Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Because of course humiliation is the ticket to getting kids to read, right?

Or so seems to think this so-called "teacher".

Fourth-Graders Who Flunk Reading Have Faces Marked
A fourth-grade teacher in southern Idaho is being criticized after having her students use permanent markers to draw on the faces of classmates who failed to meet reading goals.

Some parents and administrators say the punishments given to nine students in Summer Larsen's class were inappropriate and left the children feeling shamed.

Cindy Hurst said recently her 10-year-old son came home from school Nov. 5 with his entire face - including his eyelids - scribbled on with green, red and purple markers.

"He was humiliated, he hung his head and wanted to go wash his face," Hurst told The Times-News of Twin Falls. "He knows he's a slow reader. Now he thinks he should be punished for it."
Reading should be fun. It should be something that people love to do. These children are not learning that. They're learning that if they're slow readers, it's a reason to feel shame. I can't think of a better way to get a child to hate reading, especially out loud in front of class. Kids have enough trouble with bullying in schools and the like. They don't need teachers who are bullies, too, or who model this sort of behaviour to other children, who no doubt will continue the shaming.

If I were a parent, I'd be calling for Ms. Larsen's dismissal, plain and simple, and not because I was being oversensitive, but because because Ms. Larsen apparently has no sensitivity when it comes to her students, and that's something the people we entrust our children to cannot be without.

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