Florida Kindergarten Teacher Has Students Vote To Remove Classmate
25th May 2008
by gordo
Alex Barton
This is unbelievably sad:
Melissa Barton said she is considering legal action after her son’s kindergarten teacher led his classmates to vote him out of class. 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.
Barton said her son is in the process of being diagnosed with Aspberger’s, a type of high-functioning autism. Alex began the testing process in February for an official diagnosis under the suggestion of Morningside Principal Marsha Cully. Alex has had disciplinary issues because of his disabilities, Barton said. The school and district has met with Barton and her son to create an individual education plan, she said. His teacher, Wendy Portillo, has attended these meetings.
Barton said after the vote, Alex’s teacher asked him how he felt. “He said, ‘I feel sad.’”
Alex left the classroom and spent the rest of the day in the nurse’s office. Barton said when she came to pick up her son at the school on Wednesday, he was leaving the nurse’s office. “He was shaken up,” she said. Alex hasn’t been back to school since then, and Barton said he won’t be returning. He starts screaming when she brings him with her to drop off his sibling at school.
Thursday night, his mother heard him saying “I’m not special.”
Barton said Alex is reliving the incident. They said he was “disgusting” and “annoying,” Barton said. “He was incredibly upset. The only friend he has ever made in his life was forced to do this.”
(cross posted at Liberal Avenger and This Old Brit)
May 25th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Christschool has done a masterful job of compiling draft letters of complaint to the authorities and the media over at Thinking in Metaphors. Anyone who wants to use them please let Christschool know and also forward copies to ASAN who are trying to coordinate responses.
May 25th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
That’s disgusting on so many levels. I would hope that the kindergarten teacher gets fired over this - he is obviously not suitable to teach children.
May 25th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
The name of the teacher is Wendy Portillo.
If anyone has the time/technical-capabilities to do a post on encyclopedia dramatica and bestow upon this bullying, sadistic harpy her rightfully earned place on the Web, I urge that you immediately do so.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I cannot imagine any circumstances that would justify a teacher leading such a witch hunt against any student of any age. It is cruel and inappropriate on so many levels. That teacher must have mental problems.
May 25th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Future anti authoritarian rebel is born!
May 26th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
…Oh, and if you really feel like getting pissed off, there is a comment section on another version of this article here. Go read. If you didn’t understand why aspies often don’t like NTs, this is a really good example of why…
May 27th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Outrageous!
This woman is not only a awful teacher, she is a awful human being.
She needs to apologize to this young boy….and then she needs to be voted out of the school system. Her entire class will be effected by this. She gave the other students a lesson in prejudice that day.
Shameful!
May 27th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
The teacher and the School District should be sued!!!!!!!!!!! This is what is wrong with our world. Teachers need more training. Just going to school and getting a 4 year degree is not suitable anymore. This teacher needs to be FIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 27th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Tracey–
Teachers are required to get at least an additional year of training, including supervised teaching, in order to be certified.
But that’s only half of the story. Because many school districts can’t find enough qualified people willing to work for the amount of money they offer, they hire teachers who either haven’t been certified, or who have been certified to work at a different level (e.g. secondary rather than primary), or who have been certified to teach a different subject. I imagine a lot of kindergarten teachers haven’t received proper training, but I don’t know if that’s true in this case.
May 27th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
In education there is a push for teachers to become certified with an Early Childhood endorsement for grades K-3 because the social and emotional needs of this age group are different from the 4-8 grades just as we already recognize the difference between elementary and secondary needs. It is currently becoming a requirement that all kindergarten teachers in Arizona have an Early Childhood endorsement or degree, however, they will not have enough teachers with such qualifications (even though they “grandfathered” in elementary teachers that were willing to fill out some paperwork) to meet their goal in 2009. So they will make do with those that are not optimally qualified as they always do.
Perhaps if instead of blaming teachers and constantly coming up with yet another hoop to jump through just to do what they originally got a degree for they instead offered pay incentives there might be more teachers rushing to add these endorsements. It is a crazy-making system where it is constantly preached how important children are and how noble the profession, yet teachers remain underpaid.
Egregious as this case is, it may be an illustration in getting what you’ve paid for.
May 28th, 2008 at 7:30 am
I always wonder how many early childhood student can the planet absorb (knowing how big that dept. was during college. It seems every sorority gal was in that dept. It was half the size of math dept. and it’s a friggin engineering school.)
so my question: why can’t we reduce the hassle to teach young children and toss every “students” from early childhood dept into the school system.
I for one think teaching 5-6yrs old should be no more than glorified baby sitting, instead of massive preparation to regimented education. Toss more money and people. Unemployment is high, just make everybody work taking care of the kids for few hours a day..
May 28th, 2008 at 11:12 am
[…] Apple Tree […]
May 28th, 2008 at 11:45 am
That would be an absolute disaster. There’s a lot more that goes into teaching 6-year-olds than you realize. If you just toss anyone who happens to need a job into first grade classrooms, then a lot of kids aren’t going to learn anything until second grade. And you’ll see a lot more examples of outrageous behavior by overwhelmed and frustrated teachers. There’s a whole lot more to teaching young children than just leading the pledge of allegiance and singing the alphabet song.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Squashed,
Teaching young children is a LOT more than baby-sitting. It has taken years to get funding for preschool and kindergarten and it happened because the advantages children have that had preschool and kindergarten over those that didn’t are obvious. For example, it is during those critical years that children learn much of their vocabulary. At ages three and four they can typically acquire 2,500 words per year. By the time children are six, that goes down to about 300. It is a window of opportunity that gets shut and is very hard to compensate for later on. This is just one area of development that a quality learning environment addresses.
The difference between someone with an Early Childhood degree over those with an Elementary degree is they are trained in what is appropriate learning for that age group, such as social development through play or learning math concepts through games. It means hands-on learning in science and learning about our natural world. It is about developing initiative and curiousity. A quality program is not about teaching kids to color in the lines or sit quietly in circle as a means toward “regimented education.”
Denying kids a quality early childhood experience, particularly the disenfranchised and impoverished, is another way of keeping those kids in their place in the lower strata of society.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
What I remembered when I was 5 or so. All I want was loud TV, my mom to bring all sweet drink I want, boxes of coloring pencil and coloring book, tons of lego I can toss around, and music box.
I hate singing, I hate learning to write, I hate those “science” thing they show cause I thought everybody ought to know water is wet and can fill things with, I hate being told to go to take a nap… and I hate being told what to draw. (tho I love art and craft and can sit and watch people making things and emulate it.)
hah..
May 28th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Cartoon! Everything I need to know I learn from cartoon.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Sounds like you could have used a better kindergarten teacher.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
This conversation seems to have gotten way off track. Children today have to learn things in K-4 & K that we didn’t learn until 1st & 2nd grade. Teaching that age group requires tons of heart, creativity, and skill. Yes, teachers are underpaid. However, this teacher should be fired, no futher explanation needed. Wendy Portillo has already admitted to this horrid act. Morningside Elementary had better be glad I am not the parent of any one of the children in this classroom. I would be filing every legal charge that could possibly apply, along with a civil suit. I work very hard to make sure my son grows up to be tolerant, empathetic, respectful, and responsible. Someone in authority forcing my child into discriminatory acts would never be around my child again, period.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
” gordo Says
Sounds like you could have used a better kindergarten teacher. ”
tell me about it.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Particularly one with early childhood training instead of elementary so the activities would have been more engaging and meaningful.
Now I wish someone were around to make me take a nap these days!
May 28th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
That would be awesome. A kind woman who would read me stories and make me take a nap when I needed it. And spank me when I needed it.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I taught junior high in Chicago. Many of my students had already served time for car theft and worse. I think I know what a challenging classroom is. But I cannot in my wildest dreams imagine abusing a child — of any age, but especially a tender five year old — in this manner. No amount of training could make a woman so insensitive equal to the demands of teaching. She is emotionally unsuited to teach children and should be fired. The school district should be sued; the harm she (and they) have done to this little boy is incalculable.
May 30th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I really don’t understand certain point of current public education structure.
Making kid wake up early in the morning, riding bus , going in and out of clasess, recess, driving home…etc, etc. The actual education time probably is half time spend getting there.
We are talking about kids who actually willing to read endless books on arcane video game move, memorizing intricate codes, sitting hours and hours of doing useless task in front of TV, communicating complex problem with peers and seeking solution.
Similar problem: it’s like teaching kids how to touch type in the 50’s vs. kids today who seemingly born with ability to touch type or textmessage.
now, tell me what’s wrong with current form of education? Something about the entire system is perverse.
If a kid can recite arcane history of fictional TV story down to characters, time and event. Why can’t they teach certain subject that makes kids so obsessed?
May 31st, 2008 at 1:57 am
Squashed–
In a lot of ways, education is all about doing just that: making kids as motivated to learn school material as they are to learn how to unlock a secret level in Grand Theft Auto 4.
The main problem is that different kids respond to different methods. So the teacher has to present the material using a variety of types of activities. And the teacher has to coax along the tactile kids during verbal-oriented lessons and try to get the kids who are interested in history to pay attention during math activities. The more kids you have in a class, the more imperfect the matching of students, activities, and subject matters is going to be.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:26 pm
right, so basically current form of public education is not optimized for children education. It’s a throwback from when information and people who can dish them are very specialized skill.
(ok. this conversation is way in fantasy area instead of practical reform of basic education system. But I really think the time has come we really look at how things are being done.)
consider the fact that a middle schooler/highschooler has to carry those heavy and very useless textbook, just because we need to prop up publication industry.
Do we really need to print “homework problem” in textbook, and update the textbook every year? Why can’t we create portable “homework problem” electronic device. A kid only need to buy one of those device for all his homework assignment for his entire basic education life.
a lot of “classical books” in pure text can be distributed in this form too. (they use copy machine anyway)
That device of course can be used as automatic “roll call” machine, syllabus, agenda, letter to parents, automatic homework grader, etc. These menial tasks alone usually takes 5-10 minutes out of 50 minutes of class time.
June 1st, 2008 at 9:25 pm
They *have* created such devices and I am communicating on one of them now…it is called a laptop computer and several school districts are experimenting with issuing them to each student with their textbooks downloaded. Teachers can require papers be submitted electronically and communicate with students through e-mail.
Many other teachers now do podcasts for students. So although most schools are not there yet, technology is coming into the classrooms, which may address your disenfranchisement with schools due to heavy textbooks.
June 1st, 2008 at 9:32 pm
laptop is another dubious expensive and insanely impractical. …$1200 gear just to do .pdf files.
yargh…
try this cheapo e-ink devices. (sub $200)
http://www.ohgizmo.com/2007/03/15/e-ink-part-deux-bluechute/
http://blog.laptopmag.com/first-look-olpc-xo-generation-20
June 1st, 2008 at 10:13 pm
mkay see this?
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=e-ink+color&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi&gbv=1&ei=NotDSMfYKIbiepX45K0E
I guess what I am trying to say:
a) there is no reason why we can’t stuff the entire known books in the universe inside $200 device. Every single one of them is accessible to a child. (he wants to read all the comic books he wants or build nuclear weapons on his own garage, it’s up to him.)
Remember when you were a kid, it was so hard just to collect this or that books? Be it story, electronic book, or machine diagram… Who doesn’t want to know how lock and key works, how to cook this or that, or what is the coolest fashion the other school kids are doing. Looking for answer to simple questions always seem to be an agony.
2. video instruction (like youtube clip) can be replayed over and over again.
Why should any high school student suffers listening to a sub teacher who doesn’t care about physic, when he can download physic lecture 101 by famous prof at caltech?
3. a teacher can have access to all the best material at his finger tips. text, diagram, moving images, video links, etc.
so a school will be back to its true purpose: interaction between master and apprentice.
The mundane and standard are available for a kid to digest whenever he wants it. At school a kid actually wants to learn something instead of sit there knowingly about being indoctrinated.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:10 pm
But your suggesting that we just hand out the knowledge to kids and bypass school altogether will mean that we will have a more illiterate society. First, this knowledge is useless if you aren’t trained in using the technology. Also, you have to know how to sift through the volume of stuff out there to get to what you want. Having taught high school I can assure you that the majority of students do not know how to discern what is relevant and what is not, or figure out the relative validity of sites and information. For the media semi-literate this means that all opinions appear equally valid and informed.
Finally, that lecture from a Cal-Tech physics prof can be posted all you want, but if people do not have the background (education) they won’t be able to understand him. The less educated the population, the fewer people will really be able to access the knowledge. What point if everyone can enter the library if no one can read?
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:35 am
well..what I was imagining, re-arranged the education and geared it toward learning/mentor program and set them free. Just hose them with gigantic amount of information. They’ll figure it out. School is becoming more like place to hang out and collect knowledge, instead of jail/drill time.
No knowledge is useless. (That’s a bit like a school administrator advising a kid in the early 80’s. to stop wasting so much time in front of those silly home computer. You’ll never amount to anything.)
of course a kid will not understand a physic lecture. but he knows that! That’s the big point, then he will start asking “why don’t I understand that”? How can I understand what that lecture? I need something simpler (hence the point of having unlimited access. there is everything for everybody, including meta manual, the how-to for knowledge itself.)
Those are the powerful step. It’s like a kid asking “why doesn’t my program working in cool way? or Why is my guitar playing sound awful? Why isn’t my car mod going as fast as I want it to be?”
Pretty soon, a teacher doesn’t need to explain why math, physic or literature are important. Because the kids truly gets it, why those are important for himself. That sort of thing can’t be “thought” just by saying “math is important, because it will prepare you for general numerical understanding and logical construct for many world applications” (this as oppose to say ” I need to know math to make make my computer hack work properly.” or “I need math so I can win my robot battle against jimmy next door.” )
Current form of basic education is like torture to a kid. It’s nothing more than elaborate drill/jail time. The kids doesn’t truly want to learn. The only reason they are there because they have to. Only very lucky few knows why they want to learn something.
Of course, advance knowledge needs general foundation. But no elementary school ever explains to me in “real” and “meaningful way”, how those foundation inter relates to get what I want. (They all give me some useless hand waving explanation. And true enough about 30-40% of those thing they said were important were total waste of time. I could have been watching cartoon, instead of listening to some idiot.)
It’s that rare moment when a kid truly gets it. He doesn’t know jack but he knows that. And he has plan to put the pieces together. (School and society should move the hell away and give him everything there is to complete his project, instead of busy telling him what can and cannot be done with his education.)
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:41 am
…
The reason we can’t get access to knowledge. It’s because they are restricted (not only things like “intellectual Property” and profit motive, but more importantly there is real cultural barrier who is saying…you can and cannot read/learn such and such because you are not ready.)
Well. I say bull. The proof is in the pudding. Kids are able to navigate and solve problem when they are motivated. It is the system that is wasting kids time by pretending to know what’s going on. (let’s face it, maybe 30-40% of elementary school course are total junk.)
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:40 am
That’s a lot like the Montessori method. Montessori started teaching disadvantaged preschoolers in Rome, and it quickly became apparent that the kids going to her schools were outperforming the kids from the highly regimented private preschools.
But efforts to use the Montessori approach for older children have not been successful. Students who are allowed to pursue their own interests tend to become very adept at a few skills, and very deficient at others. Early childhood educators have adopted many aspects of Montessori’s approach, and the new semi-regimented classrooms appear to be more effectively educating young children than either a highly regimented or a strictly Montessorian approach.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I think that’s because previously. If a kid chooses wrong or incomplete from of education. he would be too old to correct it. That means he already pass his elementary education…
If the cycle is shorted and the amount of information is big enough. A kid will quickly learn his method is inadequate.
eg. a kid who hangs around with band for 3 yrs (intense musical training in itself) pretty soon will figure out. He knows how to play, but his composition is ugly. So he will start learning about composition…and structure, etc.
In real world. that means he has to go to school, contact the right people. maybe earning good money to learn composition.
But if he can quickly click the right book/seeing videos, etc and going to school talking to his mentor to guide him through the sea of information. He will get it much more quicker.
We are not optimizing education for children’s ability to absorb knowledge. We are optimizing education for social task performance.
My ideal form of education is that. Having a personal mentor who can guide me through sea of information. Optimize for my liking.
Previously it’s almost impossible. We have to go to same school room, read same book. etc, etc..
April 14th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
That child just needed a paddling!