Wild Card/Thursday — 11.19.09

25 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

• 

  Phaedrus on November 19 at 11:03 a.m.

  Are the extremist supporters of the local election losers part of a nationwide conservative sour grapes movement?

  “Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman has seen his chances slip away of overtaking Democrat Bill Owens in the vote tallies in New York’s 23rd congressional district, but he’s now circulating an email to supporters announcing he’s revoked his concession and that “ACORN and the unions” tampered with election results to prevent him from winning.

  The email, which is pretty long for a campaign fundraising note, lists all the regularities Hoffman has counted, and it reads sort of like a manifesto of all that’s fishy about the election results, according to him.”

  http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/11/hoffman_wants_recount_blames_acorn_unions_for_tampering_with_election.php

• 

  moscow_minidoka on November 19 at 12:21 p.m.

  Tea bags and sour grapes seem to go hand-in-hand these days, Phaedrus.

• 

  trishgannon on November 19 at 12:21 p.m.

  Here’s a hot tip for ya DFO… heard this morning from a contractor friend that OSHA is in Bonner/Boundary counties in a BIG way. Over a dozen teams checking out jobsites. Was told one job had a minor safety violation by two sub-contractors, resulted in a $30,000+ fine… would have been in the hundreds of thousands except the primary had a written safety policy. The word is that sometimes OSHA comes in and is willing to work with you, let you know what you’re doing wrong, but that this time, they’re just writing out big time fines.

• 

  moscow_minidoka on November 19 at 3:00 p.m.

  Is there any way the citizens of Kootenai County could file a lawsuit against Larry Spencer for wasting county/city public $$$ with all the time they’ve had to spend dealing with his nonsense? You could name Mary Souza, too. It’d be nice to give them a taste of their own medicine, wouldn’t it?

• 

  Cindy_H on November 19 at 3:42 p.m.

  So. I got the dreaded “note from teacher.” Or in this case e-mail. It seems my 10-year-old was sent to the principal’s office for “blurting out,” and “talking out of turn several times despite repeated warnings.”
  He’s been sentenced to morning and lunch recess detention. (Keeping an active kid inside seems rather counterproductive, imo)
  My question is for parents: When/if your kids get in trouble at school, do you follow up with consequences at home? What kind?
  Right now, he’s confined to quarters while I go to the gym and mull this over during my workout.

• 

  Cindy_H on November 19 at 3:44 p.m.

  BTW: The question is for parents and I’d love a teacher’s input too. Just not KageMann.
  Just saying.

• 

  DFO on November 19 at 3:54 p.m.

  @ CindyH re: 3:42 p.m. post. Thanks. You’ll see that comment out front in the evening roundup. Great question.

• 

  Arpie on November 19 at 3:56 p.m.

  Cindy,
  Here are my thoughts FWIW.
  If you have been aware of this problem you should follow up at home too. If this is the first time you’ve heard of it I’d recomend letting the school handle it. Then I’d let your child know that the next time it happens there will be consequences at home as well. Thank the school for letting you know and ask them to let you know if the blurting continues.

  This is why my children have electronic devices, so I can take them away when needed.

• 

  nic on November 19 at 3:58 p.m.

  Cindy, have you thought of having him tested for any learning dissabilities? You son might be blurting stuff out on an uncontrolable impulse. It might be that he isn’t wilfully disobying the teachers, he might be pshysically incapable of self censoring.

  I know stuff like ADHD is over diagnosed but there is a wide spectrum of difficulties that kids (and adults) fight with that are counterintuative to the “sit down, shut up” atmosphere.

  My son has sensory processing disorder… and in that he is a sensory seeker. Your son may be auditory hyposensitive. If that’s the case (and you get him diagnosed) the school has to make reasonable efforts to work with him under ADA rules.

  http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processing-disorder-checklist.html

• 

  Phaedrus on November 19 at 3:59 p.m.

  Just not KageMann.

  ROTFLMAO! CindyH, I love you!

  If there is trouble in school then there is also trouble at home. Depending on the degree of difficulty that could range from a couple of days with no, xbox, television, internet, cell phone, etc., as a punitive measure and then there is the behavioral modification measure no no talking until they politely say “excuse me,” or raise their hand at the dinner table and then I usually keep him/her waiting for 20-30 seconds to work on that patience thing. Good luck.

• 

  Sisyphus on November 19 at 4:06 p.m.

  “When/if your kids get in trouble at school, do you follow up with consequences at home? What kind?”—I didn’t see any need for double penalties. With mine I just talked about what happened, made sure they understood the penalties and why they were administered, gave them an opportunity to provide a defense or mitigation on the matter, and talked about the grander scheme of things for some perspective. Besides, the ‘talk’ is usually more penalty than anything I’d dish out anyway.

  This all depends on the severity of the offense and whether the misconduct has ramifications at home which also need to be addressed..

• 

  Cabbage Boy on November 19 at 4:14 p.m.

  @sis
  Besides, the ‘talk’ is usually more penalty than anything I’d dish out anyway.

  You should make them read your comments on HBO. :)

• 

  Cabbage Boy on November 19 at 4:18 p.m.

  Yeah, love the emails from a teacher, “we need to talk.” All the kids except one are quite proficient in school. But that one, oh boy. Bit of listening problems, focus, follow through, all that good stuff. Smart, but enough trouble to cause lots of early gray hairs.

• 

  Bent on November 19 at 4:20 p.m.

  I tell my kids to go to their room and think about why they are in trouble, and then come and explain that to me in a way that I am satisfied — no excuses or blaming others either. I want them to understand their role in the situation…

  If they come out with a chip on the shoulder and just try to tell me what I want to hear, they go back to the room and I wont free them until I determine that they are sincere…

  Then we have a discussion, and I usually have them do something like write an essay detailing why they got in trouble — with an appology to the teacher.

  It’s worked so far on four kids…

• 

  zelda on November 19 at 4:21 p.m.

  Cindy H. — I guess it depends on whether the teacher thought your son’s behavior showed a lack of respect for authority and might possibly be influencing others to do the same. That can be a problem as in “the rules don’t apply to me.”

  Looking back, I had numerous “does not practice self-control” violations on my report card. That meant I liked to chat to classmates during class. I always got excellent grades, but if I were that kid today I’d probably be so pumped full of Adderall I’d be a 4th-grade zombie.

  My parents didn’t find any of these infractions to be serious. I think they were glad I was a sociable kid. Good grades mattered the most in our house.

• 

  Norther on November 19 at 4:22 p.m.

  I am so happy when I hear something from my middle son’s teacher. Last year, we didn’t find out that his first grade teacher had moved his seat four times until the end of the year conference. He was having disruptive issues with his buddies. Had we known about it, we could have intervened to the best of our abilities.

  This year is entirely different. We are kept abreast of every little thing. It is so nice.

• 

  simpleton on November 19 at 4:37 p.m.

  @ Northerner
  Most of us want to assume our kids are good kids, so we have a tendency to take the “no news is good news” approach. I think your experience simply proves that no news simply means no communication. I’ve learned (the hard way) that when I’m not hearing enough I have to start asking questions.

• 

  Phaedrus on November 19 at 4:42 p.m.

  Besides, the ‘talk’ is usually more penalty than anything I’d dish out anyway. —sis

  I grew up in a household where corporal punishment was the first —and only—resort. There was never any explanation. I was determined to never strike my children and to always explain what the problem was and what we were going to do about it. During one such talk my child muttered,” I wish you’d just hit me, it would be over quicker.”

• 

  Cindy_H on November 19 at 5:31 p.m.

  Thanks for the great response folks— especially Arpie.
  This isn’t a new problem. All 4 of my boys are talkers. They take after their father. Seriously!
  I followed up with his teacher and she said she believes it’s not a respect issue. She’s loves my boy and gets him. She’s just sick of shushing him a million times a day.
  So.
  No TV tonight. No video games this weekend. And we’ll work on being a better citizen. He needs to know we take it seriously when he gets in trouble at school.
  He’s a good kid. He just has A LOT to say.

• 

  Stickman on November 19 at 6:42 p.m.

  Ciindy at 5:31: Outstanding. We all had so much to say, but few listened. At least you do. That’s a pretty good beginning, if such a thing is possible. I think you are doing just fine.

• 

  spokelooneh on November 19 at 9:18 p.m.

  If I had a quarter for every time I was punished by having to write:
  “I will not talk in class.”
  on the blackboard, or, on lined paper, I’d have been a very rich 6th grader. I hated handwriting, still have horrendous penmanship. Half the time I still can’t read my own handwriting.

  The punishment for an infraction was usually to write a entire page of “I will not talk in class” as homework. If I didn’t do it, I’d get another page added. It seemed so completely ridiculous waste of my time. I was a top-notch student and bored to tears. I worked through all those SRA reading speed and comprehension things and was proficient at 10th grade level in 6th grade. That was the highest they had in my elementary school.

  When it got up to nine pages due, I went to the store and bought some carbon paper. Pressing very hard, I made three carbon copies of one page, and four carbon copies of another page, and handed them in, the two originals and seven carbon copies.

  Bad idea. Got sent to the Principal’s office, they called my mom, expelled me for the day (a Friday) and had to write ten original pages over the weekend, and my parents grounded me with no allowance for a month, no TV either.

  In 8th grade, I took a full year of typewriting, saved up half the money to buy a used Smith-Corona portable typewriter (parents kicked in the rest), and have been a “keyboard-jockey” ever since.

• 

  Me on November 19 at 9:49 p.m.

  OK - this is for Digger…… :)

  http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/Time-In-Prison—70426052.html?yhp=1

  Couple Busted for Refusing to Pay Tip

• 

  JIMMYMAC on November 19 at 10:42 p.m.

  Bent, as a guy that is trying to have children, I really liked your post on the matter. I think it sets the tone in a major way for building character. I’ll keep that one tucked away in the memory box.

• 

  moscow_minidoka on November 20 at 7:22 a.m.

  @spookeloo: “Pressing very hard, I made three carbon copies of one page, and four carbon copies of another page, and handed them in, the two originals and seven carbon copies”

  If you had been *my* kid, I would have praised you for your clever problem-solving abilities, not punish you for breaking the rules of the punishment. What a great idea!

  I was a very well-behaved student in K-12 except for the year when I was losing my eyesight and didn’t know it (glasses the next year corrected my plummeting grades and disinterest in school) and when I went to junior high and had a hard time adjusting to being around some not-so-great influences. I had straight “A”s except for one C.

  I was so horrified by the C that I decided to modify my report card by turning the C into a lower-case A. The trick didn’t work, of course.

  My mother’s punishment was to make me call my favorite grandma and explain to her what I’d done. I tell you, that was about the worst punishment impossible, because I adore my Grandma. And it set me straight.

• 

  Bent on November 20 at 8:38 a.m.

  JimmyMac if you are truly like your online persona, your kids will be just fine!

« Back to Huckleberries Online

• ›Scanner traffic