Bad Kids
My new favorite term is “Shitbag,” this is the adjective I use to describe bad kids.
My fear with kids is this, I’m a pretty good guy, if I married a pretty good girl, we could still end up with a shitbag for a kid.
The New York Daily News reported this in yesterday’s paper – One out of every 110 preschoolers is expelled annually from New York classrooms - a rate nearly 18 times higher than the number of older kids booted in grades kindergarten through 12, a study released today found.
Below is the full article, doesn’t it just make you want to go run out and have one of these bundles of joy?
Pint-size terrors
N.Y. pre-K expels 600 kids a year
BY KATHLEEN LUCADAMO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
They man be tiny, but they can be big trouble.
One out of every 110 preschoolers is expelled annually from New York classrooms - a rate nearly 18 times higher than the number of older kids booted in grades kindergarten through 12, a study released today found.
Hundreds of 3- and 4-year-old pint-size terrors were bounced - from public and private schools alike - for bad behavior ranging from pulling down classmates' pants to slipping water guns into class, according to Yale University researcher Walter Gilliam.
Overall, more than 600 preschoolers statewide are expelled annually, Gilliam found in his two-year study, called "Prekindergartners Left Behind."
The crisis was most severe in private or faith-based programs without a school psychologist or social worker on hand to help troubled kids, Gilliam found.
But the public school rate also was alarming: Nationally, prekindergartners in public schools were three times more likely to get expelled than their elder counterparts, he said.
The study also found that boys were expelled 4.5 times more than girls, and African-American preschoolers were twice as likely to get booted than white or Latino kids.
In New York and other states with pre-K programs, it's easier to remove a 3- or 4-year-old from school because there aren't the legal tangles present for other grades.
Preschool is not required in the state, so teachers need little proof to expel troublemakers, and often have limited resources to tame them.
"Certainly you will find preschoolers whose behavior is quite severe but you will also find some whose behavior is not so severe but the teacher has a hard time dealing with the child," Gilliam said.
The state funds universal prekindergarten in both public and private schools and the waiting list is long. Some 42,000 prekindergartners attend class in city schools.
New York ranked 12 out of the 40 states with taxpayer-funded prekindergarten programs for having the highest expulsion rate, Gilliam said.
On average, six prekindergartners out of every 1,000 were expelled from schools across the country. In New York, the figure was nine out of 1,000.
City and state Education Department officials declined to comment, saying they hadn't reviewed the Gilliam report.
Jean Mandelbaum, director of All Souls preschool on the upper East Side, was shocked to hear so many tots were being expelled.
"Every school has a kid that is troubled in some way, but expelling a kid is a harsh thing to do. It's not something we do," said Mandelbaum.
Still, Mandelbaum and other educators said if young students are a danger to their classmates or themselves, they should be removed.
"A school is not set up to handle everything," Mandelbaum said. "They are not therapeutic organizations or jails."
Some 3- or 4-year-olds aren't ready for school and need another year at home before they can handle class, and parents are coaxed to keep them home, school officials say.
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8:30 AM
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