Exclusions at school.

[Charisse]

I attended a School Board meeting this evening and we voted on excluding 3 pupils.

I voted no to all 3.

Why?

Because they are only 8!

What kind of school excludes 8 year olds. The world has gone mad.

[Claud.Butler]

If they wern't excluded then they've already started to learn that bad behaviour rarely has any consequences.
That's a bad lesson. In time it will lead to vandalism and worse.
A few days out of school might have let them see the error of their ways.

[B00]

Doesn't it all depend on why they were put forward for expulsion?

Eight years old or not, if they were making lives a misery in school for teachers and other children, then yes.....get rid of them.

[jno]

as B00 says, if they were upsetting people then something has to be done - after all, other eight-year-olds are entitled to enjoy their time at school without being (for instance) bullied. (But was that the crime?)

[chakka35]

Why is it now fashionable to say 'exclude' when people mean 'expel'?

To exclude someone is to stop them coming in in the first place. If they're already in and you chuck them out, that is to expel them.

[TCL-MUMPING]

chakka, Chambers online dictionary says

"exclude verb (excluded, excluding) 1 to prevent someone from sharing or taking part. 2 to shut someone or something out, or to keep them out."

"expel verb (expelled, expelling) 1 to dismiss from or deprive someone of membership of (a club or school, etc), usually permanently as punishment for misconduct. 2 to get rid of something; to force it out."

If a pupil has been excluded, have they not been prevented from taking part in the school (temporarily)?

If a pupil has been expelled have they not been dismissed permanently?

[yinyang]

The 7 year old that told my then 6 yr old daughter that he was going find out where she lived and come round and stab her deserved a hell of a lot more than exclusion in my opinion.

Instead he got a team of people to help him and a lovely little chart so he can get smiley face stickers and extra play activities on the days when he doesn't actually harm anybody.

You're right, the world has gone mad - children who want to learn and behave themselves at school are left to get on with it, and the ones that cause disruption and misery through bullying and consistent behavioural problems are pandered to and given all the attention they could ever hope for instead of punished for their actions!

[derekpara]

If you voted against exclusion on age grounds only then you shouldn't be sitting in judgement.

Children have to learn that there are consequences for their actions and no doubt the school has worked through all previous sanctions before seeking exclusion.

[ludwig]

What if these three were in the same class as your child and beat your child up every day, what would you have voted then? The same obviously, I mean they're only 8 for chrissakes - your kid must have been asking for it.

To be fair you've not given us much information to go on, like why they were up for exclusion in the first place.

[R1Geezer]

Welcome to the consequences of 40 years of trendy lefty liberalism. There are no tools of control for teachers all that's left is the nuclear option, expulsion!

[madmaggot]

The type of school that excludes 8 year olds is the type that has parents that allow 8 year olds to behave so badly that they are regarded as unteachable.
As long as we live in a world that gives more priority to free expression and self gratification than to manners and thought for others.
IMO children are very similar to dogs in that, if they are not socialised and trained very early on, they become not only generally disliked but extremely unhappy and disruptive.

[chakka35]

TCL, although dictionaries are there to tell us how words are used (rightly or wrongly) not how they should be used, the definitions you quote bear me out - as does everyday English.

It is only in recent years that 'exclude' has replaced 'expel' in schools, my assumption being that some sort of very obscure political correctness is at work here.