(Actually, I don’t think software companies have enough lobbyists to make it work this way)

I think you meant

“LulzSec; you know, the techno best-practice supporters who are identifying slapdash high-profile operators who won’t think twice about failing to secure customers’ data to a minimum legal requirement but will instead threaten to sue to stop them pointing out their mistakes.”

Good grief.

So in conclusion: SCKOOL CAMERAS OK! PERSONAL CAMERA NOT OK

Yes, school is spelled wrong.

It begins with parents who don’t care (or care but unfortunately must be absent to bring financial support) and the crap media that melts American minds. Ignorance is glorified. While grade schoolers have always had a “fuck the system” attitude, at least in the past rebellious students educated themselves by getting vocational skills.

Now, the mainstream media shows that any dumbass that wants to exploit themselves can be successful, or at least famous, so why try to do anything but entertain or get your mugshot on the news? Parents aren’t there to encourage productive and studious behavior, or they have also bought into the crap media (balloon boy?).

It’s disgusting, especially because this is all a side effect of free speech and family privacy. How do we turn around without infringing liberties? Based on the UK’s school problem, cutting back on free speech and privacy doesn’t seem to work.

Now I home school my kids and every time I hear about some zero-common-sense policy I am glad it isn’t infecting my kids with a tolerance for authoritarianism.

My son tried public school in third grade for a month and came back to homeschooling in disgust because “they had us counting cheerios and I asked the teacher when we would get to division and she said not this year.”
We had a laugh yesterday because the school had decided that because students weren’t learning enough under the current policies they would extend the school year another 3 weeks into the summer and add more homework. My son said, “How will 3 more weeks of counting cheerios teach them division?”

…that parents will leave their kids uneducated (called home schooling)…

Sandra Day O’Conner, Thomas Edison and a bunch of other home schooled people not withstanding

If a kid is texting during my class, you bet I’ll take their phone and give them back a bettery. They can get it at the end of the day. Will I read it? No. Will I erase it? No. But do I expect that while they are in my class they pay attention and show some courtesy? Yes, because many times their parents have failed to teach them those niceties. But can they use it to look up into, do a calculation, snap a pic of their lab because they are proud of it? Yes, definitely. Its called exercising discretion – and apparently neither the government nor the authors, nor Corey feel we can handle that.

This is yet one more case of those who have minimal experience in schools (on both sides of the argument) opining away. Please, spend 180+ days in a school. You may even excel at it and I welcome that. But give it a year before spouting off about too much security, too little security, the children’s freedom, my own freedom etc etc etc.

By the way, do the authors of this know that teachers in the US don’t have the full protection of the 1st Amendment? How about some fire and brimstone for that?

From James Howard Kunstler’s TED Talk “The tragedy of suburbia”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ZeXnmDZMQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=896s

This link goes to his comment on school architecture, but the whole video is well worth watching.

But by way of explanation (not excuse), why did schools choose this route? I doubt anyone who has ever taught could possibly agree with the statement, “Everyone who has ever done anything even slightly wrong, regardless of circumstances, should be punished in exactly the same way, without recourse or an appeal.”

1. Parents started siding with children rather than administrators. “My little darling would NEVER do that. Where’s your proof?” Or, “That other child did something WRONG to mine. You’d BETTER punish him.”
2. Obsession with “safety” without regard for the actual statistics, likelihoods, or cost-benefit analysis of various risks and countermeasures, especially for children.
3. Society-wide failure to defend traditional boundaries and privacy rights, allowing schools to intrude on the lives of children at home and elsewhere.

But by way of explanation (not excuse), why did schools choose this route?

It’s not because teachers think it helps students learn, though having an environment that is and feels safe, does. It’s to protect the district and its employees in the case of lawsuit. If a teacher calms down a shoving match before it turns into a full fight, and the origin of the problem is investigated and dealt with, that’s probably best for everyone involved. But then when a month later there’s a serious fight and some snowflake gets seriously hurt, that previous incident becomes evidence for the plaintiff that the school didn’t do all it could to stop and prevent violence on its campus. If the school has a written policy that requires suspension or expulsion of those two kids who got into a shoving match, and they do so, the incident then becomes evidence for the defense.

..that parents will leave their kids uneducated (called home schooling)…

Sandra Day O’Conner, Thomas Edison and a bunch of other home schooled people not withstanding.

And for every kid who is adequately homeschooled, usually by a parent who was traditionally educated, there are a hundred kids learning nothing, but at home.

I am frightened by the idea that if I had been homeschooled I would have learned no more than my mother knew and had the patience to teach me. Or worse, if my mother had been homeschool she would have learned no more than HER mother knew.

Lets try getting rid of both requirements and changing it to these:
a) Nobody is forced to go and schools can “fire” students the same way companies do with employees.
b) Parents are fined for each child they raise that doesn’t meet basic educational requirements before 21.

A lot of people have a gut reaction that this is some crazy right wing idea but honestly it has nothing to do with right and left. Education has become so toxic and no longer resembles the “real” world in any way. We’ve got to find a new system that ends the 18 year prison sentence we’ve currently got in place.

I’m not quite certain what political dynamic ensures the continued flow of money to build and run prisons while school budgets are in steady decline, but I’d look back to the early years of the right-wing Christian Coalition movement and the words of Jerry Falwell, “I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!”

By the way, do the authors of this know that teachers in the US don’t have the full protection of the 1st Amendment? How about some fire and brimstone for that?

You don’t actually read Boing Boing, do you?

Richard J. Caster, Ed.D
Former Executive Director
National Association of School Resource Officers