to a special school for kids with autism. I'd be willing to bet money that his "condition" is just based off of the social environment he grew up in and never really being able to associate with society in general. Some kids take longer to develop, some games just get weird hang ups when young, but the correct solution is not to isolate them to some kind of ghetto where they'll never learn to properly deal with others.

 

[Fern]

After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn't like about Barton's 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.

By a 14 to 2 margin, the class voted him out of the class.

That's a horribly cruel thing to subject such a young child to.

Makes me angry and sad. I hate stories like this.

Fern

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: JS80
I don't believe in Aspergers

I don't believe in it either, its just the new "IT" diagnosis that people try to put on kids who are losers these days, kinda like ADD etc..

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: Cogman
The whole "Aspergers Syndrome" thing is a moot point that is just trying to get some tears jerked. If the mother is in the process of testing her child, how is the teacher supposed to know? Sounds like a sue happy family looking to get rich of the state.

That said, The teachers actions where inappropriate. When you single an individual out like that and ask kids to say what they dislike about a person, kids will be very cruel and start to think of things they don't like, killing the kids self confidence. I don't think any lesion of value is taught from that. That is where my anger for the teacher would come in and the teacher should definitively face some disciplinary action for such a cruel action (and the school should consider termination).

The teacher attended the evaluations. She deserves to be fired for this ridiculous stunt.

I don't see how the asperger's thing is just a tear jerker, considering the asperger's is probably the reason the kid got voted out of the class...

 

[Kappo]

Kinda nice to know that another teacher in our public school systems requires the input of a group of 5 year olds to "lay down the law".

Not only should she be fired, but she should be unable to teach in ANY capacity again and zero pension paid out.

This kind of thing would be far less frequent if we actually paid teachers on performance rather than tenure.

 

[BrownTown]

I remember when I was in 9th grade we had a day where we randomly voted someone out of class, it came down to the loser (me) verse the new kid from England ith a British accent, ended up that we voted the British kid out of class.

 

[MadRat]

If the kid has Aspergers then most likely he didn't belong in the classroom to begin with. The autistic kids are most comfortable in a more structured environment. The parent made a mockery out of the school by bringing this out to the public's attention. The officials in this case did investigate and found no wrong doing. Anyone that continues to declare "the teacher should be fired" is a lunatic them self; obviously that latter person doesn't believe in societal standards.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: MadRat
If the kid has Aspergers then most likely he didn't belong in the classroom to begin with.

It's hard to say because many of the people who suffer from Asperger's are actually very bright in spite of their social disabilities, such as the nerdy guy or gal who sets the curve on the science, math, and English tests in the AP classes.

The officials in this case did investigate and found no wrong doing.

Um...wasn't that a reference to legal officials, as in prosecutors and law enforcement? Sure, perhaps they didn't find any evidence of illegal child abuse and thus aren't going to prosecute her. That in and of itself doesn't mean she doesn't deserve to get fired. As for the school officials themselves, of course they could claim that nothing really wrong happened because they might be anticipating a lawsuit.

Anyone that continues to declare "the teacher should be fired" is a lunatic them self; obviously that latter person doesn't believe in societal standards.

And what standards to you believe in? That teachers should be allowed to mentally torment five year olds? That sort of thing could very well have been traumatic even for a neurotypical child.

 

[MadRat]

You missed the part in the article where the story came from the parent.