<p>Well, Having been married a long time to a excellent elementary school teacher, whose 29 years of teaching have made her a respected name in the community, I have to say, you guys have thrown her under the bus. </p>
<p>She does have treat jars in the classroom. She does allow parties. She does whatever it takes to get kids to learn and learn at an exceptional level. Let me take a second to go through the whys and hows. </p>
<p>The treat jar has penny candies (and sugar free as well) when students score a 100% on a test or paper. A treat can also be earned for exceptional behavoir. We buy the stuff and while it’s still called penny candy, it isn’t. It is a simple reward for something done well. It works. She also has a points system that allows kids to earn “lion lute” to purchase small toys once a month. So unless the kids are hitting 100% on every paper and sit still and are cooperative every mommnet, the chances are the teacher is responsible for weight gain are fairly minimal. </p>
<p>With 25 kids from various backgrounds and lifestyles, education is alot like cat wrangling. </p>
<p>Even the excellent children (according to moms) are problems because they are so used to being the center of the universe at home, they have trouble in a classroom setting. Does the parent understand? heck no. Their child is “gifted” and should be nutured because they are “so special”. However, the problem is the special child can’t shut up for 10 seconds so kids around them can learn. This is why alot of “gifted” students don’t stay gifted over time. Their nice kids, not detrimental problems, but without picking up learning skills eventually they struggle. </p>
<p>As far as the peanut butter stuff, unfortunately there are kids with nut allergies. Parents should let their school know so medication can be administered by the nurse. I can understand why a school district would ban it as IF a child became sick, the district would be sued for millions. </p>
<p>My district is being sued for 25 million (along with the county for 25m) for a student getting hit by a bus in a pitch black morning, wearing all black clothing, earphones on hooded sweatshirt up, cutting across the street on a skateboard. He is a nice kid, a good student and involved in school. While it’s unlikely his family will get 50 million, they’ll probably get 10-15 million out of court. And the police determined he was at fault in the accident. So I can understand a school district trying to avoid risk. </p>
<p>There are alot of things teachers would like to do for kids. However, with the demands placed on the education of children today, because of course, every politican is an expert on childhood education, alot of things are pushed aside. Arts,PE and other subjects are being pushed aside or condensed into name only type activities that we grew up with. Things that we grew up with remembering with fondness from our school days are now a 15 minute activity every two weeks because they aren’t part of NCLB.</p>