Friday, March 07, 2014

Voice of the People 3/07/14

Don't blame teacher
for kids 'playing doctor'


Regarding the Feb. 28 story, "Mullica teacher's fate likely up to arbitrator":
We all know that teachers need to have eyes in the back of their heads. That being a given, how could it have been possible that two munchkins from the class of Kelly Mascio got loose at the same time and went into a bathroom adjoining the class room? Where was the aide? Don't aides have eyes in the back of their heads, too?

It seems to me that Mascio handled this situation well by immediately reporting the incident to her principal. However, for her honesty she has been judged unfit and placed on punitive leave without salary. So much for innocent until proven guilty.

As an observer, I am more concerned with what's happening in the homes of these two children than I am with the teacher who happened to sneeze and blow her nose at the time. After all, children do mimic what they see. So what have they witnessed and where? An event in the home or on television or something else?

Back in the day, parents (including me) used to call these kind of incidents between children "playing doctor." Perfectly normal, we thought. After all, we thought, children are a curious lot. It was not considered unusual. So we would take our children aside and have a nice conversation with them as to why that behavior was unacceptable. End of story.
ELEANOR NUNNENKAMP
Galloway Township

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/letters/more-voice-of-the-people-march/article_79cdcf89-43f4-55e0-9fff-ba9e46414a90.html

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