Professional Ugly Duckling Identifiers

We all know the story. A little animal faces adversity from it's peers. The little animal is shunned, mocked and ridiculed. Then one day, the little animal figures out that it can identify with others and suddenly the adversity disappears. At least in the story.


Thanks to the Gradebook, we have the link to this story: Teacher lets Morningside students vote out classmate, 5


... "After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn't like about Barton's 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.

By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex — who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism — out of the class."

...."Steele said the teacher confirmed the incident took place"


....."Barton said her son is in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism. Alex began the testing process in February at the suggestion of Morningside Principal Marcia Cully."

....."Children diagnosed with Asperger's often exhibit social isolation and eccentric behavior."

...."Melissa Barton filed a complaint with Morningside's school resource officer, who investigated the matter, Port St. Lucie Department spokeswoman Michelle Steele said. But the state attorney's office concluded the matter did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse, so no criminal charges will be filed, Steele said."

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I guess Alex Barton is what some school administrators refer to as the one's who ruin the "public school salad":


.....It is to be hoped that Principal Annette Grasty of Lakewood Elementary School in Sunnyvale, California is wilting with remorse for this thoroughly rotten analogy. Surely she did not intend to be insulting or hurtful.Her comments came about in reference to the penalty that schools face under the No Child Left Behind Act if they fail to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) in standardized testing conducted each spring. If even one subgroup of students (such as special education) does not meet the AYP goal, the entire school is labeled low-performing. Like many educators, Principal Grasty believes it is unfair to flunk an entire school for the low performance of a single subgroup.As reported in the San Jose Mercury News [Download wilted and rotten.doc] , she thinks education should follow a business model: "If I were running a business, I'd try to control the product coming in," she said. For instance, she said, a chef wouldn't prepare a gourmet salad with wilted lettuce or rotten tomatoes. In a public school, she said, "I can't control who walks in that door. I take kids with learning disabilities, I take everyone. They come in at different levels and with different ways of learning."

....


Once again the arrogance and ignorance of a professional educator leads by example. Spare me the "isolated incident" rationalization... this is 2008 and I have heard that excuse since 1990.