Posted by Lou Pilder on June 25, 2002, at 12:16:02
In reply to Re: making assumptions » Dr. Bob, posted by krazy kat on June 25, 2002, at 10:32:15
Friends,
It appears that this topic keeps surfacing.And I understand what Krazy Kat is feeling about this for I once had a battle in the school that I taught at about the use of sware words. I was given the task to "well-define" these words and their uses in the school and the punishments.
The way that we handled it was that a rule was made that prohibited sware words.I agree with Dr. Bob that the words should not be used at all, but if they are used, then a penalty should be applied, and applied equally. The definition was easy, for the list just said "words that degrade a persons worth by equating them with defication, or other currupt acts, or sexual acts or any other degrading language. So non-sware words also fell into these catagories.
Now the rule was broken many ways. Each way had it's own penalty.
#1 Profanity directed towards a teacher: 3 day suspension (second time was a reccomendation for expulsion)
#2 Profanity with no object, or yourself as the object, such as swaring when a bee stung you, student getting a bad grade back on a test, etc. :One demerit (3 demerits was an in-school-suspension for 3 days) The equivalent on this board is to say," I felt s***** when I took XYZ"
#3 Profanity in a composition: Student had to write a paper justifying the use of the word as "literary" or "artisitic" or recieve a demerit. This came up with Stienbeck's "Of Mice and Men", for these words are used in a book that the English Dept. had as requirered reading! The English Dept. put out a letter to the parents that explained the literary justification for Stienbeck's useage of the words.
#4 Cursing another student: 3 days in-school-suspension .(second offense, rec. for expulsion)
#5 other good and just causes to restrict the suspect word:
This was handled by the administration and the offending word was matched up to the closest of the first 4 offenses and the appropriate punishment was applied. There was no appeal.
Now the point that we were making to the students was that sware words degraded other people and that we were not going to tolerate them. But we also recognised that these words were in a continuem from just yelling out the S word when you struck your thumb with a hammer in wood shop to profaning another person. We wanted the punishment to "fit the crime."
Now my suggestion here is in sympathy with Krazy Kat in that there, perhaps,could be different catagories, by definition from the administration, for these words and that the continuim , perhaps could go from a PBC warning to a suspension. I also believe that the circumstances surrounding the use of the word makes the same word punishable by different degrees.I would set up the folowing if I was the administrator of this board.
I would have the 4 catagories that we used in the school that I taught in.
Insted of demarits,or PBCs I would have a fine of $0.25 (US) for using the S word and the F word and the other common words, unless it is directed to a person.
Profanity directed to a person would be the usual blocking established here already.
Now the use here of these words as "literary", or "artistic" is a judgment that must be made. In our school, the English dept. reviewed these offending words and they were the sole judge.
So I am suggesting that we select posters here to be the sole judge of those type of situations. Perhaps Beadedlady or ISO or Kid_A ,and other people that have demonstrated a "profitiancy" in the field or have a literary background. In other words, I an suggesting that we take this off the sholders of Dr. Bob and police it ourselves with Dr. Bob having a veto, though, so as to prevent favoritism.
Now the $0.25 would accumulate to $1.00 (US) and then the poster could not return untill it is paid. The accumulated funds could be put to some use that benifited the entire board.
Now of course, there would still be disputes, and those disputes would be decieded by Dr. Bob with no appeal.
In review of what we accomplished in the school, I can say that the policy was effective. There were numerous suspensions at first, but then the students saw the merit of our stance to not allow sware words and the suspensions went down to deminimus.
Lou
poster:Lou Pilder
thread:5729
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20020510/msgs/5789.html