Using the word niggardly should not be the issue here. What I think is being called into question is the teacher's judgement.

'Niggardly' is not a word used too often in daily language....but to teach it to immature 4th graders, there some merit for complain here.

Think of teaching sex education to kids. I was taught first about this in around 5th/6th grade, and remember giggling through it. Why was it not taught to 3rd or 4th graders? I would have giggled hysterically at it, while at recess, I would be using the word 'penis' or 'clitoris' as a description to my classmates. As a 6th grader, I was old enough to know not to walk around and blurting out the word 'penis' just because an adult said it. Teaching young kids certain things just isn't done.

Some things shouldn't be taught to kids who can't justify differences between to unrelated words. 'Ni**er' and 'Niggardly' are two different words, the kid who went to his mother with it, is example of the kid not being able to reason the difference.

Use of that word by a teacher in high school would be a big difference though. I do question the teacher's judgement, not her motive.

 

Luder,

You may have a point. However, the complaint was about the word sounding too much like the N word, not about it being inappropriate for the age of the kids being taught it. I think a better approach for the principal would have been to tell the parent that niggardly is a valid word and as such, he would not be telling a teacher not to teach that word. Then, if he thought the word was inappropriate for that grade level, he could have that discussion with the teacher separately. However, I don't think this is a disciplinable offense and certainly didn't warrant a letter of apology from the teacher to the parent. Is it any wonder that we have a teacher shortage in this country? Would you want to teach in an environment where you can't discipline the kids, half of them don't want to learn, and you get disciplined for teaching proper english words?

 

sensetivity training? give me a break...

 

I can just see it now... The kid is shopping with his mother, wants her to buy him something or another, she refuses, he says - listen here you niggardly bitch, and things just went downhill from there.

 

I tried finding the link to the article I read about this, but to no avail. Will continue looking for it.

What I read from the article, found from chicagotribune.com, was that the school board/ district committee was sending her to sensitivity training that was more aimed for age sensitivity rather than racial sensitivity.

Also the article's author was just tearing into the parent for what the actual complaint was....that 'niggardly' sounded too much like 'ni**ar'. That was utterly stupid of the mother. We should just ask the teacher to speak in street slang....forget about teaching your kid anything proper-like.

The article also criticizes the school district unfavorably for "disciplining" the teacher. If anything, the sensitivity training was called for, but not the letter of apology.

Strike, you are right. If I was in that situation, I would get out of it asap. I'd take my skills to another school that wasn't so "diverse". Usually the schools that aren't as diverse [read: middle class to upper class neighborhoods] will tend to pay better and will appreciate teachers using adult language with their kids.

I, for one, would love that my kid to own a vocabulary that can show class and intelligence, and in the other hand still be able to act as a Roman when situation calls for it.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by AlexM
[B]I can just see it now...

 

that mother just didn't know what the word was, cause she is a dumb ***. Man... so sad....

 

This is great, now we're dumbing down the English language to the lowest common denominator... If this is going to become the rule, then we will reduce our education to match that of the uneducated because God forbid the uneducated misunderstand something!

Rather than teach the parent WHY this word shouldn't be offensive to her and continue to teach our children something larger than two-syllable words, the school board of that district overreacted because someone played the "race card." There should be no limitations on when we teach children more educated words to use! We can't start educating on more advanced topics, vocabulary, and ideas too soon. U.S. educational standards are already lagging behind most of the First World countries in the world, can we afford to step back any further?

Likening this to sex education just isn't comparing apples to apples because thanks to society's sexual taboos, understanding that topic requires maturity to process the information and use it appropriately. If we hadn't taught kids that sex was something dirty and secretive, then they could be taught the nuts and bolts of it in kindergarten!

I am truly afraid for the future of the American education system and utterly disgusted when teaching children legitimate, dictionary-validated words jeopardizes an educator's job.

 

Well, I live in Wilmington where this controversy is taking place and believe me, the Board of Education members are being very niggardly with their comments right now.

Ironically, on the same news cast the words "Cracker" (Barrell) and "Whitey's" (restaurant) were used. RACISTS! On previous news casts I've heard the words "bust" (drug), "ho" (garden tool) and...God forbid, "bitch" SEXISTS!.

I'm gonna sue somebody.

And then, for my second million, I'm gonna publish Wilmington's new dictionary.

All you bleeding heart liberals out there, Group Buy anyone?

 

Niggardly. Let's be careful out there.