It’s quite amazing what the world is coming to particularly in the classrooms of today’s schools. Here’s two cases that appeared in the news recently:
Case 1 Fourth grader suspended from school for refusing to answer an exam question. The reason why he refused to answer the question was because he did not want to write something bad about his principal. Even after teachers and the principal herself tried to dissuade him from giving up the question, the boy decided to leave it blank. As a result of that, the principal suspended him from school for five days. And the worse part was the principal’s letter to the boy’s mother to say that by refusing to answer the question, he has caused the other 10 students’ average scores to fall when that was not the case.
The suspension has been quite traumatic for the boy. He doesn’t do as well in school now when previously he was scoring As and Bs. He’s now afraid of taking tests and has very short temper.
Case 2 “Lazy” … “Grumpy” … “Moody” … “Can try harder”
What do the words have in common other? Well, they are to be avoided from teachers’ comments when writing students’ report cards in New South Wales, Australia for the fear of students and parents suing the teachers for defamation.
The teachers have also been warned to vet student scripts for school theatre performances as well as postings on school websites, blogs and other electronic bulletins. Even grading of students is a big issue.
Hopefully, this culture of suing and litigation will not become prevalent in Singapore. Otherwise, I’ll have to go sue my former teachers for writing those ‘nasty’ words in my report card and which might have scarred me for life. 
To me, both cases represent the extremities of both teachers and parents. On one hand, it’s important that children not be over-protected and on the other, imperative that children learn to explore on their own and develop a love of learning.
