If you live in the DFW area you are probably familar with the story of Taylor Pugh. Taylor has been in the news lately because according to the Mesquite School District his hair is too long. Taylor was not allowed to attend class with his friends, but instead received one-one instruction in private. What made this story so disturbing to me was Taylor's age. He's four years old.
I caught on early to the fact that this was his parent's agenda. Mom was the spokesperson. In fact we never really heard from Taylor himself. Length of hair was the agenda and mom would not budge. When the school district offered a compromise, hair ok as long as it was braided, she stated that doing so caused his head to hurt.
Jacquielynn Floyd offer a different perspective to the Taylor Pugh saga in this morning's Dallas Morning News. She tracked down a former hair martyr named Heath Peables. Heath was a Texas sixth grader in the 70's when his parents took a similar stand. "I just wanted to be normal. I wanted to fit it." he stated in a recent interview.
Therein lies the reality for most pre-school and elementary age kids. They just want to fit it, to find their place in the classroom. The sad case is that too many times a parent's agenda becomes the child's and in the process the child is the victim.
Somewhere along the line we need to convey our thoughts and opinions to our children but in almost all cases they need to be allowed to develop thier own agendas. That probably won't happen until the teen years. Up until then their primary agenda is just being a kid and fitting in.
By the way, Taylor is back with his friends, his hair in cornrow braids.
Tom,
ReplyDeleteAs you may or may not know, my daughter, Rachel, is student teaching in a special ed. situation. Agendas are not only pushed up kids by parents but by burnt out teachers. My daughter's question was 'What's this students diagnosis?' The older teacher's response was 'He's a pain in the %##!'
It would seem we all need to remember that the kid comes first, yes?
Al Beveridge