80 year old teacher fired

[Racket_Man]

I found this interesting from a couple of different views

Teacher fired

[jackfaire]

I am not sure what stance to take on most of this but the one thing I can say is that when your 80 and you have been doing the job that long that rather than firing you should get forced retirement so you can at least get your pension.

One of the realities of the situation is that she is at an age where her simply dying of old age is a possibility. Now her abilities as a teacher aside shouldn't we also ponder how that would psychologically affect the kids?

[Sleepwalker]

So if a teacher gets any illness, they should be preemptively fired? Because they might die? How about if they like to skydive? Have a family history of sudden heart attack? Volunteer in war torn third world countries on school breaks?

The facts as presented don't support firing(having to take the entire class across the school every time ONE of them needs to pee? Seriously?), but it also sounds like there has been a long running dispute between her and the school district, so I imagine there are more facts to be unveiled. Whether this damns her or the district is up in the air.

[Andara Bledin]

One of the realities of the situation is that she is at an age where her simply dying of old age is a possibility. Now her abilities as a teacher aside shouldn't we also ponder how that would psychologically affect the kids?

We'd better wrap those kids up in bubble wrap and never let them or anyone they know ever go outside. I mean, how would any of them getting, say, hurt in a car accident affect them psychologically?

^-.-^

[jackfaire]

So maybe instead we should take these kindergartners and have them watch a bunch of videos of people dying so they get desensitized to it?

The thing is she mentioned asking to be moved to the first grade as those kids are old enough to go the bathroom on their own.

That means the class she is teaching is full of 5 year olds. She obviously doesn't plan on retiring unless it becomes absolutely impossible


"So if a teacher gets any illness, they should be preemptively fired? Because they might die? How about if they like to skydive? Have a family history of sudden heart attack? Volunteer in war torn third world countries on school breaks?"

Most illnesses that would kill her would prevent her from teaching before actually dying.

And since when do five year olds sky dive. Family history of heart attack not a predictable event.

And again unless your sending those 5 year olds with her to that war torn third world country it's again not an issue.

I am not saying that the kids couldn't handle knowing their teacher died. I am talking about the students watching her in person die in front of them at 5 years of age. You don't think that might screw with a kid just a little bit.

Being 80 years of age when that seems to be around the age that most people pass on these days in addition to the fact that most of her time is spent in the classroom with the kids means that the odds are good those kids will watch her die.

I hope she proves me wrong and lives forever but trust me at 5 the last thing I would want is the guilt of thinking I just killed my teacher.

"We'd better wrap those kids up in bubble wrap and never let them or anyone they know ever go outside. I mean, how would any of them getting, say, hurt in a car accident affect them psychologically?"

Wait did you say car accident you mean a non predictable event that I am assuming that if you could protect them from you would? Like invent child safety seats and such.

I don't think we need to wrap kids up in bubble wrap but I wouldn't take them on a field trip of a slaughter house or show them naked pictures. At 5 there are things that we tend to agree kids don't need to see.

[jackfaire]

I am not sure what stance to take on most of this but the one thing I can say is that when your 80 and you have been doing the job that long that rather than firing you should get forced retirement so you can at least get your pension.

One of the realities of the situation is that she is at an age where her simply dying of old age is a possibility. Now her abilities as a teacher aside shouldn't we also ponder how that would psychologically affect the kids?

Since people don't understand this post and think I said she should be fired I will clarify this post. The two things said above have no relation to each other.

The first one means that rather than fire her their action should have been forced retirement. That being said I do not believe they should have done either but since they were going to do one of the two they should do the one that doesn't hurt her pension.

The second paragraph isn't endorsing we fire her but that we transfer her to a grade where when the kids watch her die they have the cognitive ability to handle it and not be psychologically scarred by it like the 5 year olds would be.

I hope that clarifies my position now that I am actually stating a position. You know seeing as my first line was that I didn't know what stance to take.

[Ginger Tea]

So if a teacher gets any illness, they should be preemptively fired? Because they might die? How about if they like to skydive? Have a family history of sudden heart attack? Volunteer in war torn third world countries on school breaks?

The facts as presented don't support firing(having to take the entire class across the school every time ONE of them needs to pee? Seriously?), but it also sounds like there has been a long running dispute between her and the school district, so I imagine there are more facts to be unveiled. Whether this damns her or the district is up in the air.

Re the first paragraph:
I got the impression jackfaire meant dying in the classroom infront of the children without needing to read his clarification post.
What you get up to out of work is your own concern as long as its legal although as posted before, private schools can fire you for legal activities that they seem moraly corrupt.
But hey if you play Russian Roulette every sunday night you are not going to die infront of your class, just as much as a sky diving accident (unless its part of a field trip).

Dying infront of the class was what was implied not outside in your own home.
EG: who witnessed Amy Winehouse die?
no one that we are aware of.
Who witnessed Tommy Cooper die?
Everyone watching his (unknown at the time) last live performance on TV, he died mid act on live television infront of god knows how many thousands.

Teacher dies at home aged 20 or 80, new teacher and maybe the reason why teacher isn't comming back (not the gory details just "they are dead comprende?") no trauma.
Teacher dies infront of class, trauma.

re the having to take the whole class when one needs to go potty, potty in itself, she is in a catch 22 situation.
She cannot let one child go to the toilet unattended and she cannot leave the class unnatended chapperoning one child.
And they don't have a teaching assistant that could do this?

[tropicsgoddess]

Teaching isn't an easy job, especially with little kids. They could've at least given her a forced retirement instead of firing her.