“I’m not a teacher — i’m a warden for future criminals.” Opinions?!

Paterson teacher suspended for Facebook post should be fired, judge rules

// The following article is about a woman who lost her job over a facebook comment. Is this what the world is coming to? Anyone who went to school in the 80s and earlier I’m sure has heard worse in schools, and all of those people have turned out to be successful adults. In the last twenty years you have lost the ability to even call out someones name that is misbehaving in a classroom because it will bruise their self-esteem. The rules and scrutiny that is on teachers now a days is unreal, before you say she deserved it remember, you have never been in front of a classroom, and if you have; have you never had a bad day?

// Read the article below:

The Paterson teacher who called her first-grade students “future criminals” in a Facebook post should lose her tenured job, an administrative law judge has ruled.

In a decision made public Tuesday, Judge Ellen Bass said Jennifer O’Brien’s conduct would be “inexcusable” in any district, but especially in a city burdened by poverty and violence.

“O’Brien has demonstrated a complete lack of sensitivity to the world in which her students live,” the judge wrote. “The sentiment that a 6-year-old will not rise above the criminal element that surrounds him cuts right to the bone.”

Bass also noted that O’Brien, who lives in Elmwood Park, did not express genuine remorse at an August hearing in Newark.

“I came away with the impression that O’Brien remained somewhat befuddled by the commotion she had created,” the judge wrote.

Bass said that with sensitivity training, O’Brien — a Paterson teacher since 1998 — could return to a public school classroom, but not in Paterson, due to her damaged relationship with the community.

The judge also found that the district’s need to efficiently operate its schools outweighed O’Brien’s right to free speech.

“In a public education setting, thoughtless words can destroy the partnership between home and school that is essential to the mission of the schools,” she wrote.

The state education commissioner has 45 days to accept, reject or modify the judge’s recommendations.

O’Brien’s lawyer, Nancy Oxfeld, said she would appeal to the commissioner to let O’Brien keep her job. Oxfeld said O’Brien’s words had been misinterpreted and that she never thought her students would become criminals. The teacher was concerned about a few students’ behavior and believed they needed help, the lawyer said.

“The judge found Ms. O’Brien had somehow ruined her relationship with the Paterson community such that she could never go back to teach there,” Oxfeld said. “There were a few incidents and a lot of news trucks for one day. We don’t think there would be any problem at all.”

O’Brien could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. At her hearing, she said she wrote the post in exasperation because six or seven unruly students kept disrupting her lessons, and one boy had hit her.

Paterson district spokeswoman Terry Corallo said the district welcomed the judge’s ruling.

“Providing for a safe and caring environment at all of our schools is one of this district’s top priorities,” she said. “This particular case required immediate action and we are pleased with the judge’s decision.”

In March, O’Brien posted to about 300 friends that “i’m not a teacher — i’m a warden for future criminals.” The post shot through the Internet and grabbed headlines nationwide.

Sports and the message it delivers!

We need to teach our children the proper way to act in life. One easy way to do that is sports. Sports teaches us competition, respect, honesty, loyalty, hardwork, determination, sacrifice, empathy, sportsmanship, and almost any other adjective you can think to describe a person. Here are two videos every one should watch and every coach should show their players.

This is true sportsmanship. These girls got it right!

The next video answers questions about life. Everyone should think a little less of their problems after this video.

A son asked his father, “Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?” The father who despite having a heart condition, said, “Yes”.

They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying, “Yes” to his son’s request of going through the race together.

One day, the son asked his father, ‘Dad, let us join the Ironman together; to which his father said, “Yes”, too.

For those who don’t know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race consists of three endurance events of a 2.4 miles (3.86 kilometers) ocean swim followed by a 112 miles (180.2 kilometers) bike ride and ending with a 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometers) marathon along the coast of the Big Island.

Father and son went on to complete the race together.

Based on the TV interview of Dick and Rick Hoyt, Dick, the father explained that Rick while still in his mother’s womb, the umbilical chord was wrapped around his neck cutting off oxygen to the brain.

And when Rick was born, the doctor who was looking after Rick told Dick and his wife that Rick would never be able to walk nor talk all his life that it would be best that they put him away. But the Hoyts would not be willing to do such a thing and decided to bring him home instead and decided likewise to treat him just like anyone normal kid. So that when the family went for a swim, Rick went with them and so on and so forth.

It was one day while wathing TV (if my memory serves me right) that Rick saw a benefit marathon for a paralityc child and he wanted to be a part of the benefit marathon. And that started both father and son with their races even while Dick had a heart condition and Rick himself was not well all the time. In fact there were two years where they were not able to join the races because Dick had a heart attack and the other year was that (if I remember it correctly now, Rick was the one who had a problem.

And also based on an article that I read about them, both had so far completed 212 triathlons, 4 15-hour Inronmans. And that it was two years back from today, when Dick had his heart attack, and his doctor said, had it not been his good physical condition on account of the races, he would have died 15 years ago.

Both then via the races have served one another in a loving and wonderful way.

Dick humbly said in the interview when he was called a hero by the interviewer, “I just simply love my family”.

And indeed, he loved them even as he loved Rick that much that he committed himself to do the tough physical demands of the races and the triathlons, the Ironman that his son may have the chance to enjoy the races and be a part of life. And in a return show of love and appreciation, Rick says this of his father, “Dad is my hero.”

And to end my inputs on the father and son, I’d like to end what Rick says that he likes most…(Rick types using a special machine), he says, “The thing I most like is my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”

How touching!