Jeff Bliss The 10th Grade Genius That's 18 Years Old

Originally posted by KilgoreTrout15
Since the teacher can't respond publicly about a student we're stuck with only his side of the story, and he hardly looks like the most reliable source.

The class appears to only have a few students in it, and since Bliss is a previous drop out I'm sure it's a remedial education class for kids that have very poor skills and have failed in normal c ...[text shortened]...

He belongs in adult ed classes, not in school with kids 3-4 years younger than him.

Well said. I have taught both special and regular education classes in grades 3 through 10.

The truth is, school is not TV/video land entertainment. You can make the subject entertaining for all of the kids some of the time and for some of the kids all of the time and some subjects that are requiered are going to bore some of the kids all of the time. With the new high stakes testing, students must score at a certain level or teachers will be out of work.

I recently retired and none too soon. The past few years, everytime I engaged the kids in projects that focused on core curriculum goals but were not found in our pricey curriculum, I was questioned. When I stayed after school or came in early to work on projects with students, I was questioned. My district was small with graduating classes of around 75. When I was a few pages ahead or behind other grade level elementary teachers, I was questioned. In fact, one reason I was criticized for the engaging projects was because the other grade level teachers were not offering this opportunity and parents were complaining. So instead of tyring to encourage other teachers to offer said opportunities, I was being pushed to "settle down". We used to wait until middle school to bore the kids. Now we start in kindergarden by replacing exploratory water and sand tables with chairs and desks. It's really very sad.

Bottom line, this student was disruptive and incredibly rude. I applaud the teaher for not yelling at him but getting him to leave the room. Given his age and actions, I doubt this is the first time he has been a behavior problem. Those of you in the "real world" of work know you would never have to tolerate either a worker or customer who displayer this kind of behavio. However, teachers are expected to perform some sort of miracle and turn this kid into a polite, pleasant scholar by the sheer force of his/her marvelous personality. Only in Hollywood.