George Will on Philip Howard's new book
The book is titled, Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans From Too Much Law. Howard has a great eye for arresting examples. Will mentions, among others, these:
Called to a Florida school that could not cope, police led the disorderly student away in handcuffs, all 40 pounds of her 5-year-old self. . . .
No official at the Florida school would put a restraining arm around the misbehaving child lest he or she be sued, as a young member of Teach for America was, for $20 million (the school settled for $90,000), because the teacher put a hand on the back of a turbulent seventh-grader to direct him to leave the classroom. Another teacher's career was ruined by accusations arising from her having positioned a child's fingers on a flute.
Is there a link to the actual story of the sued teacher? I had a student who went to rural North Carolina (oddly enough) to teach for that group. I haven't heard lately how she did there despite a promise of a report.
She was an excellent student for whom I wrote a letter of recommendation to Teach for America. I hope she did well.
Posted by: JorgXMcKie | January 12, 2009 at 04:02 PM