Geez, I was expecting much worse than that, like the teacher needed signed consent to give them homework.

 

Pretty soon Mrs. Porter will need to add a release portion explaining that she will not be held liable for a child becoming obese.

 

For Heaven's sake. Don't let your child go into a school.
With the internet, there is no need for these wasteful, dangerous monstrosities.

 

its been a hellish dsy at work so far, and that made me laugh. Thanks

 

I don't understand why you would think it was sad. Teacher's serve at the pleasure of the BOE and parental pressure groups. Why should it surprise anyone that they would take whatever steps they need to safeguard their source of income.

 

It is scary that you don't find it sad. Maybe you haven't lived here long enough to know that not too long ago, America was a decent place to live, to work and to go to school.

Now it seems that in every aspect in our lives, we have to contend with someones political agenda.

Every year the leaders get scummier and the standards are all but gone.

Many think that there is nothing wrong....or that these changes are good.

When people act like this, only trouble will come.

 

I don't blame the teacher. The current nanny culture in America is the problem. We have become a society of sheep that must be controlled. I had a teacher tell kids in the 4th grade they couldn't walk across the street to get picked up by her parents but had to wait in the 'security zone' for parents to walk up to the school because of some possible 'danger'. This is not in the big city, this a small town with your classic old brick school yard that kids have come flying down the steps running home for decades. I and other parents told her that she was full of it and that our kids could walk where we them wanted them to when school was over. I never heard anything more about that crap.

 

that is very offensive to me, and I feel threatened by your hateful and condescending tone. please retract your statement. I do, after all, have a constitutional right to not be subjected to viewpoints I find distasteful and contrary to my proper thoughts and opinions.
/sarc off

 

I've seen positive signs. There are a few folks sounding the alarm that ...too many alarms .... are messing up the next generations. A lack of "dangerous" play doesn't teach kids about risk management, how to deal with different amounts of pain, and empathy for the pain of the other players. Seeing a predator around every corner denies kids their freedom and spontaneity. Kids don't learn to make their own fun because, instead of playing in the mud with 3 friends, they're already alone in front of the TV, computer or clicking away on a mobile device. And on and on.

People are waking up to these problems. I saw a report the other days that kids are actually safer from abuse and abduction today than at any time in human history, and yet the media have succeeded in raising our hysteria level so high that we can't let the kids walk to the park. Something we wouldn't have thought twice about when I was a kid.

I don't know if this hyper-worried fad will pass or not. I sure hope so.

 

It is scary that you don't find it sad. Maybe you haven't lived here long enough to know that not too long ago, America was a decent place to live, to work and to go to school.

Now it seems that in every aspect in our lives, we have to contend with someones political agenda.

Every year the leaders get scummier and the standards are all but gone.

Many think that there is nothing wrong....or that these changes are good.

When people act like this, only trouble will come.

What a load of crap. I've lived here a very long time, thank you very much.
Yeah Herbert Hoover was a financial genius, Richard Nixon was a moral paragon, and Ronald Reagan surely didn't trade arms for hostages. No scum there by golly.

 

Sounds like the teacher just had what I would call good manners, and is making sure there are no problems. If I was teaching (and I have taught elementary in the past), I would have just made the note an FYI, and asked parents to call me if they had concerns, rather than sending a permission slip. However, never know, some kind might be borderline diabetic, or hyperactive triggered by sugar, or allergic to chocolate. I once sent out a notification to parents that I would like to offer candy as a reward for completing various activities. No one objected. But hey, better to ask.

 

...and is making sure there are no problems.

Therein lies the problem. I would consider it the parents' responsibility to warn the teacher in advance, at the beginning of the term, of food allergies or whatever special needs the child might have. Inability to eat a cookie falls under the heading of "special need".

Paperwork should only be needed when doing something a parent wouldn't anticipate as a normal activity. Learning to put a condom on a banana comes to mind. If paperwork is required, the signature requirement is the only way to ensure the kid gives the paper to the parent.

 

As an outsider (non-American) I can't help being amused.
I reckon I could be sure of one thing if I was one of Mrs Porter's students. I would keep a packet of Oreos at hand in case of an earthquake or some other catastrophic event.
I'll bet she has a packet in her desk drawer. I wonder how many she munched through composing that letter.

 

I don't blame the teacher. The current nanny culture in America is the problem. We have become a society of sheep that must be controlled. I had a teacher tell kids in the 4th grade they couldn't walk across the street to get picked up by her parents but had to wait in the 'security zone' for parents to walk up to the school because of some possible 'danger'. This is not in the big city, this a small town with your classic old brick school yard that kids have come flying down the steps running home for decades. I and other parents told her that she was full of it and that our kids could walk where we them wanted them to when school was over. I never heard anything more about that crap.

A lot of this stuff happens because of the ever-present danger of lawsuits. Funding for education always seems to be one of the first things that gets cut, and over time school districts have become more and more paranoid about losing the dollars they have left. Even frivolous lawsuits have a way of gobbling up years of legal fees, so schools end up erring on the side of caution in all things so that they don't end up in a situation where they have to choose between spending most of their textbook budget on settling with little Johnny fatso's jackass parents outside of court or spending the entire textbook budget on fighting said parents in court in the hopes of maybe, maaaaybe being awarded attorney's fees years down the road.

 

...Learning to put a condom on a banana comes to mind....

I guess you missed that class. It's a cucumber for Pete's sake!

 

I don't blame the teacher. The current nanny culture in America is the problem. We have become a society of sheep that must be controlled. I had a teacher tell kids in the 4th grade they couldn't walk across the street to get picked up by her parents but had to wait in the 'security zone' for parents to walk up to the school because of some possible 'danger'. This is not in the big city, this a small town with your classic old brick school yard that kids have come flying down the steps running home for decades. I and other parents told her that she was full of it and that our kids could walk where we them wanted them to when school was over. I never heard anything more about that crap.

But if one of those kids, educated in freedom, happen to get injured by an unexpected reason, there always be a pair of people that sooner or later will have the idea to sue the teacher, the principal and God knows who else: an eager lawyer and a frustrated father who has been already offered some space in TV.

Chartered vessels follow instructions stated in what is called a Charter Party (contract between Owners and who wants to employ them for a specific cargo / voyage / time). Those "charter parties" have standard forms according to the profile of the trade. But then you have to look at the "riding clauses" which are always added to the standard. In the beginning, as a starting Chief Officer I was astonished to see the so many (obvious to me) things required there, like "crew to provide lighting for night operations". Sometimes, more than 50 like that!

Why they were there?, simply because the guy that included them suffered them in a previous charter or knew that it could happen and decided to cover himself in advance. Simply, experience. Teacher maybe is doing the same.

More than 30 years ago, after berthing at a big steel mill in Brazil, the Supervisor in charge advised that to leave the mill to go downtown you just had to call a car that would bring you from the pier to the gate.

Later we learnt that they were doing that not because they were nice but because some idiot from a vessel, suffered who knows what stupid accident and sued them. Never again we walked through the mill.

Long time ago I learnt that coins, real ones, have two sides always.

 

RE: The OP

Pity they fail to grant parents such latitude as regards political indoctrination! --- But then I suppose such 'minutia' fairly pales by comparison to the scourge of between meal snacks

Regards
HP

 

The de-nutting process is alive and well in America.

I suggest that at the end of each day, take both hands and reach down in there and make sure you still got yours.

 

Coddling isn't limited to grade school. This is maddening.