Facebook Told Me

Once again it's become apparent the world has changed.

The good old days are gone forever (at least to us old people).

When I was a kid we were free to mumble insults about our school administrators and no one was any the wiser (especially the principal or superintendent... thank goodness... or we might all still be in detention).

We lived in a much smaller world. The second after you said something, it was gone forever.

Or at least if you were caught you could deny, deny, deny.

Not that I ever did (see... I'm still denying).

In today's world, kids have to deal with an entirely different set of rules.

Their lives are more open and way more complicated (bad news for those of us who own 9 year olds).

When they have a slightly mean or angry thought it's not just shared with their buddy.

It's not even just shared with the kids in their own school.

It's blogged about, texted, posted on YouTube, and as it turns out possibly even ends up on Facebook (I had no idea I was such a terrible person).

What students don't always consider is people over the age of 21 also own computers.

And have the interweb.

And some of us even know how to use it.

So as educators, we need to make sure we continue to spend lots of time teaching technology.

But we also need to spend time teaching good judgment.

Email Michael Smith at micsmith@principalspage.com