I haven't visited this site in a long time, but it immediately came to mind when I read this in Friday's paper. I hope you guys haven't hashed this over and over, because I had to dig the paper out of the trash to track this down. I'll post a small excerpt in case the link expires soon. Seems like the courts and the school are completely missing a major point, are they not? What an idiot this teacher was (now retired). Excerpt follows:
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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/lo...slap0814.story

A former Half Hollow Hills student... complained he was slapped by a teacher after failing to balance an egg on the teacher's desk as part of a classroom assignment.

A federal appeals court has ruled the incident wasn't serious enough to violate the teen's civil rights, though it called the episode "regrettable."

The student's parents...had sued the Half Hollow Hills district for $5 million. The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Manhattan, however, upheld a lower court's dismissal of the case.

...the flashpoint came on March 20, 1997, during a seventh-grade technology class at Candlewood Middle School in Dix Hills. At that time, the class was taught by John McDermott, who retired in 1999.

According to the parents, McDermott told their son, Alfred Smith Jr., then 12, to balance an egg on his desk, as a way of demonstrating gravitational effects of the vernal equinox, when day and night are the same length.

The egg on McDermott's desk cracked. The Smiths later charged that the teacher had reacted by striking their son full-force with an open hand.




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: finchumk on 2002-08-18 18:12 ]</font>

Ouch! That's a horrible combination of bad teaching, bad science, and bad law!

When I was in grade school, a teacher made the claim that it was impossible to crush an egg in your fist along the long axis. Now, yes, this is the strongest arrangement of an egg; it takes much more pressure to crack it that way as opposed to squeezing it along the narrow axes.

So, one student (we must have been ten years old at the time) took the challenge. The teacher handed him the egg. He gripped it properly, squeezed like heck...and BLAMO! The eggshell shattered and we got yolk and white all over everywhere! The student got a round of applause, and we all happily got to work cleaning up the mess.

That's what science demonstrations ought to be like: no bad guys!

Silas

I don't even know where to start with this one. Wow.

I'll add a link to the story in my next newsletter, which will hopefully go out in a day or two.

Silas, I think that shorter fingers makes the trick easier--so maybe the teacher couldn't do it, but a ten year old could!

And that article is amazing, if the teacher was actually teaching that. But it does seem to be the school's contention that the slap was not full-force, "like you'd do with a buddy," I guess.

Well, I dunno... There are some really cool "power laws" having to do with body size. One of the more interesting has to do with the amount of energy in a punch. It varies as the *fifth power* of body size!

A child (or midget, or whatever) one half my height would have a punch that delivers one-thirty-second of my punch (all other things being equal.)

(It's subtle, but part of it depends on the distance over which one's fist can accelerate, and the mass of the fist, and so on...)

My own theory is that the kid who did this was just one heck of a strong kid! (Believe me, I knew him personally!)

Silas

The way I remember it described, you wrap your hand around the egg so that it is enclosed within your fist, and you squeeze. It's hard enough, but if you were to take the same egg and pinch it between two fingers, I think you'd find it easy to do. Wait, let me go try...

... While Grapes cleans that Mess off of his Floor, I'd just like to say that you should Always, and I Can't Stress this Enough, do it over A Sink, Just in Case, Well, you Know ...

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If you Ignore YOUR Rights, they Will go away.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ZaphodBeeblebrox on 2002-08-18 22:41 ]</font>

This would not be the first incompetent science teacher, but the story has the usual uncertainty of most newspaper reports.

Was the assignment correctly portrayed? One should always confirm such things. Are we sure the teacher wasn't trying to disprove the myth and the reporter has it wrong?

Why would a teacher slap a student for a failure. Wouldn't all (or most of the eggs) fail to balance? Doesn't it sound more like the kid put the egg down rather forcefully and it was perceived, correctly or not, as purposeful?

I'm not supporting the teacher, mind you. I think delivering a reflex slap could only come from an incompetent teacher. And a 5 million dollar, our son will never be the same, lawsuit is absurd.

But was the slap really for a 'failure' to balance the egg? I doubt that. So, if the slap was for behavior, and the reporter got that part wrong, how do we know Mr. Hildebrand got the assignment right?

On the other side of this issue, I think we should all bring these 'teachers who are idiots' stories to light. There have been several incidents of science teachers having students use the same lancet on multiple students' fingers for drops of blood to examine. How could anyone, let alone a teacher be that stupid? Yet it has occurred more than once in the last 5 years.

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The real news, including science news corporations may not allow on stations they own. http://www.democracynow.org/

O ye of little faith. Wait, that is your nickname, isn't it?

Actually, I think I'm going to wait until breakfast, and do it over the frying pan.

My how times have changed!!!!! When I was in school if I'd motivated a teacher to slap me, (whatever the cause, just/unjust) he/she would have creamed me. When I got home my parents would have creamed me twice more, once for acting up in class and once for being an embarrisment to the family. The thought of a law suit would not have come up.

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It's just one of those damn things of which there are many few. -- Dan Blocker

Yeah, Pretty Much.

Always Fun, just remember to Salt to Taste.

__________________
If you Ignore YOUR Rights, they Will go away.

Well I hope you don't pass on the tradition to your kids.

I had a science teacher throw chalk at me once for talking in the back of the room. But once I aced the first test he got nicer.

__________________
The real news, including science news corporations may not allow on stations they own. http://www.democracynow.org/

gal: did you get nicer?

Well, now that I am no longer a teenager, I certainly try not to talk when I'm in a class. But, I never have thrown things at people talking in my classes.

__________________
The real news, including science news corporations may not allow on stations they own. http://www.democracynow.org/