bad student holds shame sign: big fat F for the parents

catefrances

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/843413 ... shame-sign


Parents of a US schoolboy who came home with a bad report card have forced him to stand on a street corner wearing a sign describing his failures.

Miami boy Michael Bell Jr will spent his spring break holidays holding a sign after he failed three of his classes, local TV station WSVN reported.

"Hey, I want to be a class clown. Is it wrong?" the front of the sign reads.

"I'm in the 7th grade and got 3 F's. Blow your horn if there's something wrong with that," the sign says on the back.

Both of Michael's parents were at the street corner to make sure he is safe.

His father, Michael Bell Sr, describes the punishment as a last resort.

"I don't know any other way, I'm trying to reach him," he said.

"If I don't do anything, he's going to be a statistic and I don't want him to be a statistic."

brianlux

Maybe the kid needs to get a copy of George Carlin's "Class Clown" and play it for them. Maybe the kid's getting a rotten deal at school (so many do these days). Maybe the parents feed the kid too much pink slime and he's having a hard time concentrating. Maybe the kid is more interested in studying the lyrics to "American Idiot". I wonder what this kid has to deal with. My heart breaks for kids these days... over and over again.

hedonist

Love Carlin! But all due respect, THREE F's? Maybe the kid just needs to buck up.

I give credit to the parents. It seems many just don't give a shit anymore.

The "oh well" mentality.

I'd blow my horn.

(disclaimer - I'm watching Judge Judy at the moment - she gets me fired up and a willing passenger on the "no excuses" train)

catefrances

if i dont do anything he may drop out of school.... and become mark zuckerberg. imagine.. have some faith in your kids... education doesnt begin and end in school.

Paul Andrews

This kind of parenting ranks down there as low as that idiot who shot up his daughter's laptop and posted it on youtube.

When will parents get it that their kids are a product of their environment and they as role model, primary care giver and most important teacher are responsible for the majority of that environment. It's most likely they set the seeds of rebellion, lack of respect or lack of appreciation for education long before their kid became a 'failure'.

All they are now doing is humiliating this kid and most likely setting them up for further failure - lets hope the 'fuck you' they finally get is not a kid joining a gang, shooting up heroin or blowing his brains out over their living room carpet.

hedonist

No, it absolutely doesn't.

But to be failing three classes at such a young age, makes me wonder.

(I'm not sure if the Zuckerberg comment was supposed to be a positive or negative :P )

catefrances

hedonist wrote:

No, it absolutely doesn't.

But to be failing three classes at such a young age, makes me wonder.

(I'm not sure if the Zuckerberg comment was supposed to be a positive or negative :P )

positive.

perhaps the boy doesnt have an affinity for the classes.. perhaps theres a problem we are unaware of that affects his progress in those classes. what are the clsses he failed? perhaps it was just a minor blip that will right itself in subsequent semesters. who knows.. whatever the reason humiliation is never a good motivator imo. making your children feel worthless is never the answer.

hedonist

I agree.

It just seems like the alternative is coddling...not much in the way of middle-grounding it.

I could be wrong, of course.

One of the many reasons I chose to not have children.

maj4e

Did Zuck fail 7th Grade? Because dropping out of Harvard to start a business and failing junior high are pretty far apart..

catefrances

hedonist wrote:

I agree.

It just seems like the alternative is coddling...not much in the way of middle-grounding it.

I could be wrong, of course.

One of the many reasons I chose to not have children.

theres always an alternative to publicly humiliating your children. how about they sit down with him and find out where the problem lies and what can be done about it?

catefrances

maj4e wrote:

Did Zuck fail 7th Grade? Because dropping out of Harvard to start a business and failing junior high are pretty far apart..

my point was failing 7th grade isnt the end of the world. ive had 4 kids go through 7th grade.. sure id be disappointed if one of them had failed. i sure as heck would wonder how it happened considering. but what i wouldntve done was made them stand on a street corner sharing the shame they may well already feel cause id already shared just how disappointed i was in their report. when my children bring home their reports i go straight to the attitude mark. if the grade is low but the attitude is high then im ok with it. it at least shows the effort is being made.

hedonist

catefrances wrote:

theres always an alternative to publicly humiliating your children. how about they sit down with him and find out where the problem lies and what can be done about it?

Like I said, I agree.

I'm not for making kids feel like shit for....being kids.

And I think it's incumbent upon parents to...ah hell, what? Be parents, as best they can.

I wonder if this dad felt he had no other route.

(and as an aside, I don't think grades/failing are indicative of ability or potential. Not at ALL)

maj4e

catefrances wrote:

maj4e wrote:

Did Zuck fail 7th Grade? Because dropping out of Harvard to start a business and failing junior high are pretty far apart..

my point was failing 7th grade isnt the end of the world. ive had 4 kids go through 7th grade.. sure id be disappointed if one of them had failed. i sure as heck would wonder how it happened considering. but what i wouldntve done was made them stand on a street corner sharing the shame they may well already feel cause id already shared just how disappointed i was in their report. when my children bring home their reports i go straight to the attitude mark. if the grade is low but the attitude is high then im ok with it. it at least shows the effort is being made.

Oh I agree, I have Grad degrees but for some reason 7th grade kicked my ass.

CH156378

hedonist wrote:

Love Carlin! But all due respect, THREE F's? Maybe the kid just needs to buck up.

I give credit to the parents. It seems many just don't give a shit anymore.

The "oh well" mentality.

I'd blow my horn.

(disclaimer - I'm watching Judge Judy at the moment - she gets me fired up and a willing passenger on the "no excuses" train)

+1
Also +1 for Judge Judy.

Paul Andrews

hedonist wrote:

I wonder if this dad felt he had no other route.

Most likely because he is a dumbarse who looks for simple solutions and has modeled poor decision making skills and irrational behaviour all his life and passed these skills onto his kids.

CH156378

Paul Andrews wrote:

hedonist wrote:

I wonder if this dad felt he had no other route.

Most likely because he is a dumbarse who looks for simple solutions and has modeled poor decision making skills and irrational behaviour all his life and passed these skills onto his kids.

I hope this parent will be as perfect a parent as you are some day. I have seen alot worse parents. This kid is lucky he has parents that care.

hedonist

Paul Andrews wrote:

hedonist wrote:

I wonder if this dad felt he had no other route.

Most likely because he is a dumbarse who looks for simple solutions and has modeled poor decision making skills and irrational behaviour all his life and passed these skills onto his kids.

Most likely? That's quite an assumption.

So to be fair, I will give both of us the benefit of the doubt that our assessments may be way off.

catefrances

CH156378 wrote:

Paul Andrews wrote:

hedonist wrote:

I wonder if this dad felt he had no other route.

Most likely because he is a dumbarse who looks for simple solutions and has modeled poor decision making skills and irrational behaviour all his life and passed these skills onto his kids.

I hope this parent will be as perfect a parent as you are some day. I have seen alot worse parents. This kid is lucky he has parents that care.

true.. beating your children is way worse than publicly humiliating them. tho i care enough for my children that publicly humiliating them is not an option. .. and never will be.

iamica

He got off easy. If I had ever gotten even one F, my dad would have done much worse to me.

Paul Andrews

CH156378 wrote:

Paul Andrews wrote:

hedonist wrote:

I wonder if this dad felt he had no other route.

Most likely because he is a dumbarse who looks for simple solutions and has modeled poor decision making skills and irrational behaviour all his life and passed these skills onto his kids.

I hope this parent will be as perfect a parent as you are some day. I have seen alot worse parents. This kid is lucky he has parents that care.

The comment was hash and the emphasis on 'most likely' should have been 'Maybe' as I am unaware of the full circumstances, however...

No-one is the perfect parent, it is an inexact science - but it's not brain surgery or rocket science. But in my experience as a step parent and parent and from 15 years in teaching, student services and administration in tough schools. I've rarely seen a wayward kid who did not get there with a large slap of help, neglect or poor decision making by their parents. There are exceptions to this, but not many.

Humiliating kids does not work. Bashing kids does not work. Mollycoddling them or giving them everything they want is just as bad. But usually the mistakes are made well before events like this take place. Well before the F on the report. A 'bad kid' (not my words) is not made over night and said same kids is not turned around by actions like this, or shooting their computer or whatever passes for parenting in certain people's minds.

Good parenting is not being your kid's best friend, but also not being their tormentor. Parenting is about dedicating your life to your kids once you have them and helping them through life, not living it for or through them, and not giving them everything they ask for. They do need to make their own decisions at time and experience failure and suffer the consequences of those decisions, but they also need to be guided through important issues until they are mature enough to make sound decisions.

We used to have a saying in student services: Some kids get everything they want and hardly any of what they really need. I wonder how much of each this kid got?

catefrances

iamica wrote:

He got off easy. If I had ever gotten even one F, my dad would have done much worse to me.

wow theres a great motivation right there.