If you're like most adults, you probably don't have the fondest memories of your first thirteen years of school. If you're fortunate, you had one or two teachers who inspired you, awakened your curiosity, challenged you, understood you and generally succeeded in making learning fun. But these teachers were more the exception than the norm. Chances are that you remember school as boring and tedious, where you counted the minutes until it was over, your homework was finished, and you could finally feel free. Teachers were out of touch with the students and curricula refused to tell you the truth about the world or adequately prepare you for it. Your happiest memories of that time probably had little to do with school and even less to do with what you learned in class. For the most part, school sucked.
So would it surprise you to learn that school probably sucks more now than it ever has before? Cevin Soling's must-see documentary the War On Kids makes a pretty persuasive argument that it does, as public schools have essentially been turned into prisons with constant surveillance and harsh, often absurd zero tolerance policies towards drugs, alcohol, weapons, violence and other forms of misbehavior. Things that would've earned you a visit with a counselor or the principal can now get you expelled or, in too many cases, dosed with powerful psychotropic drugs that can have serious long-term effects on developing minds and bodies. All this has been piled onto a public school system that is being starved of funds and, in many ways, wasn't terribly well designed at the outset.
Watch my ReThink Review of the War On Kids below.
Here I am on the Young Turks discussing the War On Kids with host Cenk Uygur.
I feel like I didn't adequately address Cenk's question of how to keep guns out of schools, so I thought I'd do it here.
I agree that there should be serious punishment for kids who bring guns to schools (though probably not permanent expulsion, which has been shown to increase the likelihood of kids dropping out of school altogether). But while the threat of school shootings is real and serious, I don't believe it's worth turning America's public schools into prisons, just as I believe that the real and serious threat of terrorism does not justify the warrantless wiretapping/e-surveillance of every American citizen. By choosing to live in an open, non-police state where people are innocent until proven guilty, we accept risks that we believe are far outweighed by the benefits of the freedoms and privacy we enjoy. Besides, of the 70 million or so children under 18 years of age in America, how many of them are potential school shooters? Is stopping that miniscule percentage worth treating all kids as suspects and educating them in lockdown?
There are many who feel that the risk of school shootings, even a statistically tiny one, is worth sacrificing our children's freedoms. First, I'd say that's a pretty disturbing notion to be teaching children, summed up by Benjamin Franklin's quote: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Second, there have been dozens of workplace shootings over the years (including two recent ones in St. Louis and Atlanta), yet there are no similar calls for the kinds of security measures in workplaces we're placing in schools. Why not? Probably because no adult would tolerate constant surveillance, random searches and heavy-handed punishments for minor infractions. When you consider the fact that adults can legally purchase firearms and, in some states, legally conceal them, it makes schools' harsh security measures a lot harder to justify. And while we do accept tight security at our airports, we don't send our kids to airports for 30 hours a week to be educated.
Something else I didn't get to talk about was the roots of America's compulsory education system, which is quite fascinating. Turns out our system is largely based on a Prussian system, which was largely designed to create obedient/subservient workers, soldiers, civil servants, etc. and make them devout followers of the king. You can read a good summary of this here (though I should note that I don't agree with many of the author's other assertions.)
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I would have preferred to email you directly. Unfortunately the website seems designed to protect you from direct contact from fans... that is I couldn't find your direct contact information nor a general phone number to call a receptionist.
Education's Prisoners is the name of my book. I'm curious how you came to use this phrase and if the filmmakers use it. I haven't seen the film yet. Sounds like good work that I would support. If the film, or your review, are in part influenced by my work a little credit due would be appreciated.
Keep up the good work.
Ken McGrew
and on the fact that:
1) the people in charge of the schools are also in charge of the foster care system, and I think we can all agree that they're not the greatest at raising kids, and
2) parents let teachers have their kids for an hour a day, every week day, while they wouldn't trust these same strangers with their vehicles!
If you wouldn't let someone borrow your car for a day, chances are you don't want to leave them alone with your kid either.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-kim/rethink-interview-cevin-s_b_439460.html
We should have a LESS THAN ZERO tolerance for guns, drugs, violence in schools???
And it should be pointed out that there have been far fewer instances of deadly killing sprees in public schools (K-12) since the Zero Tolerance policies went into effect.
Do you consider a butter knife to be a 'weapon'? How about a hair pick? Should a student be expelled for having a Tylenol?
Oh really? Perhaps you should tell these researchers:
Russell J. Skiba Zero Tolerance, Zero Evidence: An Analysis of School Disciplinary Practice
Are Zero Tolerance Policies Effective in the Schools? An evidentiary review and recommendations. American Psychologist, December 2008.
Zero Tolerance Policies: no substitute for good judgment Summary of the APA Task Force Report at everydaypsychology.com
American Bar Association. Zero Tolerance Policy Report, 2001
Now lets us look at the number of shootings at schools. Since there is no real good demarcation date for the adoption of zero tolerance rules at individual schools, I choose another date... the passage of the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990... Further, it is difficult to determine where to actually start our review, but most people look at the 1966 case where Charles Whitman killed 14 people and then was killed himself in what is called the University of Texas at Austin massacre as the first modern instance of a mass shooting at a school, so I will start there....
Between 1966 through 1990 there were a total of 12 school shootings in which 44 people died. Begining in 1991 through the present there have been 64 school shooting incidents, killing 172 people.
(not a fan of me)
You have a created a spot on analysis of the problems facing not only the school structure, but the country as a whole. And so few people understand compulsory education, and the outcomes expected from it, that it's frightening.
So they told me I'd have to go to the office twice a day for a total stranger office secretary to give me my dose, and threaten me with suspension or expulsion if I didn't come back for the next. In another time, I would have been kicked to an advanced learning program. But by 1988 when I was but 12 years old, this eager young mind got tranqed instead.
They were PROTECTING me, you see.
In the end, only increased gun-control will protect our children and that is a step we will not take - hence we will continue putting our children into "prison".
Either you didn't read the article, or are deliberately neglecting its core message. Giving up freedoms and civil liberties in the name of safety is dangerous, and foolish. More gun control will not serve to diminish anything. As citizens of a free society, we accept the potential dangers that come with freedom because we know the opposite is not freedom, it is state control, which is what these children attend school under.