Teachers Use Boy's Pointy Ears As Class Lesson

[Brown]

From KCCI and AP (http://www.theiowachannel.com/education/2839186/detail.html):Robert Will Harris has Stahl's ear, which causes points to form on the ears. He and family say two fourth-grade teachers at his school in Rice, Texas, used his deformity to teach a lesson in genetics.
...
The family says the boy's ears have nothing to do with genetics. His parents say they no longer want their son used for show and tell.This particular edition of the story does not say whether a lawsuit is planned or whether the teachers' jobs are in jeopardy. The web site hosting this story, however, has a "survey" that asks, "Should these teachers be fired?"

Stahl's ear, also called "Spock's Ear" and "Vulcan Ear" (http://www.plasticsurgery4u.com/procedure_folder/ears/stahl_deformity.html) and a few other unflattering names, may or may not be hereditary.

[Luciana]

How old is fourth grade?

My mother used to tell the story of this boy who had a surgery in his ears when he was just 4-year-old because he had some kind of deformity, and the parents made a point of making the surgery before the kid went to school. Apparently, it's extremely simple to fix an ear.

What the teacher did was insensitive, to say the least.

The parents, however, might consider have it fixed asap, or they might be condemning their son to a childhood pestered by bullies. Assuming it's a simple enough surgery (unless there's something else to it which I'm not aware of), the parents would be wise of, in addition to complaining to the school (rightfully, btw), spare their son of future embarrassment.

[zakur]

Originally posted by Luciana Nery
How old is fourth grade?9 or 10, thereabouts.

[kittynh]

well, and can the parents afford the surgery? If they even have insurance it may not be covered. Cosmetic surgery usually isn't.

It was really bad because the kid obviously complained.

[Dragonrock]

The article said he was pulled out of his class and brought to other classrooms. this bothers me more than if it had been his own class. If it was just his class then one could assume that the students knew about it. By taking him to other classrooms the teachers pointed out his difference to other students. There are thousands of pictures available all over the place. They did not need one boy with what may or may not be a genetic defect.

[Luciana]

You know what I'm thinking... how come we know about this fact? So here am I, in the other side of the world, and now I know that some boy in some school was taken by some teacher as a display of genetics. I mean... this is hardly something worthy of news, except maybe for those in the educational field. I studied in an expensive private school, conservative to no end, and I saw things that we just as... exotic. And I'm sure I can barely remember them. Also, not once in my lifetime I saw a family suing the school or vice-versa.

There must be a moral somewhere, but this is the Friday of a very tiresome week and I'm not up to brainy conversations. :)

[Brown]

If Luciana's "point" is that the story really isn't all that newsworthy, I guess I'd have to agree. But I do feel sorry for the kid. There was one kid in my fourth grade class whose ears stuck WAY out, and he was teased by the school bullies because of it. I felt sorry for him. (If I remember right, he went on to be a state champion in, of all things, the game of marbles).

I was first exposed to genetics in 7th grade. One thing we did in class was look at each others' ears! We used earlobes as an example of an observable genetic trait. Is it possible that the teachers in this school were using students' ears in the same way, and then siezed upon this particular student's unusually shaped ears? Perhaps.

[Bonzo]

Originally posted by Brown
I was first exposed to genetics in 7th grade. One thing we did in class was look at each others' ears! We used earlobes as an example of an observable genetic trait. Is it possible that the teachers in this school were using students' ears in the same way, and then siezed upon this particular student's unusually shaped ears? Perhaps.

This reminds me of something funny that happened during my school days during a biology lab. We were studying simple genetics, looking at each other for different genetically inherited traits, one of which was earlobes (specifically whether or not they were attached at the bottom).

When I was born, I had a cyst on one of my earlobes that the doctors removed. As a result, I have one attached earlobe and one unattached earlobe.

I innocently asked the teacher what to write down if we had "one of each," and he said "that's impossible." Needless to say, I had a lot of fun with him after I showed him that I did indeed have one of each. Of course, I didn't tell him why. The rest of the class went downhill from there. He spent the rest of the period looking though a book trying to figure out what to tell me. It didn't occur to him that there was another obvious explanation.:D

[kittynh]

Hmmm, I think we did could your curl your tongue or not. It's something you inherit. Then if you can curl upside down, that's a rarity!

[Ove]

I remember clearly the first time i "revolted" against autority. The scool dentist once gave me a tablet to chew on that coloured the "dirt" on my teeth pink. I had not been that good with the toothbrush that day and my teeth was pretty coloured. The dentist in a fit of rage told me to get up and walk with him. I got up but then he continued: "Now we are going to show your classmates how not to brush their teeth". Well i went beserk and in the end he gave up somewhat shaken.

To put a child "on display" in that manner has allways stood for me as one of the most revolting things you ever can do and should be IMHO a direct ticket to unemployment. Any teacher that can merely "think" of doing such things are not suited to have anything to do with children.:mad:

[kittynh]

Kitten2 has severe dyslexia. When she was younger it was't so noticable. She did have to leave class to go to tutoring. Another child would be allowed to attend tutoring sessions with her if Kitten2 said it was ok. The school gets together with Kitten2 and her tutors before every school year and SHE decided how she is going to deal with kids questions. This year she did a presentation on dyslexia along with brain scans from Yale showing how her brain works differently when she reads. The school also has a zero tolerance policy for teasing - the school rents space from a school for the deaf, kids get used to seeing other kids that are "different".

But, it's her choice. If she doesn't want to tell anyone that's up to her. Making kids proactive about their disability is part of the "new" way this is handled. But picking on a kid with pointy ears, if he volunteered ok (even then parents should have been asked). got to be a public school, cause in a private school that kids parents would have the lawyer there the next day!

[tamiO]

Originally posted by Brown


Stahl's ear, also called "Spock's Ear" and "Vulcan Ear" (http://www.plasticsurgery4u.com/procedure_folder/ears/stahl_deformity.html) and a few other unflattering names, may or may not be hereditary.

Fascinating.

[tamiO]

From the article:

"Very rare in Caucasians, Stahl's ear deformity is more common in Orientals."

Shouldn't that be Asians? I remember a saying, "Things are Oriental, People are Asian."

The pictures didn't remind me so much of Spock. I was thinking this deformity might be the basis of fairies or brownies; mythological creatures with pointy ears.

[kittynh]

wow, good point Tami (oops, I typed that and then went - I made a bad pun!)

Anyway, a lot of beliefs probably have some basis, be it even far fetched in reality. I know one child that was recently operated on to fix his "webbed" toes and fingers. I imagine that would have caused some comments in a by gone age.

[RSLancastr]

Using a kid for show-and-tell is rarely a good idea.

When I was in the third grade, one of the school's sixth-grade teachers came to my class and asked my teacher if he could borrow me. It was pretty obvious that it was pre-arranged, and she agreed.

The sixth-grade teacher walked me to his classroom. He introduced me to the class, and announced that I was going to take their spelling test with them. This was a list of a dozen or so words that they had been studying the entire week (this was a Friday).

Not understanding what was going on, I took the test with everyone else, and we all handed in our papers. The teacher quickly graded them and then announced to the class: "Robert here is only in third grade, and without studying the spelling words, got 100%! You are all in the sixth grade, have been studying these words all week, and NONE of you got 100%! I think that is pretty pathetic!"

As you might imagine, the entire class turned as one to glare at me.

Why would a teacher do this? What was the point? Why would my own teacher have agreed to it?

Some teachers have no business teaching.

[kittynh]

lencester, I reely despize you...

[cbish]

RSLancastr wrote:

Using a kid for show-and-tell is rarely a good idea.

This is true.

The article doesn't mention the experience level of the teacher. Newbies do some pretty dumb things. One thing you learn as a teacher is to become sensitive to other peoples sensitivities. That comes with experience.