“Time Out” once again getting a bad rap in the press. How often as parents have we said to an upset or overwrought child of our own “Go to your room until you can calm down” — or perhaps had a younger child sit a few minutes in the “time-out chair” in a corner of the kitchen until he/she caught up with himself/herself again. I will admit that the room at Hillcrest seemed rather cold at first sight, but the idea of a quiet space is to reduce the amount of stimulation a child is receiving at a given moment. A room with a lot of “things” in it is another form of stimulation.
As for this child having his educational process interrupted by being placed in a different space, I have to ask what about his other 10 or more classmates who are having their educational process interrupted because their teacher’s attention is focused on this one child? What is happening to their learning?
If this particular child is more calm and reasonable at home with familiar things, I wonder if the in-school situation is just too overstimulating for him? Perhaps he would have benefited by having an extra year of pre-k or kindergarten, another year to mature a bit?
My heart goes out to teachers every day, anywhere, who see their carefully thought out lesson plans upended as they must deal with yet another classroom crisis, rather than actually teaching their students. They have to be all things to all people these days, and surely deserve medals of valor when year end awards are given out.
There is no easy answer, that’s true, that would satisfy everyone, but having one child or another, in so many ways, continue to create chaos in the learning environment of others, has to be dealt with in the best possible way, for all the children.
Estelle Cade
mother, grandmother, great-grandmother
Greenfield