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 What is fair? 
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Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2003 10:00 am
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Location: Newton-Conover Middle School- Newton, NC
During our last class, a conversation arose about fairness. The subject centered around granting all students the same practices in association with hall passes. The question I pose is what is fair? Does fairness always constitute equality? Does underlying circumstances allow rules and practices to be altered? I believe so in many cases. I think that fairness is not always practiced through equality. What are the classes thoughts? :?

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Amy E. Wilson


Mon Sep 15, 2003 8:27 am
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This is similar to where I went in my other post, but to state it fairness means non-restriction but not equal resources.

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"But we shall rightly call a philosopher the man who is easily willing to learn every kind of knowledge, gladly turns to learning things. and is insatiable in this respect." Socrates


Mon Sep 15, 2003 11:44 am
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I think that there is a very distinctive difference between equality and equity. It's like I tell my boys, you get new tennis shoes when you need them, not just because your brother does. Fairness to me is having access to what you need, when you need it, regardless of whether it is "equal".


Mon Sep 15, 2003 4:58 pm
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I believe fairness is not equal. Sometimes you need to spend more time in the classroom with children who need more help than other children. The time you are spending is not equal, but it is still fair. I used to do a little activity with my students at the beginning of the year to show the difference between fairness and equality (to explain would be too lengthy here). Then whenever I heard "It's not fair!" (quite a common complaint for young children), I'd remind them that "fairness isn't equal." They seemed to understand this and stopped complaining.


Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:42 am
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I wrestle with this question daily. Is it fair to spend time and resources on a child who has a terrible home life and yet "neglect" a perfectly normal students whose parents are loving and provide a great home-life? Is that neglect? Or is treating the first child fair and not worrying about the second equal? The two children who I am thinking about, I hug both daily when I can, but which of the two recieves the most equal treatment? I truly don't know...


Tue Sep 16, 2003 11:17 am
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Parents and teachers struggle with fairness daily, I am sure. My philosophy is that I try to be fair as best I can. I told my children that life isn't always fair, but we should try to be fair in all we do.

You all made good points about juggling fairness with need, etc.

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Joyce Jarrard


Thu Sep 18, 2003 8:50 pm
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Beth, I would be interested in your exercise that you made reference to, could you summarize it in class?


Fri Oct 03, 2003 8:53 am
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I hear that statement too many times during the course of a day. The topic it usually centers around is discipline. As an administrator I have the student handbook with conduct and discipline procedures to use as a guide when disciplining students. However, not every circumstance is the same, and it is not always possible to handle each incident exactly the same. Students, teachers, and parents often complain about how similar situations were handled differently, and I grow tired of having to defend the school's course of action. Equity and fairness while similar can't be used to mean the same thing. Being fair often involves someone's discretion and judgement. As long as people have different opinions and points of view there will always be cries of "that's not fair!".


Wed Oct 08, 2003 8:00 am
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