... Um. ExCUSE me?

[kyrielle]

A boy was punished for using the word "gay" and explaining that it meant "when a girl likes another girl" to one of his classmates...while discussing the fact that he has two mothers instead of a mother and a father. He was told it was a bad word, sent to a "behavioral clinic", and made to write repeatedly that he would not use the word in school again.

ACLU article.

Actually, they pretty much say it all. That's ridiculous. And wrong.

Comments

Just a spelling note...

[tigerchild.livejournal.com]

While I agree that spelling can be indicative of poor teaching/education, the two most brilliant people I know can't spell to save their lives because of dyslexia. Ironically they're both in academia (mathematics and ethnomusicology), but make good use of the spellchecker in their word processor, email client, ect.

And both of them were constantly ridiculed and made to feel stupid because of their spelling until they barely got into college where they could use those tools.

Having never had much of a problem with spelling and most grammar, myself, I also assumed that anyone with horrendous spelling/grammar either was an idiot or had shitty teachers--but my friends have really opened my eyes in that regard.

Not saying that's the case here, but...I'd be real careful about making an assumption.

Re: Just a spelling note...

[leora.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've always had poor spelling, although not bad enough to be ridiculed. And I always figured, who cares - I can do a whole lot of other things.

I've worked with second graders, and a lot of them have very uneven skills. One might be lagging behind in English, especially as when you learn to read and write can really vary from child to child, and to a certain extent it's schooling, but some kids just aren't ready as soon and pushing them does little good. But some of those poor spellers are whizzes at math or can draw beautifully, etc. Over time the strengths still show, but the weaknesses shore up a bit (with non-special ed kids, with special ed it's different and depends on the disability). So, I agree, don't draw too many conclusions from one second grader's spelling.