Ms.Annie's Sheep

Sheephood 101

September 08, 2005

Sometimes, I am amazed by the stuff that goes on simply because we allow it to go on. The big stuff is too scary to think about. The president hires Michael Brown and people stand on a freeway overpass for days because FEMA can't figure out how to help. Things on that level are just too much for me to think about rationally. That kind of thing calls forth the almost-mindless mental repetition of, "Not in America. This is not happening in America." I catch myself obsessing and go drop a dollar in a can or an envelope or I post a link to the Red Cross and pray someone else will soothe their own gut reaction by giving a bit more.

The stuff that is too big to deal with either gets in the way of dealing with the small stuff or makes me more determined to control the small things before they snowball into something big.

My husband and I have frequently spoken together about the apparent willingness of the American public to accept any 'explanation' if it comes from people in authority. He argues that, by and large, we have become sheep. My response argues that, although many people have become sheep, many others have not. I argue that there are enough non-sheep running around to keep the wolves at bay.

In less metaphoric terms, we both acknowledge that Americans aren't the free and independent thinkers that we bill ourselves to be. He and I usually agree to disagree. It's the type of conversation that loving spouses have when they enjoy talking to each other, but don't really have anything to say. He's the cynic and I'm the one with hope for the future. Today, I'm officially abandoning all hope. Americans are sheep, willing to allow any violation of the law so long as an authority figure tells us that the law hasn't been broken.

Believe it or not, I'm not talking about the big, mind-bending, heart-wrenching stuff touched on above. Given a while, I may be able to put my thoughts about that into some logical order, but I'm nowhere near the ability to do that yet.

Instead today's subject is, as usual, Long Beach Unified School District. Although it concerns the experiences of the older kids, it's much the same story, on the school district's part, as almost all of our other LBUSD stories.

In a nutshell, a school district employee behaved in a surprisingly incompetent manner and the district, instead of apologizing and making it better, went out of it's way to compound the problem.

The longer version: We made a mistake. We bought the wrong color pants for our son. Not intentionally, but we're used to seeing 'black or navy blue' and apparently overlooked Millikan High's 'navy, khaki, or white'.

Mr. Fielder, a teacher, decided that our son needed to be punished for his parent's incompetence. ( Or maybe he thought the almost six-foot tall, stubble-sporting ninth-grader has a job and buys his own clothing? ) He called him, and some other young teens, to the front of his class and used them as an example of what not to wear at Millikan.

He informed them that they wouldn't be sent to detention for being out of uniform because detention hasn't opened for business yet. At some point, he shared the information that children would lose points from their grade if they dare to arrive at school without the proper clothing.

My son shared none of his feelings about the incident with me. His account was delivered matter-of-factly with no evidence of rancor towards the teacher (My first, "We really are becoming sheep" moment. My children have always been taught to be well behaved, but did we teach him to be so polite that he is willing to accept public humiliation as acceptable? Didn't he know that, had he chosen to--politely, no finger gestures or other tempting responses allowed--decline to serve as an object lesson, he would have had our full support?).

I didn't hear the account with anything close to the lack of rancor with which it was delivered. I saw red. I attempted to call Millikan. After dialing 425-7441 and listening to the phone ring thirty-two times, I hung up and attempted to reach Maggie Webster at the district's headquarters.

She, of course, wasn't available--administrators are never directly available at LBUSD--but a person I presumed to be a secretary answered the phone, heard my complaint, then offered to transfer me back to Millikan.

I spoke to another secretarial-type who needed to know the problem before I could speak to a principal. She agreed that it wasn't nice of Mr. Fielder to make an example of my son and was kind enough to explain that the problem wouldn't have occurred if my son had simply worn the right color clothing. I explained to her (believe it or not, I calmly explained to her) that it is generally not a good idea to explain to the parent of child who has been abused, even mildly, that the abuse was the child's fault. She, probably wisely, decided to transfer me to Mr. Guillermo Jimenez, a vice-principal.

She did not, prior to transferring the call, check that Mr. Jiminez would be available to take the call. I got voice mail for a person other than Mr. Jimenez. I left a politely-worded but tonally furious message, then hung up and called Maggie Webster again.

Not available, but the person who took the call was so polite and reasonable that I almost felt guilty for responding to her offer to help with an acceptance predicated on her "having more brains than God gave a grain of rice, unlike everyone else I've spoken to this afternoon." I did volunteer my knowledge that the comment was offensive and explained that it was directed toward the district, rather than to her.

I explained what had occurred so far. She explained that I needed to speak to someone at Millikan before speaking to Maggie Webster. She even offered to transfer my call and stay on the line until I made direct contact with Guillermo Jiminez. I must admit to a grin at this point. I admire people who deal well with difficult members of the public. The admiration is there even when I am the "difficult member of the public" they are dealing with.

After what seemed an inordinately long time on hold, the connection was made with the elusive Mr. Jiminez. After hearing my story, he agreed that Mr. Fielder had--presuming my son had told me the truth--not behaved properly. He would investigate.

I informed him that the terrible mistake of buying black instead of navy blue would be corrected by this weekend and, by Monday, my son would be dressed in the approved fashion. I asked for assurances that my son would not be subjected to any additional unpleasantness at school while waiting.

He informed me in a vague, go-three-times-around-the-bush-before-beating-it way that, not only could he not give me the requested assurances, my son couldn't go to class unless he wore a properly colored uniform.

I asked him to speak in plain English. "Are you saying that my son cannot go to school unless he wears navy blue pants instead of the black ones that will be all he has until I can take him shopping this weekend?"

He beat the bush without mercy. He felt the need to explain about uniforms and a bunch of other stuff. He heavily implied that he was, indeed making that statement, but didn't actually express agreement.

I explained that I didn't need any complicated answer. I needed, I explained, to hear the word YES or the word NO.

This went on for several rounds before he finally managed to clearly state that my son is not allowed to return to school until he has a uniform in the proper color.

Mr. Guillermo Jiminez suspended my child for wearing black instead of navy blue. Apparently, the color of my son's pants are so disruptive to the education of the other children that, if he is allowed to wear them at school, everyone else's education will suffer.

Or, Mr. Jiminez is so mindlessly dedicated to following orders that he is willing to ignore the laws stating that children can't be punished academically or refused an education for failing to wear a uniform.

Or, Mr. Jiminez is so lackadaisical about his job, that he hasn't ever bothered to find out what the law has to say on the subject.

I expect LBUSD to hire people who don't bother thinking, who operate according to what they're told instead of what is right or just. That's all too common for me to bother writing about when it's only a first incident at a new school. I'm so used to this type of thing that, when an administrator at LBUSD tells me that a particular teacher is 'good' I automatically translate 'good' as meaning 'sheep'.

So why is it worth writing about, then? In the conversation about our son's experiences today, my older daughters expressed surprise. Not at the teacher's behavior or the vice-principal's response, they expressed surprise that we didn't know that this sort of thing is normal. They have or have had a number of teachers who deducted grade points because a student wore the wrong clothing to school. The girls saw this as nothing worth mentioning.

Since my children don't learn passivity at home, I must assume that, right along with the reading and writing and 'rithmatic LBUSD is teaching a course called Sheephood 101.

Links

Gabston-Howell.org -- My husband isn't too thrilled by the latest LBUSD folly, either. The link at left goes directly to the page with his comments regarding today's dust-up. If you type the address directly into a browser, follow the updates/life updates path to the article mentioned.

School Uniforms: Prevention or Suppression? by Raymond F. Felch III

School Uniforms: An Empirical Analysis and Observational Study of the Implications in Public Schools. - The first GOOD explanation that I've seen so far for why, with all the actual research proving the opposite, schools keep claiming a massive drop in negative behavior when students wear uniforms. Sixty-one page .pdf with explanation on page twenty. This paper also makes the claim, supported by solid research, that uniforms actually decrease reading scores in tenth grade. Long Beach Unified School District's claim to have 'proven' the benefits of uniforms is also addressed convincingly.

Liberty Quotes from SchoolUniforms-Not.org - The first step to sheephood is a small one, easy to take, but difficult to back away from. Once we teach our children to march in step with the rest of the herd, can we truely expect them to stop this side of the cliff's edge?

Text of SB 1269 -- School Uniform Law This is posted on the by Long Beach Unified. Too bad that teachers and vice principals don't read the district's website.

LBReport.com -- Surprisingly enough, the school employees at Millikan don't even read their own bad press from years back.

Millikan on the web -- Millikan High is dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of all students, so long as they don't set foot on campus while wearing black pants.

ACLU -- When did defending the Bill of Rights become a bad thing?

National Archives -- Because, if we're going to live here, we should know a bit about our own history.

Home	Sheephood 101 September 08, 2005 Sometimes, I am amazed by the stuff that goes on simply because we allow it to go on. The big stuff is too scary to think about. The president hires Michael Brown and people stand on a freeway overpass for days because FEMA can't figure out how to help. Things on that level are just too much for me to think about rationally. That kind of thing calls forth the almost-mindless mental repetition of, "Not in America. This is not happening in America." I catch myself obsessing and go drop a dollar in a can or an envelope or I post a link to the Red Cross and pray someone else will soothe their own gut reaction by giving a bit more. The stuff that is too big to deal with either gets in the way of dealing with the small stuff or makes me more determined to control the small things before they snowball into something big. My husband and I have frequently spoken together about the apparent willingness of the American public to accept any 'explanation' if it comes from people in authority. He argues that, by and large, we have become sheep. My response argues that, although many people have become sheep, many others have not. I argue that there are enough non-sheep running around to keep the wolves at bay. In less metaphoric terms, we both acknowledge that Americans aren't the free and independent thinkers that we bill ourselves to be. He and I usually agree to disagree. It's the type of conversation that loving spouses have when they enjoy talking to each other, but don't really have anything to say. He's the cynic and I'm the one with hope for the future. Today, I'm officially abandoning all hope. Americans are sheep, willing to allow any violation of the law so long as an authority figure tells us that the law hasn't been broken. Believe it or not, I'm not talking about the big, mind-bending, heart-wrenching stuff touched on above. Given a while, I may be able to put my thoughts about that into some logical order, but I'm nowhere near the ability to do that yet. Instead today's subject is, as usual, Long Beach Unified School District. Although it concerns the experiences of the older kids, it's much the same story, on the school district's part, as almost all of our other LBUSD stories. In a nutshell, a school district employee behaved in a surprisingly incompetent manner and the district, instead of apologizing and making it better, went out of it's way to compound the problem. The longer version: We made a mistake. We bought the wrong color pants for our son. Not intentionally, but we're used to seeing 'black or navy blue' and apparently overlooked Millikan High's 'navy, khaki, or white'. Mr. Fielder, a teacher, decided that our son needed to be punished for his parent's incompetence. ( Or maybe he thought the almost six-foot tall, stubble-sporting ninth-grader has a job and buys his own clothing? ) He called him, and some other young teens, to the front of his class and used them as an example of what not to wear at Millikan. He informed them that they wouldn't be sent to detention for being out of uniform because detention hasn't opened for business yet. At some point, he shared the information that children would lose points from their grade if they dare to arrive at school without the proper clothing. My son shared none of his feelings about the incident with me. His account was delivered matter-of-factly with no evidence of rancor towards the teacher (My first, "We really are becoming sheep" moment. My children have always been taught to be well behaved, but did we teach him to be so polite that he is willing to accept public humiliation as acceptable? Didn't he know that, had he chosen to--politely, no finger gestures or other tempting responses allowed--decline to serve as an object lesson, he would have had our full support?). I didn't *hear* the account with anything close to the lack of rancor with which it was delivered. I saw red. I attempted to call Millikan. After dialing 425-7441 and listening to the phone ring thirty-two times, I hung up and attempted to reach Maggie Webster at the district's headquarters. She, of course, wasn't available--administrators are never directly available at LBUSD--but a person I presumed to be a secretary answered the phone, heard my complaint, then offered to transfer me back to Millikan. I spoke to another secretarial-type who needed to know the problem before I could speak to a principal. She agreed that it wasn't nice of Mr. Fielder to make an example of my son and was kind enough to explain that the problem wouldn't have occurred if my son had simply worn the right color clothing. I explained to her (believe it or not, I calmly explained to her) that it is generally not a good idea to explain to the parent of child who has been abused, even mildly, that the abuse was the child's fault. She, probably wisely, decided to transfer me to Mr. Guillermo Jimenez, a vice-principal. She did not, prior to transferring the call, check that Mr. Jiminez would be available to take the call. I got voice mail for a person other than Mr. Jimenez. I left a politely-worded but tonally furious message, then hung up and called Maggie Webster again. Not available, but the person who took the call was so polite and reasonable that I almost felt guilty for responding to her offer to help with an acceptance predicated on her "having more brains than God gave a grain of rice, unlike everyone else I've spoken to this afternoon." I did volunteer my knowledge that the comment was offensive and explained that it was directed toward the district, rather than to her. I explained what had occurred so far. She explained that I needed to speak to someone at Millikan before speaking to Maggie Webster. She even offered to transfer my call and stay on the line until I made direct contact with Guillermo Jiminez. I must admit to a grin at this point. I admire people who deal well with difficult members of the public. The admiration is there even when I am the "difficult member of the public" they are dealing with. After what seemed an inordinately long time on hold, the connection was made with the elusive Mr. Jiminez. After hearing my story, he agreed that Mr. Fielder had--presuming my son had told me the truth--not behaved properly. He would investigate. I informed him that the terrible mistake of buying black instead of navy blue would be corrected by this weekend and, by Monday, my son would be dressed in the approved fashion. I asked for assurances that my son would not be subjected to any additional unpleasantness at school while waiting. He informed me in a vague, go-three-times-around-the-bush-before-beating-it way that, not only could he not give me the requested assurances, my son couldn't go to class unless he wore a properly colored uniform. I asked him to speak in plain English. "Are you saying that my son cannot go to school unless he wears navy blue pants instead of the black ones that will be all he has until I can take him shopping this weekend?" He beat the bush without mercy. He felt the need to explain about uniforms and a bunch of other stuff. He heavily implied that he was, indeed making that statement, but didn't actually express agreement. I explained that I didn't need any complicated answer. I needed, I explained, to hear the word YES or the word NO. This went on for several rounds before he finally managed to clearly state that my son is not allowed to return to school until he has a uniform in the proper color. Mr. Guillermo Jiminez suspended my child for wearing black instead of navy blue. Apparently, the color of my son's pants are so disruptive to the education of the other children that, if he is allowed to wear them at school, everyone else's education will suffer. Or, Mr. Jiminez is so mindlessly dedicated to following orders that he is willing to ignore the laws stating that children can't be punished academically or refused an education for failing to wear a uniform. Or, Mr. Jiminez is so lackadaisical about his job, that he hasn't ever bothered to find out what the law has to say on the subject. I expect LBUSD to hire people who don't bother thinking, who operate according to what they're told instead of what is right or just. That's all too common for me to bother writing about when it's only a first incident at a new school. I'm so used to this type of thing that, when an administrator at LBUSD tells me that a particular teacher is 'good' I automatically translate 'good' as meaning 'sheep'. So why is it worth writing about, then? In the conversation about our son's experiences today, my older daughters expressed surprise. Not at the teacher's behavior or the vice-principal's response, they expressed surprise that we didn't know that this sort of thing is normal. They have or have had a number of teachers who deducted grade points because a student wore the wrong clothing to school. The girls saw this as nothing worth mentioning. Since my children don't learn passivity at home, I must assume that, right along with the reading and writing and 'rithmatic LBUSD is teaching a course called Sheephood 101. Links Gabston-Howell.org -- My husband isn't too thrilled by the latest LBUSD folly, either. The link at left goes directly to the page with his comments regarding today's dust-up. If you type the address directly into a browser, follow the updates/life updates path to the article mentioned. School Uniforms: Prevention or Suppression? by Raymond F. Felch III School Uniforms: An Empirical Analysis and Observational Study of the Implications in Public Schools. - The first GOOD explanation that I've seen so far for why, with all the actual research proving the opposite, schools keep claiming a massive drop in negative behavior when students wear uniforms. Sixty-one page .pdf with explanation on page twenty. This paper also makes the claim, supported by solid research, that uniforms actually decrease reading scores in tenth grade. Long Beach Unified School District's claim to have 'proven' the benefits of uniforms is also addressed convincingly. Liberty Quotes from SchoolUniforms-Not.org - The first step to sheephood is a small one, easy to take, but difficult to back away from. Once we teach our children to march in step with the rest of the herd, can we truely expect them to stop this side of the cliff's edge? Text of SB 1269 -- School Uniform Law This is posted on the by Long Beach Unified. Too bad that teachers and vice principals don't read the district's website. LBReport.com -- Surprisingly enough, the school employees at Millikan don't even read their own bad press from years back. Millikan on the web -- Millikan High is dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of all students, so long as they don't set foot on campus while wearing black pants. ACLU -- When did defending the Bill of Rights become a bad thing? National Archives -- Because, if we're going to live here, we should know a bit about our own history.
Gabston-Howell.org
Good Neighbors
Madelynn
Mary
Phillip
Katie
Janette

Sheephood 101

Links

Gabston-Howell.org -- My husband isn't too thrilled by the latest LBUSD folly, either. The link at left goes directly to the page with his comments regarding today's dust-up. If you type the address directly into a browser, follow the updates/life updates path to the article mentioned.

School Uniforms: Prevention or Suppression? by Raymond F. Felch III