Boy wins "Most Likely Not to Have Children" award from teachers

I dont' get it. Why is 'least likely to have children' offensive? It doesn't really make sense.

And 'Sir Clowns A lot'? That's funny. He's the class clown...I don't see what the big deal is. Obviously, I'm sorry it hurt his feelings. But if the teachers were giving out silly, sarcastic awards to all the kids at the mock ceremony it means that they thought they had a good repoire with their students. It's a shame that this family can't take a joke.

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I liked the "Sir Clowns-A-Lot" award too -- I think it's cute. But "most likely not to have kids" would hurt my feelings too -- it would make me think people must find me unattractive, unappealing, unlikely to ever fall in love and start a family. I can see why that would sting!

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My first thought when I saw that was that they might have been insinuating that the boy was gay, so wouldn't have kids?? If that's the case, then I definitely would have had a problem with the award.

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I agree that these teachers were wrong. There are people out there that your kids are going to have to deal with that are not nice. Not that I am one of those people that thinks that the world is going somewhere in a handbasket, but it is very true. I deal with people everyday that think joking inappropriately is funny, and it gets a good laugh. You need to teach him to brush it off I think. Life is not always peaches and cream and it is not always fair, but you need to be able to coexist with people that might not be nice, or might not like you, or might be rude to you, or might tell mean jokes. My 8 year old comes home sometimes saying so and so called him this or did that. I ask first, did you tell someone at the place you were at (usually school or camp) **and trust me if it is with the teacher you can still tell the principal that there is a problem** then I say, did you make it through the experience? Do you feel better now? then why does it matter? Just how I look at it, sorry if I offend.

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Wasnt like they handed out "Most likely to land in Jail" or "Most likely to Become Homeless" or "Most likely to become a serial murderer"

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I find it interesting that the recourse the parents felt it appropriate to take was to go to the news. How is this newsworthy? Since we are only getting one side to this story (the kid's and the parent's), I'm wondering what wasn't said, or how much out of context this was taken.

I frequently hear from the parents of my students when they have a concern or complaint regarding something I may have said, written, or done. In a profession full of constant human interaction on a daily basis, conflict is bound to occur. Most of time it is a genuine misunderstanding, but there have been times (only a few) when my humor has been recieved by a child as a hurtful remark and I have apologized. Most of the time, I can tell which students enjoy the attention of being kidded and which ones don't (and which ones see it as an opportunity to start trouble, "Oooh, guess what my teacher said...")

From the news story it seems that the parents went straight to the administration office and the to the news. It seems they skipped step one (ask the teacher) and step two (talk to the principal). Twice in my career, I've had contentious parents (with contentious children)who took every remark or gesture on my part as an insult. I always felt as if I was walking on eggshells with them and had to be constantly on my guard against making-off-the-cuff remarks that could be misread in any way. Totally sucked the fun out of my job.

Granted, I'm reading the story with the biasesness of being a teacher, but still, to me, something stinks here.

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I am totally onboard with those parents. We all know that kids can merciless to the weaker members of the herd, or those who choose not to be in the herd, but adults should know better. I was that kid once, and when a teacher unfairly targeted me, my mother stood up for me. My passive-aggressive mother who avoids confrontation made that teacher apologize to me and became my hero that day.

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Mine got voted to have the most kids.. Does that make my son a soon to be ????...

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I got the "most likely to be a psychotic killer" at my 8th grade one....
It was really all a great big laugh, and it was given to me by vote via friends and teachers, as they knew I`d get a kick out of it. And I did.

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And of course, my son comes up and hits the tab button without me noticing so I post in the middle of writing!

To continue:
I am wondering if there wasn`t a far less sinister reason for this boy to have gotten that award. Perhaps he always talked about how he NEVER wanted to have kids, or that he hated babies, or something to that effect. I`m really curious about the back story. Even with poor judgment, I don`t think the teachers would mean to be blatantly cruel.
The award I received in 8th sounds cruel, but it was based on the fact that I had won several (national!) writing awards with graphic horror stories - it wasn`t an insult to me at all, but rather a compliment and the teachers agreed. So did I.

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