Wednesday, May 13, 2009

A Bit Excessive....

Today when my kids were doing their homework one of my 4th graders brought me a paper where he had started writing sentences. He got in trouble at school today. He was playing on the swings and his friends were pushing him side to side while he was swinging (they were playing). He leaned back to move away from one of the boys and leaned back to far. His hair and the top of his shirt got wet. He had to sit out the last half of recess for it (there were others too). When he got in they were asked to sit out in the hall while their teachers (he has 2 teachers) decided what their punishment should be (uhh what was the last half of recess). Here is what they came up with. They need to write this sentence 25 times:


"I will choose to follow the rules during recess by staying out of the mud and water and not dragging my head through the puddles as I swing because I know my teachers, Mrs. Fry and Miss VanHoose, have asked me all year long to stay out of the water."



  • First off that sentences was typed for them on a piece of paper and it was 6 lines long. That means he missed half of recess and was to write 150 lines for getting his hair and shirt a little wet. (I cant see any water spots or mud spots on his shirt and its bright yellow so they would show up)
  • Its really long and has a bunch of by, and, becauses in it. If he would have written this sentence for one of his practice Taks writing papers they would have asked him to break it up into more than one sentence.
  • He has not been in any trouble at school before not even one note. He gets straight A's and E or S for conduct. The only thing that I have had that tells me he is any problem or ever even gets called down is a comment on his report card saying he talk frequently. (Not enough for them to drop his conduct grade though) This is also followed by he is a great student.
  • I am all for punishing my children when it is needed and I will punish them at home if they get in trouble at school but I find this to be too much. I told him that until I talk with his teachers that he didn't need to write the sentences.

2 comments:

The Accomplice said...

Back in the day, we would get a paddling and then sent back to class. I don't like this writing sentences over and over.

I wonder if it teaches kids anything at all?

GoneCrazy said...

Same here. They cant really do that anymore. I can remember having to write sentences a few times. I think it gives them a little time to think about what they were doing. I just think this one is really long.