Kid Gets 'Catastrophe Award': Mean or Meaningful?
SodaHead News
2012/05/31 19:29:46
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Christina Valdez believes her 8-year-old daughter was humiliated in front of her peers when the girl's Desert Springs Academy teacher gave her a "Catastrophe Award" for "Most Excuses for Not Having Homework." The award was given in front of the whole class, and according to ABC News, the kids were laughing at her. Valdez tried to contact the school about the incident, but says the teacher shrugged it off and said it was just a joke.
Valdez told KGUN-TV, "I think it's cruel and no child should be given an award like this. It's disturbing." Psychologist Sheri Bauman at the University of Arizona College of Education agrees with Valdez, adding, "That isn't an award. It doesn't fit the criteria. [Kids that age] feel less than, they feel fearful of authority of what might happen if they make a mistake." Do you think the "Catastrophe Award" was cruel, or appropriate?
Valdez told KGUN-TV, "I think it's cruel and no child should be given an award like this. It's disturbing." Psychologist Sheri Bauman at the University of Arizona College of Education agrees with Valdez, adding, "That isn't an award. It doesn't fit the criteria. [Kids that age] feel less than, they feel fearful of authority of what might happen if they make a mistake." Do you think the "Catastrophe Award" was cruel, or appropriate?
Top Opinion
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Mean
+21Whether she turned in homework or not, it was no reason to humiliate her in front of her whole class. Some adults might see it as a joke, but when you are eight years old that's a whole different matter altogether. Nothing like having the teacher and the whole class laughing at you. Somebody should string up that !#$$ teacher by her knockers.
Brilliant!!!
When I was in grade school if a student did something wrong they got to stand in the corner facing the wall. Obviously the whole class was aware. My fifth grade teacher had a collection of baby rattles. An offending student would have to keep a rattle on top of their desk for a specified period of time. A third grade teacher used a yardstick to "wickedly" slap the desktop of students who annoyed her. We all survived. Public humiliation in the classroom isn't new.
Simple, no? Or is that the problem? TOO simple? LOL
From dictionary.com (sans obsolete definitions):
1.
a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people.
2.
Archaic . a man hired to do violence.
Notice the words "habitually" and "intimidates". I believe there are proper uses of public humiliation by people in authority - I think this is an excellent example of its proper use.
Ah, natural selection at work!