The "this" was this:

Was it forever, or for the afternoon? If forever, was it only exclusionary, or did the teacher suggest/kids vote for Barton to enter a special ed class?

Not appropriate. No way.

A teacher asking the class "who thinks Johnny needs a time out?" is far different from "Who hates Johnny and wants him to leave?" The latter would clearly be unacceptable, the former uncontroversial.

Again, I have to ask, Are you kidding? You think it uncontroversial for a teacher to ask a class to vote whether one of their own classmates should be punished?

Aside from the fact that it is an incredibly insensitive way to handle the situation, it is also an abdication of power...to little kids.

If I were the parent of this child, I can tell you that if I had enough evidence to corroborate this story, I would harbor horribly violent thoughts directed at this teacher who subjected my child to such a sadistic classroom experience.

The latter would clearly be unacceptable, the former uncontroversial.

Actually, I'm pretty sure they would probably both be considered unacceptable, at least from a "best practices" teaching standpoint. You don't give the kids any sort of power over each other and you certainly shouldn't be having them make the decisions that the teacher him/her self is supposed to be making (i.e. disciplinary decisions of any sort). I'm not sure that I'd consider the "timeout" situation to be a firing offense, but if I was the school principal it's still something I'd want to have a long talk with the teacher about.

I'm with Gerry here and maybe even a little more extreme. I went to schools where there was no adult discipline. This was possible because of the backgrounds and parental support kids brought from home but there were still discipline problems sometimes--and they weren't dealt with by the adults on a philosophical basis. We, as children, learned to police problems ourselves. It could occasionally feel lord-of-the-flies-ish but by the end of the day it made for fairer, more equitable settlements of disputes and kids who knew how to get along with one another on their own.

I know this aspergers thing is being thrown around and it may be true but even that we don't even really know. So think about it from the perspective of other kids in the class--this one kid is dominating all the teacher's time and--even at that young age--you can have the sense that this is cheating you of why you're there. I can remember occassions when we, as a group, would go to our teacher and say look this is a problem, it needs to be taken care of. Children have to be given the opportunity to learn to work things out on their own to a controlled degree.

The educational world of 17 other kids can't stop for one problem child who can't get along (whatever the reasons for that are). Kids are going to feel very powerless if their educational opportunities are robbed from them because of a situation like this and if the process was fair (in a six year old way) then I don't think this was problem. Perhaps (and again we have no idea) it was a way of showing the kid just how much of a negative impact he was having on other people.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

Somehow I don't think you were ever on the receiving end of that "group discipline".  I was a social outcast in elementary school and middle school - I didn't really break out of my shell until high school.  As it was, I was capriciously picked on by other children for being "different", and had the teachers / administration not done anything at all to rein in the other kids, I'm not sure what I would have done.  As it was, I felt completely powerless and borderline suicidal at times - if I truly felt that I was alone in dealing with the situation and was entirely at the mercy of my "peers" I probably would have done something pretty stupid, either to myself or to them.  

Your system may work in schools where all the students are already mostly little angels, but in your typical public school it just gives the bullies free reign to abuse, abuse, abuse.  Mainstream "normal" or popular kids will probably make out okay, but the kids are the margins aren't going to just magically figure out how to interact just because they're facing peer pressure (they're already being crushed by that pressure every fucking day, and struggling just as hard as they can to figure out how to be "normal" - believe me, I was there).  Instead they'll just become more outcast and more withdrawn and have even less hope of every figuring out how to be normal.

I finally "got it" because I was lucky enough to have a couple of people just reach out to me and take me as a friend and explain to me what I was doing that wasn't appropriate - but it took until high school for any of my peers to be even remotely mature enough to understand that's what I needed.  I simply can't imagine how I would have got by if my elementary/middle school years were truly a "lord of the flies" situation - as I hinted before, I'd probably be dead.

I hear you, brother.  You experience closely matches mine...except that no one really showed me what was appropriate.  The only refuge I found was in high school through the science club and the chess club (which morphed into a wargaming club and then later D & D).

To be honest, I'm in my late 40s and I'm still not entirely sure what "appropriate behavior" is.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

There's a reason I was so relieved to go to college.  

And adulthood friends: I gotta say it makes up for all the bad peer pressure moments of childhood.

This teacher is doing a disservice not only to one kid but to the whole class.  They are being taught to value conformity and manners over trying to learn to understand that everyone is different and finding the value in each individual. No doubt a bunch of these kids, if they buy into such values, will go on to lead corporate America: well mannered while cutting people up in all sorts of ways.

Dude, I'm like the #1 commenter on tnt since novy left. Social outcast has been my middle name since kindergarten.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

Since you went to kindergarten at a school that had no "adult discipline," I'm glad you found it to be populated with fair-minded kids. I remember a much different scenario, one filled with daily tortures inflicted on various victims at random.

Do you think that there might just been some better way to deal with the disruptions of a five-year-old boy (who might have this "aspergers thing")? He undoubtedly had already felt ostracized by his peers. Is the answer for the adult in charge to join in and orchestrate his humiliation in front of everybody, regardless of whether the "process was fair," whatever the hell that means.

I'm all for instilling independence, but that's a whole different subject that shouldn't, IMO, include what I consider was a brutal action against a vulnerable young child. I would bet that most responsible parents would never condone this type of solution -- at least, not for their own child. Maybe some parent here will differ with me.

The only thing Portillo has effectively demonstrated to the class is that it's alright to gang up on one member of their group. There are enough gray areas in this story regarding Alex (e.g., does he really have Asperger's, does he have ADD, does he have some other mood disorder, or is he just a nasty little five year old) that you can't possibly come to the conclusion that anyone other than a parent and a medical expert can make the final call on whether Alex should be in the group or not.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

"talking out problems" which normally gets all kinds of praise from new-agey soft-headed types,

Don't beat around the bush, Gerry...call it appeasement.  You know you want to.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

In case my comment wasn't clear, the teacher and student in my link are not the same ones as in the write up.

The diagnosis criteria for ADD are much more well-defined than that.  Neuropsychologists and psychiatrists have a battery of tests, and ADD can be clearly determined.  There are two basic subtypes of ADD, and hyperactivity is a symptom in only one of them.

sierra tango foxtrot uniform

Oddly enough, I had ADD, but I preferred to sit and memorize standardized test questions over playing outside.

You still do.  Long-term studies are revealing that it never goes away.  If your lucky, you can manage it.

sierra tango foxtrot uniform

You still do.

No kidding.  My girlfriend was trying to talk to me about some VERY important family issues last night, and I had to shut the computer off so I could listen to her.

yeah, but Attention Plethora Disorder, whew, you better watch it, cause that goes away real fast.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.