Zero Tolerance idiocy

[Snide]

Hang the Devil, Phrost. Would you limit the freedoms of choice that patients have based on the above stupidity?

Wasn't that answered in the next sentence? (Hint: look for the word "asinine.")

 

[whitefork]

Playing Devil's Advocate here, there are asthma medications that relieve you of the need for an inhaler, such as Singulair.

I question the qualifications of a school nurse to determine the best course of treatment for asthma. I also quote this from the Singular web site:

SINGULAIR should NOT be used for the fast relief of acute asthma attacks or to prevent or treat asthma made worse by exercise. You should still have rescue medication available and continue to take your other asthma medications unless your doctor tells you to stop.

The school is effectively practicing medicine without a license.

 

[Phrost]

Hang the Devil, Phrost. Would you limit the freedoms of choice that patients have based on the above stupidity?

I lean Libertarian, so not at all.

 

[c0rbin]

I have read some of your posts and I thought that would be the case.

Quit throwing me curve-balls!

 

[CBL4]

Originally posted by Tricky

They are politicians, who respond to the right-wing masses who always vote against "drugs" without any consideration of the kinds of drugs or the situations.

I agree that it is a response to anti-drug idiots but it is not only conservative idiots. The liberal "think of the children" share the stupidity.

My local high school had a student who had gone from being a poor student to being an honor student. She was suspended for 1 month for bringing Tylenol to school. To cut her suspension to 2 days, she had to go to a drug rehabilitation class.

I wrote a letter to the editor ridiculing this and I was attacked from all ends of the political spectrum. The basic argument supporting the zero thinking policy was that it was anti-drug, therefore it must be good.

CBL

 

[Phrost]

I have read some of your posts and I thought that would be the case.

Quit throwing me curve-balls!

Doh! Which posts? I guess I should be more careful with how I present my opinions.

 

[Tricky]

I agree that it is a response to anti-drug idiots but it is not only conservative idiots. The liberal "think of the children" share the stupidity.

You are correct. I misspoke, probably because I regard anti-drug crusading to be a conservative position. But it is true that all of us hold a mixture of "traditionally liberal" and "traditionally conservative" opinions. It is also true that the "think of the children" position is certainly not one unique to liberals.

 

[Michael Redman]

How is exercising judgment on the basis of each situation's unique circumstances properly called "tolerance" of the proscribed activity, anyway? These are "zero judgment" policies, not "zero tolerance" policies.

 

[Luke T.]

How is exercising judgment on the basis of each situation's unique circumstances properly called "tolerance" of the proscribed activity, anyway? These are "zero judgment" policies, not "zero tolerance" policies.

Bingo.

From the article:

Across the United States, many schools have a strict "zero tolerance" policy toward all drugs, even prescription medication.

"Zero tolerance" is supposed to mean zero tolerance of a criminal activity.

 

[Snide]

...the zero thinking policy...

I LOVE that! Can I use it?

 

[corplinx]

Schools are full of the dumbest people from colleges and universities. Education curriculum's are at about the same level of intellect as "Communications".

Why does it surprise that there is a lack of critical thinking at these places?

Edited to add: this article by Dr. Walter E. Williams explains the roots of this

I know the good doctor has been linked a lot lately but this article pretty much explains why we have idiots running our schools.

 

[Theodore Kurita]

I agree with Thanz on this one 100%.

Corplinx does bring up a good point though.

How much of a right wing/fundamentalist bias is there in the education system?

To me the rightwing/fundamentalist bias is increasing in both middle and high school bias has been increasing. (i.e. Creationism/ID in public schools)

In fact, I can deffinetely say that I have only had one leftist teacher in my education so far.

Most of my history teachers have brought up the idea that socialism is evil and bad in practice (Always citing the USSR as the example).

When I was in 9th grade, my biology teacher brought up the idea that evolution could be false. (A blatant lie at that)


Why are there dumber teachers in the system?

Simple.

Look at the link that corplinx provided above:

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/04/ineptitude.html

I would say I have to agree with this article.

No Child Left Behind has the right idea, as in the fact that the teachers that are to be hired, have to have a degree in the field that they are teaching.

No Child Left Behind has these two faults that make it punish the public school system:

Cuts funding out of districts that are already poor, because of bad test scores.

Teachers that were/are going to be hired need to have a Masters in Education along with their specialty degree.

 

[Samus]

corplinx: this article by Dr. Walter E. Williams explains the roots of this

While I agree with the points made in the article, I find it to be a vast over-simplification of the issue. Surely teachers, like every other profession, will run the gamut of intellectual capability and job competence. I well expect that in any given school, there will be teachers who should not be teaching, either because they lack subject matter expertise, have poor teaching skills, or are in dire need of a serious attitude adjustment.

That said, I think the non-teacher factors combine to present more harms than bad teaching. For example: poor classroom conditions, politicking by school boards, unions, and administrators, and most of all, lack of parental interest and the belief that schools are expected to raise kids instead of parents. These are all offenders in the fight for a good public education system.

The "those who can do; those who can't teach" mantra certainly does apply to a percentage of the teaching population. But every career field suffers from incompetent individuals.

 

[Darat]

...snip...

"Zero tolerance" is supposed to mean zero tolerance of a criminal activity.

Thank goodness - I thought it was just me going to crazy, I also couldn't see how a "zero tolerance" drug policy could be linked to prescription medication.

 

[corplinx]

That said, I think the non-teacher factors combine to present more harms than bad teaching. For example: poor classroom conditions, politicking by school boards, unions, and administrators, and most of all, lack of parental interest and the belief that schools are expected to raise kids instead of parents. These are all offenders in the fight for a good public education system.

I didn't mean to exclude these things. School boards are a big problem with the Memphis City Schools. They are elected instead of appointed so you wind up with a clueless board of career politicians.

Parental interest is a big problem in the "urban" community here. Simply put, the teachers can't teach the kids because the kids don't understand authority and discipline. My ex-gf taught in an urban school here and spent all of her time trying to keep the kids in their seats. I don't see the point of having government schools in inner cities if they are glorified day care centers myself.

 

[CBL4]

Originally posted by Snide
I LOVE that ! Can I use it?

Thank you. Of course you can use it.

CBL

 

[CBL4]

Here was the question I planned to asked prospective school board members about zero tolerance.

"In Kitsap County, an honor student was suspended for 1 month for bringing Tylenol to school because of a zero tolerance program which did not distinguish Tylenol from heroin.

Perhaps I am crazy but I actually think there is a very real difference between the two and I trust our principals to understand the difference and act accordingly. What do you think?"

Unfortunately, I did not read the fine print about the meeting and discovered that the meeting was a 7AM not PM like assumed.

CBL

 

[Mr Manifesto]

Playing Devil's Advocate here, there are asthma medications that relieve you of the need for an inhaler, such as Singulair.

But I am in agreement that locking away a child's inhaler is asinine, but it wouldn't be the first time a school board made a stupid decision. I remember when they banned Batman t-shirts in my hometown because he "looked like the Devil".

School boards are a cowardly and superstitious lot.

 

[billydkid]

Apparently some schools are not letting kids carry around their asthma inhalers in favour of a "zero tolerance" drug policy. What kind of special idiocy is this? Do we let kids die so that administrators don't have to think about what drugs to allow in school and what drugs to disallow?

Here is a link: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/Living/Asthma_in_school_040324-1.html


Absolute idiocy.

Here is the paragraph on the justification from the schools:
Fear of lawsuits? Come on. Don't you think that if a kid dies because she was separated from her inhaler there will be a much bigger lawsuit?

The mentality behind this sort of thing is especially prevalent all throughout society. You can see it on this board. You can see it everywhere. Zero tolerance, political correctness, certain elements of all sorts of "progressive" movements and all the other trapping of our brave new world. Won't someone think of the children?????? There is a mentality that wishes to disrupt and wishes to obfuscate and wishes never to give us a moment of genuine comfort and peace.