The vice principals reaction to this situation was completely irrational. I think this vice principal needs to take responsibility for his or her actions and should apologize to the kid, family, and everyone else involved with the school. He or she works at a school that promotes science and technology. It should be obvious that some students are going to be doing experiments and making things at home. It is completely natural for a student proud of something he or she did to want to share it with friends and possibly teachers. The vice principal should have asked the kid a few questions before coming to his irrational conclusion. By the sounds of it this kid would have been completely willing to explain what the device does and endure a call to his parents to clarify and complied with a request to leave such items made for personal purposes at home in the future. I'm sure the parents know that their child likes to make things and if they are good parents probably encourage it.
Now on to a response to some of the comments I've seen on the original article. Some of you have done a really good job of making it seem like every school in America is filled with paranoid incompetent nut jobs as teachers, administrators and other staff, that American schools are filled with metal detectors, pat downs, random searches, officers with weapons, no child is allowed a shred of independent thought, children are forced to sit with their mouths closed and not move for hours on end, and so on. This is certainly not even close to the truth. There are some schools in the US that have indeed gone too far in the sprit of ‘security’ but those schools are a small minority. There are indeed some worrying trends in education and worrying reactions by parents, administrators, other school staff and teachers as evidenced by the original article and a few people’s personal stories such as the ‘could be used for growing pot’ one. Most of the teachers I had growing up were caring individuals who struck a good balance between teaching what was required of them and encouraging individual thought, critical thinking, and appropriate ways of dissenting. I’m speaking as an individual who has personally experienced a variety of school systems (including foreign ones) and am currently a teacher of preschoolers.
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The vice principals reaction to this situation was completely irrational. I think this vice principal needs to take responsibility for his or her actions and should apologize to the kid, family, and everyone else involved with the school. He or she works at a school that promotes science and technology. It should be obvious that some students are going to be doing experiments and making things at home. It is completely natural for a student proud of something he or she did to want to share it with friends and possibly teachers. The vice principal should have asked the kid a few questions before coming to his irrational conclusion. By the sounds of it this kid would have been completely willing to explain what the device does and endure a call to his parents to clarify and complied with a request to leave such items made for personal purposes at home in the future. I'm sure the parents know that their child likes to make things and if they are good parents probably encourage it. Now on to a response to some of the comments I've seen on the original article. Some of you have done a really good job of making it seem like every school in America is filled with paranoid incompetent nut jobs as teachers, administrators and other staff, that American schools are filled with metal detectors, pat downs, random searches, officers with weapons, no child is allowed a shred of independent thought, children are forced to sit with their mouths closed and not move for hours on end, and so on. This is certainly not even close to the truth. There are some schools in the US that have indeed gone too far in the sprit of ‘security’ but those schools are a small minority. There are indeed some worrying trends in education and worrying reactions by parents, administrators, other school staff and teachers as evidenced by the original article and a few people’s personal stories such as the ‘could be used for growing pot’ one. Most of the teachers I had growing up were caring individuals who struck a good balance between teaching what was required of them and encouraging individual thought, critical thinking, and appropriate ways of dissenting. I’m speaking as an individual who has personally experienced a variety of school systems (including foreign ones) and am currently a teacher of preschoolers.