School pupil parades bad grades on sandwich board as punishment (Aspergers?)

School pupil parades bad grades on sandwich board as punishment

A Florida parent has forced his son to stand on a street corner wearing a sandwich board showing his bad school grades, in an unusual form of punishment.

Michael Bell Jr, from Miami, came home with a report card which included failing grades in three of his subjects.

He was also described by teachers as the "class clown".

His father Michael Sr looked on as his seventh grade son walked on the street corner with the sign that read: "Hey, I want to be a class clown. Is it wrong?"

On the back it read: "I'm in the 7th grade and got 3 F's. Blow your horn if there's something wrong with that."

The Telegraph

His father, on his discipline method said the punishment was a "last resort."

"I don't know any other war, 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."

The Telegraph

I think the father is just being cruel to be kind and is doing the boy a favour in the long run.

I noticed a number of commentators in The Telegraph suggested that the student may be Aspergers.

Are things like those not terribly over diagosed? Isn't he probably just a bit lazy?

reply to post by ollncasino
I don't think we have enough info to indicate Aspergers or not. The diagnosis is usually rendered by a medical professional based on a set of specific criteria.

Either way, I can't see how the humiliating degradation of any child can be emotionally healthy for him/her and if this child does in fact have Aspergers, it's just plain cruelty and ignorance on the parents' part. These instances make me so sad...

Originally posted by timidgal
I can't see how the humiliating degradation of any child can be emotionally healthy for him/her and if this child does in fact have Aspergers, it's just plain cruelty and ignorance on the parents' part. These instances make me so sad...

But surely his father is just trying to stop him spending the rest of his life in a dead end job?

Isn't he just being cruel to be kind?

By the way, do you sometimes wonder if kids are over diagnosed these days with learning problems?

I wonder if most kids with 'learning differences' just use it as a crutch to avoid working harder.

My personal experience with people with Aspergers is that they lack and somewhat fear social interaction often to the point of being the quiet one in the corner wanting to be left alone. So being a class clown and drawing lots of attention to ones self wouldn't likely fit in with that, but everybody is different.

Just because someone is failing their grades, doesn't mean they have a mental disorder or learning difficulty.

There could be a myrid of reasons why this kid is failing his grades. Bordom, lack of motivation, lack of interest in the subjects, terrible teachers, bad home life, or bullying.

I was always bored at school and acted the class clown at times. When i did my mock GSCE exams here in good old Blighty i was predicted to get great results, A*'s and A's across the board. But when i did my final exams they were terrible, because i couldn't be bothered, i didn't see the point, and you know what, these grades haven't affected my life what so ever. At that age, you don't even know who or what you are going to be. Interests change as you get older and you change right along with them and can still make something of yourself.

Sometimes i think there's too much pressure put on kids to get amazing grades and if they don't, they get put in the stupid box or mental disorder bin....Why is that?

He failed 3 grades out of how many classes? Why is it expected of kids to have complete interest in every single class they do? That's not expected of you as an adult. As an adult you get to pick your interests, but as a kid in school, nope. You have to excel and show great interest in every single class or you get slapped with bad grades and a some other labels and your Dad parades you around like an idiot.

It doesn't even mention what classes this kid failed in? For all we kow they could be totally useless classes, like sport for example.

Also, what about his other grades? Instead of parading him round like an idiot, why is the Father not concentrating on the positive aspects of his Son's grades, instead of putting all the emphasis on the negative.

Originally posted by skitzspiricy
Sometimes i think there's to much pressure put on kids to get amazing grades and if they don't they get put in the stupid box or mental disorder bin....Why is that?

Because there is a whole industry dedicated to diagnosing and 'treating' learning difficulties?

Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.

Originally posted by ollncasino

Originally posted by timidgal
I can't see how the humiliating degradation of any child can be emotionally healthy for him/her and if this child does in fact have Aspergers, it's just plain cruelty and ignorance on the parents' part. These instances make me so sad...

But surely his father is just trying to stop him spending the rest of his life in a dead end job?

Isn't he just being cruel to be kind?

By the way, do you sometimes wonder if kids are over diagnosed these days with learning problems?

I wonder if most kids with 'learning differences' just use it as a crutch to avoid working harder.

I'm sure that happens more often than I would like to think but being the mother of a true Aspie diagnosed almost 15 years ago, I'm probably not the most unbiased person if truth be told. I'm typically more concerned with one slipping through the cracks and not those selfish enough to use the system. I can assure you that a true child on the Autism spectrum is definitely not lazy.

As far as being cruel to be kind, I just don't see how public humiliation can inspire any positive outcome and I think it could easily backfire. Along with the loss of self-esteem comes a whole other satchel of problems and resentment.

Originally posted by ollncasino

Originally posted by skitzspiricy
Sometimes i think there's to much pressure put on kids to get amazing grades and if they don't they get put in the stupid box or mental disorder bin....Why is that?

Because there is a whole industry dedicated to diagnosing and 'treating' learning difficulties?

Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.

What? Would you care to elaborate on that statement?

reply to post by skitzspiricy
I think he/she is implying that those who diagnose have a biased interest in doing so. What he/she doesn't realize is that with each child diagnosed as having a learning disability of any kind, it costs the school system a whole lot of money to supply extra services provided under law so the comment was merely misguided,

reply to post by ollncasino


Sureeee, blame the kids and ignore the cruelty and ignorance of their stupid parents! Kids pick up their bad habits from their parents, not the other way around!

I bet the father of this kid was treated the same by his father and did he learn? I think not!

reply to post by timidgal

I don't think we have enough info to indicate Aspergers or not. The diagnosis is usually rendered by a medical professional based on a set of specific criteria.

"Specific criteria" that changes
www.thedailybeast.com...

Now that's the problem. Kids these days just won't listen and parents have become too over-protective. There is nothing wrong with this punishment, it's called discipline. It's something that is slowly fading away in our modern age. Kudos to the father for thinking of a punishment like this. I hope his son has learned his lesson now.

Kind Regards,
TokyoDynamite

Part of the liberal agenda is to make children treated like kings and queens. They can't work and doing anything besides treating them like royalty is abuse and will be dealt with as such.

Autism is real, and it does present real challenges for people who are afflicted with it. I got my best school report in grade one; but mind you, that was also before I started viewing the school system as an exercise in psychological Survivalism, rather than being about an education.

At the same time, however, autism should not be considered an excuse for someone who wants to be inactive. Yes, life is a bit more difficult for us, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try anything at all. It usually just means that if we want to accomplish something, we have to put a bit more thought into how to go about it, than a normal person.

My guess is that that child has two problems.

a] He is probably bullied and teased to the point where his focus is primarily on avoiding harassment and preserving his sanity, rather than on his school work. I am assuming that on the basis of my own experience. A child cannot be reasonably expected to fight a psychological war of attrition, and get good grades, simultaneously.

b] His father, although well intentioned, is deeply and systemically ignorant, as mine was. The man clearly does not realise that at this point, there is no relationship whatsoever between formal education and economic security. That time has passed. The father would be doing his child much more of a favour, if after basic literacy and numeracy had been obtained, the child was taken out of the formal system, and educated more along the lines of physical/logistical Survivalism; firebuilding, camping, knot tying, elementary engineering, gutting animals etc. At this stage in the game, Kurt Saxon is a far better teacher for the majority of children than the ones they are likely to find in local classrooms.

The boy should also be given a good grounding in classical literature, and the use of the UNIX operating system.