A Quick “OMG! Update” on Enders Game & South Carolina

Tod Kelly

Tod is a writer from the Pacific Northwest. He is also serves as Executive Producer and host of both the 7 Deadly Sins Show at Portland's historic Mission Theatre and 7DS: Pants On Fire! at the White Eagle Hotel & Saloon. He is  a regular inactive for Marie Claire International and the Daily Beast, and is currently writing a book on the sudden rise of exorcisms in the United States. Follow him on Twitter.

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32 Responses

  1. Rufus F. says:

    Ah, you posted this right before I posted mine! I hate doing that- stepping on people’s top post- so I’m going to hold off a bit. Sorry.Report

  2. Burt Likko says:

    …save to pat myself on the back for not gratuitously and dryly using the phrase “money shot” anywhere in this post.

    Well, you blew that at the end.Report

  3. Anne says:

    and you wonder why there aren’t more women on this siteReport

  4. Turgid Jacobian says:

    Would this update be a case of “burying the lede” or “putting the nut below the fold”Report

  5. Jeff says:

    One of the stories was about prostitutes having their faces covered with ejaculation

    I believe that this may b e from the Bible (there’s something very close to that but I’m not going searching for it now).  it would be funny if the tight-wads got in an uproar over the ONE AND ONLY TRUE BOOK!!!Report

  6. FridayNext says:

    My mother was a teacher for over 30 years. You wouldn’t believe the kind of crap parents accused her of because they believed every word their kids told them. Sometimes she got in trouble, sometimes not depending on the strength of the principal. My personal favorite was when some parents accused my mom of being a witch and didn’t want their child taught by a servant of Satan. Since my mom’s birthday is on Halloween she would occasionally joke that meant she was a witch.

    This is why I always wait until there is official corroboration of such things before I even raise these stories to the level of rumor.

    As an aside, my mom was always pretty anti-union, but she always knew that the union was the only people who would have her back when some parent accused her of something because their children had trouble distinguishing between something a classmate told them and something she said. She always made sure her dues were paid up, but she hated needing them.Report

    • A Teacher in reply to FridayNext says:

      There is nothing here to argue with.

      I hate needing a union, until I need it.Report

    • Alan Scott in reply to FridayNext says:

      I agree that the story in the police report is likely a student fabrication.  Especially since the school maintains that the teacher is being disciplined for reading Ender’s Game and not for anything else.

      Just after I went off to high school, a substitute teacher was accused of physical violence against students.  He was arrested and escorted off campus by the police.  Eventually charges were dropped when it was realized that several of the students testifying about the incidents weren’t even in the class in question.Report

    • DensityDuck in reply to FridayNext says:

      “My personal favorite was when some parents accused my mom of being a witch and didn’t want their child taught by a servant of Satan.”

      Wasn’t so funny for Wee Care, though.Report

  7. BSK says:

    “My mother was a teacher for over 30 years. You wouldn’t believe the kind of crap parents accused her of because they believed every word their kids told them.”

    I tend to tell parents, “If you promise to believe only half of what they tell you about me, I’ll promise to believe only half of what they tell me about you… deal?”  When they realize that the unreliable narrator that is the young child works in both directions, they tend to be a bit more forgiving.

    Of course, working in a private school which not only requires but genuinely allows for more regular interactions with parents, there tends to be a more trusting relationship and problems are often (though not always) hashed out between teach and parent before going up the chain-of-command.  It is understandable that such relationships are much harder to develop in public schools or other settings that have very high child:teacher ratios.  Which is another reason to reconsider those types of environments.Report

    • Otto in reply to BSK says:

      The parent teacher relationship is not harder to develop in public schools. It may only appear to be harder because parents are less involved. At public schools where there are lots of parental involvement, the teachers pay lots of attention to the parents and vice versa. These relationships are up to the parents to maintain and make as well.Report

      • BSK in reply to Otto says:

        My point was that it is harder to foster relationships with 30 parents than with 15.  There are only so many hours in a day.  Additionally, as you note, the expectations are different.  I am required to send home a daily email to my parents.  Even if I wasn’t, most parents would want near daily contact.  It is one of the reasons they choose independent schools.  But there are practical reasons why this is often harder in public schools than private.

        That is NOT to say that privates are better than publics or anything of the matter… only that better parent/teacher relationships can often prevent such situations from arising and that better parent/teacher relationships are facilitated by smaller classes sizes and more intimate communities.  Of course, all it takes is one person complaining so, no, this is far from a guarantee.Report