Testing madness - Hospitalized 4th grader, hooked up to machines, asked to take standardized test

[Anonymous]

Hospitalized 4th grader, hooked up to machines, asked to take standardized test (NYC)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/02/hospitalized-4th-grader-hooked-up-to-machines-asked-to-take-standardized-test/

Good golly.

[Anonymous]

I could see me doing this as a kid. In 3rd grade I was hospitalized for a couple of weeks and the highlight of my life was schoolwork.

Also, as a kid, I loved the standardized tests b/c they were so easy! Probably this kid wants to feel normal and maybe even smart/in control.

[Anonymous]

I work in a children's hospital and we have a whole team of teachers on staff. Even our kids who are hooked up to machines do school work. Many kid sin hospital are on IVs and that doesn't limit them in any way from working with the teachers. The teachers are experienced and great at working around and accommodating whatever limitations the child has. Most of the kids look forward to school - it is a piece of normalcy in an otherwise not normal day. They work 1:1 with a teacher and often really look forward to it and hate to miss their school time. Teachers often don't know when a child is going to have a test or be unavailable due to a procedure or in too much pain / too sick to do school work as they aren't part of the medical team. It isn't uncommon for them to show up in a room with school work then realize that today won't be a good day to do work (probably what happened here). I have never seen a teacher force a child to do school when they were too sick to do so. Usually it is the kids still wanting to do school when teachers/ family/ med team are telling them no.

Keeping up with school work and testing also keeps students form being even farther behind when they get out of hospital. They are already dealing with enough without the added anxiety of being way behind in school.

I think this is one of those news stories where parents sensationalize something that happens everyday and that most people would not turn into a big deal.

[Anonymous]

I don't think this is such a big deal. So the mother says, "Thanks, but we've already arranged for Joey to take this when he's back at school. Bye now!" and that's it. I don't think this is news-worthy at all.

[Anonymous]

There's a big diff btw keeping up with school work and taking a standardized test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a big diff btw keeping up with school work and taking a standardized test.

it says they have to offer it at the same time as other students are taking it. Offer it. If they didn't offer it some other parent would be furious that their child was being discriminated against for being sick and being excluded from the test. All parents had to say was now isn't a good time. Looks like parents trying to get their 15 minutes of fame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a big diff btw keeping up with school work and taking a standardized test.

it says they have to offer it at the same time as other students are taking it. Offer it. If they didn't offer it some other parent would be furious that their child was being discriminated against for being sick and being excluded from the test. All parents had to say was now isn't a good time. Looks like parents trying to get their 15 minutes of fame.

+1

[Anonymous]

hooked up to machines

This is the part that makes it a suspect story, in my opinion. Sounds like parents are looking for some 15 minutes, as PP said. Hooked up to "machines"--ooh, big scary machines?? An IV is a machine. Is that what they're talking about? When I had surgery once, I had to wear these massage boots to keep my circulation going, those were technically machines. They're making it sound like the kid was on life support, and since they DON'T detail what kind of machines they were, it makes me think it was something relatively minor. Nearly anyone who is checked into the hospital will be hooked up to some kind of monitoring machine. The kid has to have the opportuntiy to take the test. Parents, doctors and probably the kid can all say no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

hooked up to machines

This is the part that makes it a suspect story, in my opinion. Sounds like parents are looking for some 15 minutes, as PP said. Hooked up to "machines"--ooh, big scary machines?? An IV is a machine. Is that what they're talking about? When I had surgery once, I had to wear these massage boots to keep my circulation going, those were technically machines. They're making it sound like the kid was on life support, and since they DON'T detail what kind of machines they were, it makes me think it was something relatively minor. Nearly anyone who is checked into the hospital will be hooked up to some kind of monitoring machine. The kid has to have the opportuntiy to take the test. Parents, doctors and probably the kid can all say no.

Okay, re-read the article and the kid was in there being monitored for his epilepsy, which is obviously a bit more serious. Still, the story is that the hospital teacher came in and said she was there to administer the test, the parents told the teacher they had already made arrangements, and the incident was over.

Mom says: "I would like to hope she would not have taken his arm that has an IV and oximeter on it and put a number 2 pencil in it."

Well, then, go ahead and hope that because that didn't happen, and didn't sound like it was about to.