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<p>Pithy, but pointless.</p>
<p>This song has been used in many commercials; Madonna sang it at the Super Bowl; Ricky Martin covered it on Glee. It’s not unusual for a 1st grader to know it, particularly if he has older siblings. I happened to be talking to my D who is a teacher tonight and she said that her 1st graders often sing this song. She teaches in an affluent area with very involved parents and these kids are mostly very high level academic kids. I mention this only to make it clear that they are not uninvolved, inattentive parents. I think the shaking his ‘booty’ in another student’s face should be addressed but suspending this child for three days is clearly not the proper way to handle the situation.</p>
<p>alwaysamom…The issue in this particular case is that this is not the first time this student has done this. He did the exact same thing (“dance” moves and lyrics included) and both he and his mother were told that this was inappropriate and unacceptable behavior in school. While I don’t necessarily expect a 6 year old to fully grasp all the aspects of it, the mother hasn’t done anything to reinforce to the child that what they did was wrong. With all due respect, I think an inattentive and uninvolved parent is exactly what this situation shows and a 3-day suspension was completely warranted. Maybe now the mother will actually do some parenting.</p>
<p>"Where does a six year old even learn to behave like that? "</p>
<p>Fifty years ago when I was in first grade Andrew **** daily on the playground would stomp on my feet and pull up my dress. Report to the teacher did nothing. (Boys will be boys.) Report to my mom elicited the “he likes you” response. This went on for a week or so. It was awful. Finally my mom marched her touchas onto the school playground and scolded him. (Like that would be allowed now, hah.) That worked. I disliked that kid right up through high school graduation. Where did he learn to do it? I think he liked me. But it did not work (cough understatement cough). I don’t know what would have been a better solution than my mom publicly telling the dufous to stop. I sure was glad she did it.</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate the child was suspended, rather than require the parent get some understanding that what he did was inappropriate, but the school system couldn’t do anything for the mother; their responsibility is only for the child.</p>
<p>Sure, this song may be familiar to many kids, but his behavior when singing the song – especially when he had been told already that he inappropriate – needed some further action.</p>
<p>I doubt they have cable, it is a challenged school population, with 80% free & reduced lunch, & 60% English language learners.</p>
<p>This is the version they have on regular television, without the crotch shaking.
[“Sexy</a> And I Know It” - Music - Late Night with Jimmy Fallon](<a href=“http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2012/03/bruce-springsteen-and-neil-young-sing-sexy-and-i-know-it/]"Sexy”>http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2012/03/bruce-springsteen-and-neil-young-sing-sexy-and-i-know-it/)</p>
<p>We look for black-and-white solutions for problems but things rarely work that way in real life. There are kids (and for young ones, their families) who’ll get their act together using a positive strategy while others would view tolerance as weakness become worse; I’m sure the stick approach would have similar differing outcomes, and in this instance the stick is really aimed at the mother, hoping it would get her to realize that she needs to weigh in too. </p>
<p>Can’t blame the administrators - hopefully it opens everyones’ eyes and they decide on a unified strategy to get the child back on track before he ends up older and bigger with the same attitude.</p>