Farrah Abraham Is, Like, the Best 'School Mom' Ever

zaterdag 28 september 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Rebecca Stokes 15 hours ago

At this point it feels like I should have a daily column called "Farrah Abraham Sez" because the Teen Mom seems to drop fresh crazy out into the universe on a daily basis. One minute she's getting her lady-bits covered in plastic, the next she's taking her 4-year-old daughter Sophia to therapy. It must be tough to be Farrah -- or Sophia, for that matter!

You'd never know it if you follow Farrah on Twitter. She recently shared that, while working as a parent monitor during recess, she found out that she's everyone's "favorite" parent. Oh my god, Farrah -- "favorite" and "notorious" are two very different words with two very different meanings. 

Sofia might think it's nice now to have her friends swarming her popular mom, but that's not going to last. Once the kids learn just why Farrah's so famous, Sophia is in for attention of the negative kind. It won't be pretty. I don't think Farrah's given much thought to the downside of being the "favorite" parent. 

30min of recess time @School with Sophia , I'm the class favorite #Mom ((Thanks for the honor kiddos)) :)

— Farrah Abraham (@F1abraham) September 25, 2013

If the school itself begins signaling out Sophia for special attention, that's bound to incur the wrath of other parents. If I was a parent at Sophia's school and I felt my kid was being overlooked for their "favorite," I'd have a real problem with that. The extra attention might not be the best for Sophia either. Rather than be recognized for her own work, she'll be praised for her mom's celebrity. That does no one any favors. 

Is Farrah doing Sophia more harm than good?

Image via Instagram

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rebecca Stokes

Rebecca is a writer who lives in Brooklyn with her cats. She is probably even at this moment spilling food on herself.

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School Superintendent’s ‘Racist and Sexist’ Text Messages Make Us Wonder What’s Wrong With People (VIDEO)

woensdag 25 september 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Adriana Velez 13 hours ago

If everyone in your community could read your text messages, would they be horrified? The racist and sexist messages between school superintendent Richard Como and athletic director Jim Donato have rocked the community of Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Apparently the texts between these two men included graphic references to faculty and students. Just a few harmless, private jokes between two men? Not so much.

Copies of the messages between Como and Donato were given to the school board from an anonymous source. The Chester County District Attorney office discovered the messages when they were conducting an unrelated investigation of the district. Meanwhile, Como and Donato both resigned reportedly when they found out the board planned to fire them -- but the damage is already done.

So how bad were these text messages, anyway? Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan says, "The text messages that we reviewed were of a shockingly racist nature. They looked like something from 1813, not 2013." Oof, that bad, huh? I'm glad I haven't found transcripts of those messages yet, though I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they're leaked. (Maybe it's already happened and I just don't know because I don't want to know ...)

Board President Neil Campbell issued a statement saying that the school board had moved as quickly as possible on the incident and were cooperating with the District Attorney. "The racist and sexist language expressed by the two men was sickening and obviously unacceptable," he said.

So now we're all in agreement that this was disgusting behavior, especially coming from adults who are supposedly leading school faculty and students. Wouldn't you expect more from them? This must come as a horrible shock to the families in the community. Or maybe not. About a third of the school community is black, and I bet they're unfortunately all too accustomed to racism coming from any and all sources.

Meanwhile, I can't help imagining (if these allegations are true) what this meeting of the minds between Como and Donato must have been like. At what point did they recognize they were racist, sexist kindred spirits and start letting the shit fly with each other? Do these people have radar for their type? Ugh, probably. At least everyone else seems to agree that their exchanges were wrong. Now everyone who works for the district has to do sensitivity training. But the two people who needed it most should have gotten that training a long time ago.

Are you surprised that two adults with leadership positions in a school district were exchanging offensive text messages?

Image via ABC

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adriana Velez

is a staff writer who dabbles in food, parenting, news, entertainment, molecular biology, and anything else that that pops into her head. She lives with her elementary school-aged son in Brooklyn, land of urban farms and artisan everything.  

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School Wants Parents to Sign Permission Slips Allowing Teachers to Hit Kids

dinsdag 17 september 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Kiri Blakeley 1 hour ago

When you send your child off to school, you're generally not even imagining that a teacher could smack your kid. Or are you? Apparently, this still goes on to the extent that at least one school system sent home an "opt-out" form to parents, to let them choose whether or not their kids could be subjected to corporal punishment. A mother was so appalled that she sent the letter to a media outlet. According to the school system:

Parents or legal guardians who do not want corporal punishment to be administered to their child/children must inform the principal of the school on an annual basis.

I'll be honest. I had no idea this stuff was still happening and that it's so widespread. But apparently, it is.

K.J. Dell'Antonia writes in The New York Times that corporal punishment is still allowed in 19 states. And not even just allowed. Some parents actually want this for their kids.

The school that sent home the corporal punishment permission slip says that "many parents still wish for this to be done, hence the permission form."

Wow. Just. Wow.

The states that allow this form of punishment in schools are mostly in the South: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. Although some counties within those states forbid it.

But the weirdest thing? Even if you sign a form saying you are opting OUT of allowing your kid to get spanked in class, it still could happen. An education reporter said that there's not much you can do against a school or teacher that spanks your kid even if you didn't check the box allowing it.

There is scant evidence that corporal punishment teaches your child to behave any better than other methods. But for me, the thing that makes this so egregious is that it would happen in front of other children in class. Spankings don't come with a lot of physical force -- and if they DID, would you want some stranger possibly injuring your child? Spankings are mostly about humiliation. And there's so many more ways to humiliate a kid than using physical force.

I'll always remember back-talking a teacher when I was about 12. His voice boomeranged off the walls as he yelled at me to get out of class and stand in the hallway. As I stood there, quite embarrassed and scared, classes began to let out, and every single kid who passed me in the hallway smirked and laughed at me. It happened decades ago and yet I remember it like yesterday. Absolutely NO physical punishment required! I didn't do much back-talking after that.

Do you believe teachers should be able to physically punish your children? Should it be allowed in schools at all?

Image via Zbowling/Flickr

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20 Totally Unbelievable Reasons Why My Kid Is Late to School

zaterdag 14 september 2013

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Tarde empezaba a mi hijo a la escuela ayer. Desafortunadamente, esto no es raro para nosotros. Todo el año escolar pasado nos corrió a coger el autobús que nos estábamos escapando de un volcán en erupción casi todas las mañanas. Pero esta vez tenía una excusa legítima, lo juro! Nosotros estábamos bloqueados por un incendio en un edificio de apartamentos. Camiones de bomberos fueron por todas partes, humo negro estaba ondulando el sótano y por alguna misteriosa razón había un hombre desnudo de pie delante del edificio. Obviamente, tuvimos que parar y mirar durante unos minutos.

Pero mis sonidos todavía excusa totalmente. Y mientras mi excusa real sonidos fabricados, que también podría pasar algún tiempo inventando ahora verdaderamente falsas excusas. Ya sabes, así que estoy preparado para estar muy preparado para salir de la casa a tiempo.

1. Nos despertamos averiguar había intercambiado cerebros, al igual que en la película Freaky el viernes.

2. No encontramos calcetines que empareja.

3. Hubo un flashmob twerking bloqueando el camino.

4. Nuestros propulsores se quedaron sin combustible.

5. Bowser exigió un jefe de batalla sólo cuando nos íbamos.

6. Un tornado nos recogió y nos dejaron en la tierra de oz bueno que James Franco estaba allí con ese globo de aire caliente.

7. Voldemort nos perseguía en la dirección equivocada.

8. Mi hijo no pudo encontrar su varita mágica.

9. Sharknado!

10. Nuestra máquina del tiempo está fuera de servicio.

11. Nadie espera que la Inquisición española.

¿12. Nos olvidamos de establecer nuestros relojes hacia adelante, hacia atrás, que es otra vez? ¿Todavía no? Eso explica muchas cosas.

13. Los extraterrestres secuestraron a nuestros relojes.

14. Queríamos todas las demás personas tarde para sentirse mejor consigo mismo.

15. Ha llegado a nuestra línea de servicio al cliente. Su llamada es muy importante para nosotros. Si desea una explicación de por qué mi hijo es tarde a la escuela, pulse uno.

16. Tuve un sueño muy vívido que fuimos educados.

17. Las huestes de Good Morning America decía que me quedara con ellos.

18. ¿Cómo sabes que llegamos tarde? Tal vez usted y todos los demás es temprano!

19. Alguien comió todas las migas de pan que debíamos para seguir.

20. Estuvimos muy cómodos en casa.

¿Tarde sacas a tus hijos a la escuela? ¿Lo que generalmente es tu excusa?

Imagen via Elizabeth/Flickr

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School Stops Using Books -- It's About Time!

vrijdag 13 september 2013

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
by Jeanne Sager 4 hours ago

I have always been a bit of a purist about books. I want my daughter to know the feel of paper between her fingers. I know I'm not alone. So I surprised even myself when I heard a high school had completely given up on textbooks. I wanted to forward the news to my kid's school and suggest they follow suit.

Yes, you read that right. I think going completely digital is something every school should do. ASAP!

I know it won't happen any time soon, mostly because it costs a lot of dough to outfit every kid in your school with an iPad or a laptop. Not to mention I live in the boonies; a fair share of the kids in my daughter's school district don't have computers at home because they don't even have Internet access (yes, in 2013, and yes, I know how ridiculous this is ... please, write my legislators!). Still, this is a viable option, and to prove it, Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York, has become one of the first schools in the country to go all digital.

They're still one of the very few, but it's about darn time someone did it!

This has nothing to do with shoving electronics down kids' throats and everything to do with the pain and strain on a child's back every time they hoist a backpack, pain that only gets worse as they head into high school and get loaded down with homework that requires multiple tomes to complete.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission once calculated that carrying a 12-pound backpack to and from school and lifting it 10 times a day for an entire school year puts a cumulative load on kids of 21,600 pounds. That is the equivalent of six mid-sized cars. The CPSC recommends a backpack weigh no more than 10 to 15 percent of a child's weight, but the average bag is more like 20 percent.

Oh, and they ALSO say 7,000 kids on average suffer some sort of injury ... from a BACKPACK.

Replacing all that weight with something you can carry with one hand? Kind of a no-brainer to me if the school can come up with the cash. 

Because as important as an education is for kids, in the long run, they need their health too! And coming from someone whose back problems started at around 12 -- and whose bookbag was definitely above that 15 percent threshold -- I can't tell you how much I wish this option had been available in the early '90s.

What would you do if your kid's school went all digital?

Image via USAG-Humphreys/Flickr

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeanne Sager

writes articles for The Stir by day, slays closet monsters and bounds through bedtime stories with her elementary schooler by night. The Phineas and Ferb soundtrack reverberates through her brain.

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