Friday, October 12, 2007

Quiet game not so quiet

We don't really talk much about the schools over here in the repro rights world except to urge them to teach comprehensive sex ed. There is, however, a story in today's Daily News that should appall any sentient person.

Apparently, a teenage boy's spleen was burst open when his classmates threw books at him.

At a substitute teacher's direction, the kids were playing "the quiet game," which is a tool used by adults to make kids... be quiet. I have memories of such a game from my own childhood when my parents tried to make it fun: hey, let's see who can be quiet the LONGEST! (It didn't take my brother and me very long to tire of that fun game, I can assure you.) But instead of harmlessly (albeit tiresomely) going along with the game as is, the kids requested to play an extreme version such that a student who makes a noise doesn't just lose, but gets books thrown at him or her. While it's a bit unclear from the article, it does sound as though the teacher was in the room when this decision was made.

Ultimately, books were thrown, a kid was injured, had surgery, lost his spleen. Though I am really kinda shocked that students pelted another student with books, I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that this happened in the PRESENCE OF A TEACHER who, p.s., did not immediately (or ever) call 911 afterward.

If this is what is going on in an environment where kids are supposed to learning, I am saddened to think of the future holds...

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