Slashdot Mirror
UK Teachers Say Censor The Internet
Marlow the Irelander writes "The BBC is reporting that in response to a YouTube video of a schoolboy breaking his teacher's window (yes, this is a video), NASUWT, one of the teaching unions in the UK, is calling for legislation to control the internet. Could Britain, rather than the US, be the main front of the battle against censorship in 2007?" From the article:
"Unfortunately, any yob or vandal can now have their 15 minutes of fame, aided and abetted by readily accessible technology and irresponsible internet sites which enable such behaviour to be glorified.
[The general secretary of the union] said the union supported a zero tolerance approach in schools to pupils who used technology to abuse and undermine teachers, and called for more rigorous legislative control of internet sites which gave them license."
Why are the teachers mad about the video? Shouldn't they be more mad about the broken window?
Besides, whoever recorded the incident was clearly a by-stander (the person throwing the rock was in the video). I do not understand why this is bothering the teachers so much.
Video has been removed...
Awww...
The BBC is reporting that in response to a YouTube video of a schoolboy breaking his teacher's window (yes, this is a video), NASUWT, one of the teaching unions in the UK, is calling for legislation to control the internet.
Just so we're clear, their logic is that the internet is a catalyst for youth vandalism?
Man, kids these days. When I was their age, we had to vandalize stuff the old fashioned way.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
Making you think you're crazy is a billion dollar industry.
for giving everyone an equal opportunity to express themselves.
Maybe if teachers were more educators than prison wardens, kids would love them instead of hating them.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Remember this?
How can you have any meat if you don't eat your pudding?
It seems to me that this is just an over-reaction to an objectively minor problem, fueled by the fact that teachers often get terrible working conditions (abusive and hard-to-discipline students, obnoxious and at times abusive parents, little public support, low pay). They are lashing out in an attempt to control some part - any part - of their environment.
But I fail to see how this is "pupils who used technology to abuse and undermine teachers." The broken window is the abuse, the youtube video is just evidence of criminal activity. Unless you consider a rock to be technology.
Teachers, post a video of yourself giving the kid detention for a month.
A pity - the video is listed as "This video has been removed by the user." Self-censorship?
I actually DID want to see the content - any possible mirrors for the video? I won't try and 'justify' wanting to see it - I mean, come on, it's a kid doing something really stupid. I'm just going to want to see that, especially when presented as something that might be censored.
Ryan Fenton
If they censor the internet in the UK, then all these videos of kids doing this won't be available as evidence of their misdeeds, now, will they?
This sig no verb.
Isn't this the country with all the spy cameras all over the place watching people?
Are they complaining because it wasn't an "official" camera that captured the act? I don't get what the Internet has to do with it.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
Pretty much. Yep.
Oh, they're still vandalizing the old fashioned way. Almost everyone had rocks when they were growing up (but the ones who didn't will swear it made them better people).
What's different now is that instead of hanging out behind the gym, smoking cigarettes you stole from your Dad, telling your friends how you smashed Mr. Crabapple's window and ran away
You post on your MySpace site a link to a video taken by a friend with a cell phone that is hosted on YouTube and all your friends tell u how k3wl u r. lol. h3 is gh3y!
Why are they mad?
Couldn't the video be used as evidence to sue for damages?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
It seems odd to me that a society the US sprung from would have diverged so far from us in dealing with crime.
Instead of punishing the offender, they're trying to shut down the method they use to brag about it.
That's pretty ass-backwards. If they actually enforced the law over there from time to time then maybe yobs would have to weigh the punishment against the bragging rights from a youtube video.
Pretty common over there from what I understand. They'll install CCTV on every block, ban guns, then knives (outside the home), then anything that might be used as a weapon- hell, it seems like they'll do everything over there in the name of fighting crime short of.... (gasp) actually punishing criminals!
Now I hear they issue 'warnings' for everything from theft to arson and basically let the crooks go.
Why do I get the feeling that anyone with the werewithal in great britain to fight this stupidity has already emigrated to the US? Every single day it's more nonsense like this from across the pond.
I'll toss in the obligatory disclaimer that everything isn't peaches and cream here in the US, but England is galloping full speed towards a police state and they're using '1984' as a blueprint, not a warning.
(Don't bother me with the differences between GB, UK and England. They're good enough synonyms for this discussion. Thanks.)
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
Having grown up as an English lad in the 1940s and 1950s, I can tell you that most teachers and headmasters weren't jerks for the sake of being jerks. They were harsh with us because many of us were stupid little buggers! We needed a good smack across the ass with the fanny paddle every now and then. It kept us in line.
But times have changed, and the teachers have gotten far softer. Look at English youth today as a whole. Many are nothing but scum. Look at just the chav subculture, for instance. They are criminals, plain and simple. They idolise crime, and not just petty crime like vandalism. Many of these kids are burglars, rapists, and in some cases, even murderers. They dress like third-worlders.
We weren't perfect youth 50 years ago. We were mischevous little boys and girls. But we never shot each other in cold blood. We never raped each other. We never slaughtered senior citizens. But these are things we see on nearly a daily basis with the teenagers of today. And we weren't like that because when we did fuck up, our headmasters let us know. We felt direct pain for our misdeeds, and thus learned to live in a civilised manner.
I hope they publically identify this vandal.
I hope he ends up being linked forever with this video so a name search comes up with it.
Shitheads like this deserve whatever karma comes to them in future.
anyway, back to bed.
liqbase
First of all, the teachers should be thankful that these twits happened to place their video on Youtube. This made their detective work in figuring out who were the perpetrators were much easier, giving them a huge smoking gun. Talk about shooting the messenger, sheesh.
It sounds like V is for Vendetta is coming to life!
You'd think the teachers would realize that the videos provide a way of catching the vandals, not the motivation for vandalism, but such stupidity is what I have come to expect from anyone who announces that they have a "zero tolerance" policy. People who adopt a "zero tolerance" policy are branding "I am an idiot" on their forehead.
...the real problem here is Britain's lack of rock control.
To summarise:
OLD DAYS: kid smashes window, brags to friends and peers, most likely never found out by teacher / other effected party.
NOW: kid smashes window, brags to friends and peers, posts on youtube, gets recognised from video and punished appropriately.
Damn new technologies.
I'm a Network Manager at a UK school / college. I guess I'm perfectly placed to speak on these matters, so here we go...
I have a duty of care, in my role, to protect students from certain inappropriate material on the internet. The obvious ones are there; pornography, paedophilia, unmonitored chatrooms, unmonitored messaging sites, etc.
Myspace is blocked, because I can't honestly say that I can be 100% certain that students couldn't use the site and put themselves at risk. Porn websites are blocked, because the students are not 18. All chat programs, such as MSN/AOL/IRC are not installed on student profiles, and students do not have administration rights to install software either. Proxy websites are blocked, so that students can't bypass the restrictions and vew unfiltered content. All fairly common stuff. Ironically, the biggest complaints I get about myspace being blocked are from teachers, but thats another story altogether.
I use active content filtering to block access to inappropriate content on all other websites, such as youtube or google vids, which might contain any of the things I first mentioned.
However, I don't block anything just 'because I'm told to'. A teacher can request that anything in the world gets filtered out, but ultimately the decision lies with me.
If a teacher cannot control his or her students in a classroom, then it is the fault of the teacher, not the students are finding the material. And personally, I think that is the way it should stay. Technology shouldn't be used to simply 'restrict access' to material when that material doesn't fit within the narrow categories I first mentioned. If anything, teachers should be embracing sites such as youtube and google videos because they provide a wealth of material that can be used in the classroom.
Even more destructive is the tendency for pupils to use their god-given mouths to undermine their teachers! This needs to be corrected by legislation and luckily enough, Great Britain does not have that pesky First Ammendment to get in the way!
I won't claim that things are great in the UK, justice-wise, but I suggest you look to the log in your own country's eye before being too critical of others. Many people I've spoken to cite misguided 'justice', overbearing government censorship and insane security measures as good reasons to not travel to the US, let alone emigrate there. Many of my US friends have made clear their intentions to leave the country at their next opportunity unless things turn around. I'll take omnipresent public video surveilance and lax punishment over wiretapping and enthusiastic enforcement any day.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
If a video tape was mailed to the police department, would the postal service be abolished?
Governments can't be so repressive if their citizens are fully armed.
When did the U.K. embrace Big Brother?
That's what mafia hitmen are for.
I swear, both countries appear to be in a race to see which country can reach the bliss of fascism first.
To be honest, it's not clear to me exactly why this is. I mean, I understand why it's happening in the U.S.: the U.S. government is controlled by its largest corporations. There are various reasons for that, ranging from the chokehold on the media those corporations have to the campaign finance setup and lobbying setup that exists in the U.S. Fascism by definition is more friendly to big corporations than any other form of government, so it's easy to see why those who run the biggest corporations want fascism to rise in the U.S.
But the UK? Why is it going down that path? I was rather under the impression that the media wasn't a slave to the big corporations there, which means that the people there should have a somewhat less biased source of information on which to base their voting decisions. Money is power so I can see the big corporations having some influence there, but nothing like in the U.S.
And yet, the paths both countries are following are almost identical. What gives?
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
For those who don't know, NASUWT is the official teacher's union for Airstrip One and surrounding areas.
Comment of the year
"Won't somebody please think of the teachers?"
why the fuck do they want to ban this? if every criminal video taped their crime and posted it on youtube we'd be set.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Teachers are used to enjoying non-stop pandering to by the media. Any criticism of the government educational complex is squashed in main stream media, exluded from any sort of political debate, and generally supressed. Free, decentralized, uncensored democratic debate and critism about the educational system is a threat to the power structure. Dictators and tyrants like Kim Jung Il feel threatened by the Internet and want to supress it, and so do petty classroom dictators.
The teachers thought that playing up manufactured outrage about an insignificant incident like this would drum up popular support for severe restrictions on the internet... restrictions that could be used to suppress critism of government education as well as annoying YouTube videos. Fortunatly, teachers are so out of touch with the reality of working class people that they gravely underestimated how many people would see them as big cry babies instead of rightous victims in this situation.
treating teachers as normal people instead of gods?
What a student does off school grounds and off school hours should be business between that student and the teacher as private citizens.
Or am I missing something?
Rather than censor teh Intarweb, here's a better idea. Let these punk-ass kids have their fifteen minutes of fame. Then videotape their fifteen hours of community service and put that on YouTube.
*this video has been removed by user*
> If a video tape was mailed to the police department, would the postal service be abolished?
As I learned from reading why TMNT are called the Teenage Mutant "Hero" Turtles, even cartoon depictions of nunchucks and the word "ninja" (but apparently not swords or laser weapons) have been censored in the UK.
So it's my best guess that if you found some way to work paedophilia into your scenario and got it in the media, you'd have a pretty good shot of getting the postal service abolished, or at least of having people take the idea seriously.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Governments can't be so repressive if their citizens are fully armed.
l atform/rights/rights.html
Bullshit. Despite your right to bear arms (which is fine, in my book), the USA has been gradually losing many constitutional rights over the last few years. I'll qualify and say "effectively lost" because, while your holy Amendments are still on the books, so many additional court, process, and enforcement activities are effectively preventing their use. They shouldn't, but they are. At least to the extent that the explicitly, unintentionally unqualified freedoms were written. Boiling the frog slowly in hot water so it doesn't jump right out. Or start putting its 2nd Amendment to use until it's too late...
For a simple-minded view of what I'm talking about, read this: http://www.prohibitionists.org/Background/Party_P
You're the best equipped nation to set an example and, forcefully if necessary, stop your government from taking away more liberties in the name of "security". But you don't. And the world looks on.
And don't try writing too much about this. Freedom of the press. Yeah, that used to be your catch phrase. The USA is now ranked 53rd as country of press freedoms. http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=639
Fuedalism has never gone away, it has never been "repealed" despite a lot of people thinking this happened somehow by some mythical all powerful world court of supreme justice and niceguy goodness or something. They, the alleged "aristocrats", the top of the two class feudalistic system, our economic and political "leaders" who still think of themselves and act as our "masters", just realised they needed to be a bit more sly about it so as to not lose their heads periodically in the traditional peasant/serf uprisings. And now they have a lot more technology to pull it off, that's it, just a lot more toys and a few centuries more psychological studies into how to control their herds of "human resources" more effectively, hence why I call the phenomenon technofeudalism.
I think this sort of thing should be censored at the local level. If you don't want kids to access these sort of sites at school, use a proxy server. If you want to make the site responsible for the content posted which could be viewed at home, well, maybe you should thank them for helping you bust the little rascal. Perhaps you simply don't think that way though. I believe there's a club or something you could join. All you have to do is fail a basic ethics exam.
...said the union supported a zero tolerance approach in schools to pupils who used technology to abuse and undermine teachers, and called for more rigorous legislative control of internet sites which gave them license.
Well, aren't we special?
I love how this clearly illustrates the absolute, total insanity which permeates the school system nowdays.
Hint:
It isn't the school's problem.
It isn't the internet's problem
It isn't the government's problem
Have the kid fix the damn window and get on with life!
Fools.
A quick check on the YouTube for videos tagged as educational or regarding education returns 16000 items.
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=education
Are there more than 16000 items relating to vandalism and abuse of teaching staff? I think not.
Clearly, the NASUWT spokesman was not a maths teacher.
Alli
OMG!!! Ponies!!!
Have you seen the climate there is around teaching right now? I just started teaching this year and I had to fight hard for my job. Up here in Saskatchewan there is declining enrollment and that means that there are a ton of teacher that are being cut from the school board budgets. So really as a beginning teacher I could be cut at any moment. Some people do fall into the category of those who can't teach but there is more to it than content. Have you ever tried going infront of a group of kids and tried to get them motivated enough to get them trying to learn. I'm a Math/Physics teacher and all I get is the stereotype that "math and physics suck." I tell ya its bloody hard to get them to do anything. The other thing is that you mention that teachers have no experience in having a "real job." Honestly a "real job" would probly have me working a lot less and living somewhere else. But you do it for the students and try and get people interest in your subject area. Well that and you are actually affecting the future and hopefully helping someone to find themselves and their passions. As for the civil service lifers that happens in about half the teachers you see and I have no time for them as they are rediculous. But there are some good teachers out there and I'm proud to say I'm one of them.
Could Britain, rather than the US, be the main front of the battle against censorship in 2007?
I thought such stupidity was the exclusive domain of the United States.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Most kids don't see the value of education until their older...Even ditch-diggers need to know how to read and write. And how may ditch-diggers do we really need?
Apparently one more, since we won't be counting on you.
That's pretty much the nature of their objection, yeah.
When Persons of Quality are running the cameras it's A-OK, but when the peasants start recording things and posting it to the intarwab, why that's just dirty pool.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Ever wonder why you don't see prisons guarded by the prisoners? Apparently Taco didn't get the memo. Maybe one of these days Taco will realize that technical solutions don't solve social issues. Just ask the RIAA.
hi vladdy, is marticock still alive or has he been molested to death
Please sit down and shut up. Take your issues that you had in high school, and treat them as your issues, rather than overly-generalizing them to make it appear as though you understand every problem ever related to schools and education.
I'm a teacher (math and computer). I'm also a tech coordinator. I wear both hats at my school. I've been studying, taking apart, assembling, and troubleshooting PCs for 12 years. And I take offense to anyone who says "Those who can, do, those who can't, teach." If you were to take the time and evaluate MANY teachers, you would see how much time and effort we put into helping students, as well as research how to better educate students in our discipline(often through professional teacher organizations...I myself belong to the MCTM...www.mctm.org).
Sadly, even at my school, I have seen and am upset with some teachers who do not give a rat's ass about the students they teach, and I wish that administrators and teachers got a lot more serious about evaluating teachers' behavior and teaching inside and outside the classroom. It upsets me a great deal to see how much time and effort I put into helping a student learn, both about a particular subject and about the world & life in general, in hopes that I can build trust with students and show them I care about their lives, only to have that trust destroyed by a teacher who makes rather damning comments to students demonstrating apathy to their profession. Yet while I have met and even work with a few teachers who behave this way in one way or another, I will not sit by and watch some stupid punk think that we teachers are a waste of space.
There are so many students that depend on us teachers for social and academic support. We don't just sit and twiddle our thumbs when kids ask us questions. We understand our discipline. (I, as well as the vast majority of teachers, majored in their discipline in college; if you want to discredit our education, you may as discredit your own, assuming you graduated from college, at least.) Most of us have a great passion for it, as well as for helping other students learn to love it as well. And if you wanted us to actually demonstrate that in a job, I certainly could do so. But I would find great boredom in, say, being an actuary, doing nothing but number-crunching for 8 hours straight. And I've tried tech support before, but to be quite honest, I don't like living an OfficeSpace-kinda life. I actually enjoy being around other people and talking with them, teaching them, interacting with them, and even watching them grow and being a part of it!
And it's teachers like me who help make the students who become a part of your work force. They're not just born smart, stupid.
I liked physics in high school, but many of my classmates were in the AP class with me just to take the test and get the college credit. But you know what got everyone's attention? Blowing things up!
That's right. A little "go-go" juice, a tin-can cannon, and a couple of tennis balls, hacky sacks, or even a potato gun will go a long way towards getting your student's attention.
Or in my case...a fully charged Leyden Jar just left sitting in the middle of a table. My arm still goes numb thinking about that....
My Sysadmin Blog
I didn't see a point for asking a regulation to internet, a video was shown in a website that offers video hosting.
What's the big deal?!
I still don't get it, if this were and act of vandalism, wich one include the action of publishing the video on internet as part of the act? If that were vandalism then there's a lot of vandals in the world... I don't get it!
ghostbar page.
Hehe Ap physics. Good times. My AP teacher was great, thick Austrian accent, couldn't understand a word he said. Great teacher, kept us interested, helped us when we needed it. Made us enjoy the class. Didn't take bullshit from students. Great moment when he made a bunch of steel wool burn/melt during the lecture on resistance. Let us play with a van degraph, my tounge still goes numb from playing with that thing.
Have way through the year is built a tracer cloud tank. Brought in a decaying material and we watched particals streak through the tank. That was one of coolest things I have ever seen. Simple yet entertaining, and we wanted to know how it worked. So we figured it out. I owe that man the 5 I got on the AP test.
You mad
The thing that I always disliked about the system though was that, as a student, you had no recourse.
No one ever told you, "if you feel that a mark you got was unjust, go to X to have your problem examined. If they do not resolve to your satisfaction, go up to Y..."
Your Grade 12 students are probably 17 or 18 years old - in a year they might be off to University.
In University there are there anonymous teacher evaluations (which are done without the prof in the room, and only given to the prof after the final marks are submitted), ombuspersons, and documents on students' rights. Doesn't it stand to reason that if, two months after a student graduates, they're mature enough to take these rights in stride, they'll be able to handle it ever so slightly before graduating?
Not all teachers are bad, many are wonderful human beings, but the system protects the bad ones from reprisals, since the "customers" have no voices.
Heck, there's some big controversy over "ratemyteacher.com" - Finally there's a way for students to make their views heard and public to a teacher, and the schoolboards and teachers are flipping out over it (many boards completely block access to the site from within their schools). Perhaps if there were accountability mechanisms within the school, accessible to students, there wouldn't' be such a need for an outside service.
That damn Dubya! Always takin' away you stupid American freedoms. Across the pond we have --
Oh, wait...
Seriously, what is the British fetish with implementing all manner of Orwellian society? Cameras up everyone's asses, free speech rights that (even with Dubya at the helm) pale by American standards, a handgun ban that was followed by an increase in violent crime, all with the fear-of-terrorism culture that Americans have come to cherish since 9/11. Do Brits realize that 1984 was a work of fiction?
Well, I suppose most of the people who hated British government have long since (like, some 230 years ago) left it for the 'States, hence, few in Britain to fight back... (For the same reason of immigration history, the 'States are probably doomed to remain a theoretically-secular pseudo-theocracy as it currently is.)
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
First off I'd like to say I don't know much about English culture or really anything. I don't know anything about this "Chav culture". Or anything about their dialect. I'd have to side with Andrew. You on the other hand, come off as a moronic prick. Socrates is actually pretty relevant in that it shows that all kids now, 60 years ago, and a couple thousand years ago were annoying or plain mean to teachers. I am in high school right now, and the disrespect shown to teachers by some of my peers is unbelievable, but kids will be kids; some of them by high school have grown out of it and for others it takes time. Also, do you ever wonder why these kids became part of this "Chav culture" or scum? Maybe it was the fact that the teachers showed no interest in their students and never let them express themselves. And also, the adults whom that looked up too and admired ignored them and shoved them aside.So, the only way they could express them selves and get attention no matter if it was good or bad would be to become criminals. Now, why don't you go trolling some where else. I think the title Anonymous Coward suits you pretty well.
A search of the NAS/UWT website for the keyword `Internet' reveals no policy that could remotely constitute a call for censorship, and without a conference resolution a union general secretary has absolutely no authority. There's the usual guff about cyber-bullying, in a document that any union-watcher will recognise as the tortured prose of a composite (pronounced, bizarrely, to rhyme with website) motion, but even that is just a call for web filtering in schools.
Unfortunately, /. runs on its own timescale and fact checking takes too long, but I'll try to find out from Chris Keates what she actually said. The absence of direct quotation makes me suspect it wasn't what people think.
Anyway, even if she called for the Internet to be closed down tomorrow, she's the general secretary of a minor NUT-affiliated trade union. That's not exactly a position of major political power, is it? All sorts of people believe all sorts of things: being able to execute them is rather a different proposition.
ian
What is it with this stupid country? Why are people always blaming the wrong persons or group?
O'WONDERWe're working on it.
As far as the control paradigm perspective is concerned I can understand their position. For all practical purposes I think these "teachers" need to be closely examined and revealed for the dog-trainers towards conformity they really are. The road towards authoritarianism we're heading down is getting steeper by the day. If you're interested in the subject read John Taylor Gattos books on the dumbing down of America.
... the powers that be try to blame everyone but the person/people responsible.
Oh no, it's the internet's/violent video games'/movies/ fault that these kids run wild and act like hooligans! It can't possibly be the kids themselves or their parents who deserve any of that blame.
It boggles the mind how a teachers' union could fixate more on the "15 minutes of fame" and less on trying to make parents or the kid accountable (even outside of legal remedies). Instead of whining about how terrible the internet is, they could turn around and warn his new teachers/neighbors in Canada about what he's been up to over there (and point them to the video). Make the parents look bad and make his life miserable wherever he ends up and see if kids don't start to wise up.
I suspect what they're really upset about (and the real point to the zero tolerance policy they mention) are the other cases where teachers have been caught on video doing things they shouldn't do (e.g. screaming at kids). This is just a convenient scapegoat because the kids were clearly the ones doing something wrong so now they blame the internet/cameras/etc...
It's funny how often the people who should worry the least about surveillance (teachers, cops, etc...) are often the ones who least want to be scrutinized by the very things they'd like to use on us.
You need to start earlier than that. We should start failing students in kindergarten, and every grade after that, if they are not up to moving to the next level. Waiting until someone is 8 years into their education before you require them to actually know something is both unfair to the student, and a recipe for mass failures in high school.
The debate about whether teachers as a group are crappy or not is a false dicotemy. The fact is, our (US) public school system broken on just about every level. From national public policy to a high number of crappy teachers we have. Just about everybody can recount 3 or 4 really good teachers they had over their 13 years in school. Most can remember twice as many actively bad teachers. The rest, would have been somewhere in between. The problem there is that after a student spends a year with a crappy teacher, and the next a mediocre one, you need more than one great teacher to get that student re-engaged, and back up to speed with where he should be. Unfortunately, there just are not enough great teachers to go around.
Add to that that our system is set up as a baby sitting service from the top down, you have a recipe for disaster, and no amount of money is going to fix it. When I was in school, I must have heard a dozen times the first day of class speech about how "If you try, I will not fail you." That speech was intended to try and engage the students that knew the class was a waste of time because it would be past them. What it told many of us that were not dolts was that understanding the material was totally irrelevant to passing the class. Of course, it isn't just teacher that are pushing age based advancement. The school administrators are right their pushing any teacher that does try to take a stand. Why would they do this? Because when they fail students, they have to deal with parents who are also pushing for age based advancement. Of course teachers and faculty don't really want parents to get involved. It is easier to deal with parents that push for age based advancement than it is to deal with parents that demand you give the child a proper education.
So, basically our education system is broken, starting with the parents, right through the teachers and administrators, all the way up to the President of the United States, who referred to the smart kids as the 'Nerd Patrol'.
This has lead me personally to give up on our public education system. At 2, my son is doing early reading, and basic math. What chance is he going to have in our public education system? By the time he even gets to kindergarten, it will be obvious to him that success in school has nothing to do with knowledge, and all about making the busy work motions.
Luckily, I am not alone, and this has lead to a boom in home schooling, and in response, a boom in businesses, and organizations that support them.
So some socialists oppose freedom of speech. And this is news how, exactly?
I'm currently reading the book "Not in front of the children" by Marjorie Heins, a very informative book on the history of censorship and censorship law (mainly in the US, but with UK roots and occasinoal references).
In the US, the Constitution's First Amendment allows for a strong defense to censorship. However, censorship of "obscenity" and/or "indecency" (in their varying and sometmies contradictory definitions) is allowed is a common-law exception to the First Amendment (see First Amendment/Obscenity). The exact nature, power, extent, and constitutionality of the exception tends to be at the centre of any legal/judicial or legislative debate on censorship, and has gone back and forth (as documented in the book).
Britain has no such explicit, written right to free speech as the First Amendment, and thus censorship has a better legal footing (I suspect CCTV is in a similar situation). While censorship in Britain may be more easily applied, the "battle" would be more one-sided than in the US, if censorship (i.e. of obscenity) were to have such a strong following as it has in the US.
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
These people should not be teaching our children in schools - they should be teaching them from the end of short rope in a public square what it means to call forth the tyranny of censorship.
While I can appreciate the irony of hanging those who demand this kind of censorship, I simply believe they are too dangerous to exist in a civilized and decent society. Frankly, they are a threat to the very lives of the children they claim to "teach".
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
It's "ridiculous".
The real problem here is teachers using windows.
Would the students try to break Linux or OS X ?
This is scary because our Labour government are largely funded by unions. We also have a recent history here of seeing a problem and a headline, and legislating for the headline.
If the tubes were censored, all that would happen is that this kind of movie would be distributed mobile to mobile as happens in Iraq right now. Distribution wouldn't be affected, just the means.
Yes, how terrible that vandals are allowed to post video evidence of their crimes to the internet for the police and school authorities to use as evidence against them. Clearly we should ban Youtube for encouraging self-incrimination.
Wait 5 yrs. then you too will join the slack asses club. Everyone who starts teaching is so full of good intentions, then reality kicks you in the groin and only a very small handful remain true to the 'teaching dream'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting mentions many shootings from earlier times (before the internet). Granted, none in the UK in the 40ies and 50ies, but I don't think that proves anything (I don't have time to do more research, either). There have always been "murder sprees" and things like that. Certainly some british kids who were raised with fanny paddles became murdereres at some point later in their lives.
If high school massacers have become more frequent in recent times, it is probably because of the copycats spurned by the media hype, not because of a change in teacher's methods.
Instead of seeking to make the Internet safe for children, why not simply ban children from the Internet?
After all, this is primarily an adult world. Childhood is a temporary phase. There are some things that are not, and never will be, suitable for children. That does not mean they are not suitable for adults.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
I agree that 17 and 18 year olds should be treated as adults, they should be encouraged to grow into maturity. When I was school librarian in a small town in Scotland, I sat down with the small group that age and told them I was going to give them a lot more slack, that they could treat the school library as their common room (they didn't have another one). They could go into my office where the kettle was and make a cup of tea / coffee any time as long as they cleared their cups up afterwards (and put one on for me :-) ). I felt it was important that they were treated more like adults than kids.
However younger pubescent kids are not mature adults. They have to be treated differently, supported differently. I agree kids should have some recourse to stand up to bad teachers - I remember as kids we saw injustices and had no way of reporting them - but equally teachers need to be protected against unfounded attacks by kids. I remember the first thing we did as a class of 13 year olds with a new teacher was to see how far we could push them, if we could break them and control them. I'm sure we weren't the only kids in the world who did this. Teachers also need protection against pupil harrassment. Kids don't understand the full effect of their actions all the time.
Oh great nation that stood against Napoleon, stood against the Kaiser, even stood alone against Hitler, who coined the phrase stiff upper lip, and gave us extra U's in lots of words, farewell. We hardly knew ye.
My sister was a maths teacher in inner city Liverpool. She failed to make the grade in a 3rd rate all boys school, almost had a nervous breakdown and had to resign. Class control was a big problem (she is a bit to nice) along with a lack of support from her superiors. She has vast experience dating from teaching multiracial groups in the 80's in London and has taught all over the world. She has a BSc, MSc and her teaching diploma. She was at the top of her pay grade and did not want promotion, could this be something to do with it? She is now on the scrap heap. So what has happened to make nice teachers unwanted?
See article 10 of the -- much maligned -- Human Rights Act:
"Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers."
What does NASUWT mean?
God Be Gone
With your argument is that the teachers of today are exactly those kids of yesteryear that you are talking about. So say that there was no Gang issues in the 50s/60s is laughable (Krays?), and issues with teenage crime in inner city London in the 50s/60s... I wouldn't bet to heavily on that if I were you. Complaints about clothes, attitude, language of kids has been going on since the beginning of time. I'm not sure about the world you now live in (which I'm assuming is the US as you use the word "fanny paddle") but actually most of the kids are pretty much the same as when I went to school in the 80s, they are just more aware of the world, yet less political.
Blaming the problems of kids today on the kids is insane, the problem is all those idealised muppets from their "idyllic" childhoods failing to recognise and adapt as world has moved on.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
What country do you live in that doesn't have private schools?
In the UK, private schools are notably expensive -- enough so that most parents can't afford them, and there aren't that many in comparison to the state schools anyway. One result of this is that many parents try to suss out which are the best state schools in their region, and then try to relocate into the local 'catchment area' for a chosen one of them, so that their kids will be eligible to go to it. The effect is big enough in many places to have quite a positive influence on local house prices. So, for many people in the UK, the result is yes, they do live in a country that effectively for them doesn't have private schools.
-wb-
Im not gonna use elaborate words or kind arguments to counter this shit.
....
A bunch of sore ass losers who are unable to even perceive the importance of the internet, leave aside teaching, barks for censorship for the greatest technological revolution in the world that brought even the enemy nations' children growing up together.
Stupid morons. What do you teach is of no importance compared to the social cohesion internet creates ALL over the world.
Chinese and American kids, who were being raised to hate each other just 50 years ago are now playing in the same game servers, making friends of each other, using the SAME slang.
This is something your sore asses would never achieve in 500 years of professional practice.
I for one have this to say ; if britain has SUCH STUPID teachers, she better abolish the WHOLE education system and start building it over again - because apparently you are not educating teachers to educate children, you are educating enemies of public and freedom. Talk about magna carta
Read radical news here
what they did, said or responded to those sore-ass, INCAPABLE crap posing as teachers.
Do not fail us British slashdotters - raise hell all over britain !
Read radical news here
and bestow nobility on the teacher profession ?
Because it seems apparently this is what they want - some bunch to be untouchable, uncritiseable, unquestionable and above the public.
Banning of all social activities in the world would also ensure that no teacher gets mocked in a pijama party in a kid's house or no teenagers telling jokes about teachers in a mass transit vehicle.
Read radical news here
but the yahoos who accompanied him got a good ass whoopin'
I take it you don't live in the UK then. More likely they got counselling and a nice holiday somewhere warm!
Yes, there are times when it looks as if schoolkids in the UK have been given a status nearly like medieval child princes, who had whipping-boys who got 'whooped' in their places when the princes did something bad.
The teachers' unions now seem to take for granted this world where bystanders and victims sometimes are made to pay for what delinquent children and youths do -- so when a union representative "called for more rigorous legislative control of internet sites" I have to wonder if this isn't the union selecting the internet service provider as next in line for the status of whipping-boy.
-wb-
Whilst I wholeheartedly agree wth your sentiments, I think that all teachers should check their spelling and grammar. Even physics teachers... ;o)
You would think that after their experiment with taking away firearms to lower crime (e.g., crime went up a ridiculous percentage because lo and behold, the bad guys didn't turn in their guns too, and the law abiding citizens could not longer defend themselves - anybody else surprised?) they would have discovered that finding a way to work with a "problem" is much more productive than trying to restrict people heavily to prevent the problem. It just will not work.
"Could Britain, rather than the US, be the main front of the battle against censorship in 2007?" It is as if China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and countless other countries do not actively censor everything on the Internet. Even Canada has it's own firewall now.
Anybody who has attended a university knows the education majors are *by far* the easiest majors to pass and do well in. Don't you find it ironic that as a computer science major, my math was more rigorous than math education majors, my science was significantly more rigorous than math/chem/physics education majors, my economics and business education is unheard of in the education field.
Whereas I was in labs and studying literally 6 hours a night, education majors seem to be the ones with time to party.
Even after school, teachers constantly whine about having to grade papers on their own time, and how they have to take their job home "sometimes". Meanwhile, the rest of the world is busting their butt without the benefit of the summers off.
I'm not begrudging anything teachers do or get, but please don't complain about how hard you have it. You don't. Suck it up.
What worked for my math teacher was problems we could relate to and understand the value of solving. Invent probabilistic models of who the Human Resources guy is going to hire and have everybody calculate what factors to maximize for job chances, or how good the chances of getting hired are for people who made an effort at school vs those who didn't. Make a complex model of dating and give them a lot of tasks that explore that model - you'll be surprised how excited and happy they are to do that, and how rapidly they'll learn systems of equations. Or explain in mathematical terms the rationale behind the barrage of sequels in cinema or whatever current political issues your kids may have heard about.
Don't worry about gross simplifications, the main thing you need to get across is that the world can be modelled mathematically, and that to know math means ability to predict things. Most pupils (at my schools, anyway) never got more motivation than a wag of the finger and the vague notion that proper math grades are what you need for studying or jobs.
I assume that a couple of basic economic problems wouldn't be out of place in a math lesson, either.
blow your mind already
Sig Registration Form 34c_766(a) submitted to Ministry of Signature Management. Approval pending.
Headline: US Students say Censor UK Teachers
-jX
Don't you just love politics? It's like a comedy of errors.
The thing that I always disliked about the system though was that, as a student, you had no recourse.
And you best get used to it. When you get a real job you also have no recourse either (Apart from moving to a different company, but you could have done that at school if you asked your parents nicely enough).
The reality is that most people spend at least half their academic lives whining about what piss poor teachers / lecturers they have. Then they grow up, get a full time job and can whine about the boss instead (or co-workers).
I dont read
Your school memories may be misleading you. Mine were not too positive either, which does not provide a logical reason to judge the whole by one of its elements, though.
Your suggested relationship of 'doing' and 'teaching' is not just plain stupid in its semantic analysis (teaching is, for one thing, doing); if true, it would imply that a competent teacher was strictly impossible, and that schools would best be closed down altogether. While I sometimes had such an impression while being at school myself, it's obviously stupid. More than that, school is not primarily supposed to make you able to 'do', but to let to 'know' and 'think' - which, by the way, would be something that could keep one from formulating stupid relationships.
Another thing. Your reference to Ireland may suggest that mass unemployment there, at this time, seems to be covered by the mere fact that it's less pronounced (although rising again) than in most of the rest of the industrialized world. In my country, there are millions of people, most of which 'can' and 'want', but economy does not let them 'do' anymore, neither do schools let those who could 'teach', as there are enough learned teachers to choose from and the schools' budgets keep getting thinner and thinner.
Even if some still make their careers, it's no more a world of such simple implications like skill leads to job. Which is something that still has to be grasped by many more people until society will be able to properly adjust to the phenomenon, I fear.
I'm not going to take the higher ground this time. Every school budget gets a 'no' vote from me! This school district I live in is too concerned with sports, and not concerned enough with technology, so I always vote no. If you can't spend my money wisely, I don't want you to have it.
Too bad the teachers get caught in the middle, but such is life. I can't help it if the people in the USA value sports more than education...but I CAN choose how I want my money spent.
Blar.
if, instead of attacking the rights of the entire society, people would insist that parents taught their children the difference between right and wrong. This is yet another side effect of the "we mustn't damage their esteem" child psychology crap. A good spanking or two would do wonders with most of these kids.
This is an slanderous and discriminatory statement, breathtaking in its scope that, quite frankly, any normal person should find deeply offensive. Literally, it makes something like "all blacks are lazy" - itself a singularly racist and small-minded insult - little more than a mildly critical observation
You slobbering idiot. You realise you are saying that "discrimination" -lol- against teachers (not any kind of ethnic minority last time I checked) is breathtakingly more importantly than racism against people of dark skin? This is exactly the kind of Jesus complex I'd expect from a civil service lifer who such as yourself, regardless of whatever fairy tale you make up as a life story next. What a muppet. How does fat like this get modded up?
Why attack not only an entire profession but, indeed, anyone who has ever passed on the knowledge and experience they have to another, when all you really mean is "just like any profession, teaching has some bad apples" ?
In the teaching profession, the good apples are in the extreme minority. Of course, every teacher likes to tell themselves they are in this minority. But its easier to set up straw men than to actually face that.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
Unless Canadians spell it differently, I believe it's "ridiculous." Just a friendly tip before one of your students takes a screenshot of your /. post and puts it on YouTube, captioned "written by one of my teachers." ;-)
Pi Ran Out
How does having one's window broken make one look a fool?
I would sympathize with someone in this situation, up until the moment the victim started advocating censorship. That is the moment this teacher looked like a fool.
I have seen the climate people have to teach in. It's a dog-eat-dog world, and the fact that there's a debate in schools in how far they have a duty to raise children as opposed to just teach them, the mandate you get from parents and deans and other factors don't make it an easy environment at all. I know this because I had was doing getting educated to become an English teacher once, and I have some experience in the field.
It's also true that I've had splendid teachers during my life. Teachers that to this day still influence me and my thinking. One of the best was a teacher I had in high school for History. His name was Schilder. I owe the man a debt of gratitude to this day. Funnily enough, he was not qualified to teach the upper levels of high school. The 25 year old who was qualified, was a total dimwit. She didn't have a flair for teaching, and didn't know too much about things as it is.
Which brings me to the next subject. There is a lot of truth to the post you replied to. Many teachers I've had during the course of my life did nothing that taught me anything. The kind of people that indeed remind me of the Mark Twain quote "Do not let your schooling interfere with your education". The kind of people that during tests would ask one for one's opinion, and then fail one because one failed to give *their* opinion on things. Reactionary, tired and bitter people. Unwise people. Downright ignorant people.
Specifically in the field of IT-related teaching, this can be true. I've seen many math/physics teachers that had an interest in computers that branched out into IT-related subjects at high schools while not knowing anything about the subject. Currently, my nephew is in an IT-focused high school. Not only do his teachers tell him stuff that is outright incorrect, they also fail to teach relevant topics, and manage to understimulate people.
In my corporate job at HP I've enjoyed some fiercely excellent "train-the-trainer" sessions on how to teach, how to stimulate people and how to create an environment that is conductive to learning, and from my school years I remember that none of these practices (which I've tested out there, and which work) are used in public schooling. Having had a "real job" for ten years taught me many things that these "teachers" undoubtedly have no clue about to this day.
Furthermore, while I don't think that teaching is easy-peasy, I object to your notion that having a "real job" would have you working a lot less. I guess it's human nature to think you're better than many, and it's human nature to think that you work more than others. It's also human nature to have rotten judgement about these matters. I'll leave it at that, and leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Lastly, I can say that the best teachers I've had did have considerable "life experience" outside the school. And they used that to their and our benefit.
Here in the US we have more pressing worries regarding censorship.
8 789c.html
On December 20th, President George W. Bush, in a signing statement attached to a bill, asserted that he has the right to OPEN DOMESTIC MAIL without a warrant.
Here's the article, from the New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/485561p-40
You are welcome on my lawn.
Apart from boobage and some language concerns on actual public TV Britain has been more than outpacing the US in the anti-free speech and censorship department.
For "Youtube saddam execution". I bet that footage is making the government of Iraq rather uncomfortable right about now. They had some high level government minister on NPR the other day and he changed his story about three times when they kept asking him the same question over and over again. Those questions never would have been raised if this video hadn't surfaced.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
We don't need no, thought control. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat
I know from experience that trying to teach someone what you know tends to make you better at it because it reveals the gaps in your knowledge. But that's teaching YOUR knowledge, no idea how that matches teaching a predefined curriculum...
Insert
The problem is, teachers can't teach. They can't.
People teach teach themselves. If they don't want to learn, they won't. Period. Full stop.
Teachers can do two things: present information in an engaging, open manner. And they can inspire students to *want* to learn. That's all a teacher can really do. If they think they are "teaching," they are absolutely mistaken about their powers.
It might be the duty of the teacher to ensure the student learns something, but that really isn't within their power. They can try to get the student to learn, but the student is the active participant. Or not.
If you want an education, you must get it yourself, or you won't get it at all-- no matter how fine the institution is.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
...will get worse under the PC Gordon Brown, who may well be our next PM. I am British, but spent from 1991 to 2000 in the USA. Although some of what goes on stateside is enough to drive one nuts, I have been stunned at how Britain has gone down the toilet. From celeb culture (which unlike the USA, is not limited to talented Hollywood folk, but losers) to criminals being given MORE rights than us law abiding types whose greatest sin is to drive 45mph in a 40 zone and get fined for it - and then be dragged through the courts if losing when contesting said fine. The decline here in values is extreme and far worse than anyone can imagine. One only really notices it if leaving the country and then returning. Like all flawed entities, we are doomed unless we change or something, such as a revolution occurs - but with CCTV cameras and all manner of other 'devices' in place, we're stuck - possibly forever. And in a way it's worse than 1984 or a Hollywood movie because there is no hero to come save the day. Where's Superman* when you need him? *Or Superwoman, to be PC. :-)
O'WONDERWe're working on it.
In my short life span I have never agreed with a single action of a Teacher Union. They seem to be run by people who think they are very intelligent but don't like to actually think very much. The problem with these kinds of Unions is that they force all Teacher's to pay dues to them and then go and spend the money to champion asinine causes like "Controlling the Internet". I'm sure actual Teachers can see the problem with this idea.
I think that part of the problem can actually be regionalized in some cases. I've worked IT in a few school districts, and it seems that the case of teachers being tech-illiterate (or illiterate period, I can't begin to describe the frustration of teachers whose grammar/spelling skills verge on the grade 4 level) tends to fall within a certain region or school. In schools where there are some rather technically inclined teachers, it seems that either said teacher helps the others learn new tricks, or that they decide to learn so they don't look dumb.
In some schools, however, I must state that I've found the teachers to be plain lazy when it comes to technology or learning in general. The mood can be "I've gone to school, now I teach, don't expect me to learn anything new." These teachers are the ones who complain their computers don't work, when they've actually been unplugged (by somebody doing cleaning, or a student etc). They fight tooth-and-nail against any new or different technology, and they absolutely despise anyone who tries to tell them that they need to *learn* something.
This isn't to say that it's the case with all my teachers, some are genuinely as fond of learning as teaching, others are simply afraid of breaking something, but there are definately a significant number that treat IT like bad voodoo, and will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future.
Again, this isn't to insult you personally or your job. I quite enjoy working in schools myself, it's just that there are bad teachers: ones that are there for a paycheque, or just looking on their retirement in the next few years, etc, and they tend to be highly visible but for some reason highly unfirable... perhaps because some of the worse ones are quite senior and management would rather let them play out their time than fight to get them out. I'll also bite that I've also seen some lazy and empire-building techs in my time, so it's not as if my industry is immune either.
When the UK government films people committing crimes and distributes the videos freely over cable TV throughout the neighborhood, at great taxpayer expense, it's OK.
When the criminals film and incriminate themselves, at no cost to the tax payer, then it's a problem?
This is typical, twisted 1984-style thinking.
And you best get used to it. When you get a real job you also have no recourse either (Apart from moving to a different company, but you could have done that at school if you asked your parents nicely enough).
The reality is that most people spend at least half their academic lives whining about what piss poor teachers / lecturers they have. Then they grow up, get a full time job and can whine about the boss instead (or co-workers).
This isn't the case at good companies (usually large ones). There are many ways of dealing with bad bosses at larger companies these days.
I didn't have a choice in the matter. I was told to block sites such as deviantart (which IMHO is great for aspiring artists who want to post their work up) because it had a nude section buried somewhere in it, and various other similar sites. Unfortunately my admins upheld that if a teacher wanted to block a site, it got blocked.
"Unfortunately, any yob or vandal can now have their 15 minutes of fame, aided and abetted by readily accessible technology and irresponsible internet sites which enable such behaviour to be glorified. [The general secretary of the union] said the union supported a zero tolerance approach in schools to pupils who used technology to abuse and undermine teachers, and called for more rigorous legislative control of internet sites which gave them license."
Seriously... change a couple of words and this could be a hysterical rant against books.
To think that these people are adults and, supposedly, educated.
- I am made of meat.
This is just another application of "It causes things I don't agree with or like. Therefore, it must be banned for the good of society." This type of rationalization is also known as "California Thought".
Simply because someone uses something to commit a crime doesn't mean that the mode of execution is bad or pointless. Similarly, just because someone uses a gun to commit a murder does not mean that gun makers or the gun itself is bad or evil. It means that the individual is. Gun manufacturers did not allow or instigate the individual into committing the murder, and the gun did not allow or instigate the individual to commit the murder (The gun was unloaded until the individual decided to load it, disengage the safety catch, chamber a live round, aimed the weapon, and pull the trigger.).
When applied to the event in the article, the teachers are simply wrong. The student broke the teacher's window and then posted a videotape of himself committing the act on YouTube (or BoobTube, whichever you prefer), which is accessed by way of the Internet. YouTube did not allow or instigate the student into breaking the window, and the Internet did not allow or instigate the student into breaking the window. The camera and computer manufacturers and retailers did not allow or instigate the student into breaking the window. The camera and computer manufacturers and retailers, just as gun manufacturers and retailers, are not at fault for any crime, wrongdoing, or mis, even though the individual used their products in the commission of the crime. Even if they used the camera and or computer itself to break the window.
I know some of you are already screaming bloody murder sice I stated that the gun did not allow the individual to commit the murder, since it was the gun that he used as his method to kill the individual. Similarly, guns are just as much a method of killing AND weapons as are bricks, knives, baseball bats, beer bottles, cars, tire irons, string/rope/piano wire, and human appendages.
Bad People Do Bad Things. Get used to it. There is absolutely NO reason to hold to world accountable for an individual's actions, no matter how despicable. Only the individuals who COMMITTED the crime have done anything wrong. Victims suing everybody and anybody for a wrong that was committed against them by someone are clearly out for money and/or "to leave their mark on the world". It doesn't benefit anyone but the "victim's" bank book or public image. Legislators are already O.K. with this crude, bastardized form of human logic.
Here's a novel idea: Instead of censoring the entire Internet because of content you don't like or agree with, try a less socially detrimental remedy to the problem: Make the kid pay for repairs.
Being a Litigant State is being a Police State by other means. I know. I live in California.
DISCLAIMER: I *DO* believe in holding gun manufacturers criminally responsible when they desing firearms that are badly engineered by any standard. This is very rare occurance, but there are 'engineers', IN EVERY INDUSTRY (not just firearms), who shouldn't be allowed to even pick up a pencil. If you want examples, read SlashDot often and you will eventually find them.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Wrong. You're such a fucking fool you can't even provide statistics to back up your claim. Unlike you, I do have some evidence to support my findings that you are incorrect. They are available from this web site of the UK government: http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/statistics/statis tics35.htm
Burglary in the UK actually skyrocketed from 1989 to 1998. Since then it has remained stable, and has not dropped, as you incorrectly suggest. The surge in burglaries the late 1980s and early 1990s is likely due to the "Reaganomics" economic policies that the Thatcher government adopted from the Americans during that time period. As was clear to anyone with even an ounce of knowledge, supply-side economics is tomfoolery! It put many factories under, which no doubt lead to greater crime.
The 1950s were a time of prosperity for America and the UK. As is often the case in such times, crime was drastically lower. People don't have the incentive, regardless of age, to commit crime when the economy is strong. The 1950s and 60s were after years of leftish rule in both countries. In the UK and US, however, we've had many years of right-wing government. Thus our economies are not doing as well, and it's not surprising that crime is up.
Considering how many schools there are in suburban northern virginia, that pretty much covers everyone.
Yes, it's blatantly unconstitutional. Think you can hold on to your livlihood while fighting your way up to the surpreme court?
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
Story about two kids who died imitating the Saddam execution video.
Or perhaps, more grist for the Darwin Awards...
Competition to post the most egregious vandalism videos on YouTube starts in 5... 4... 3...
Teachers are not "educators" or "trainers".
They are cops for kids.
Period.
The so-called "educational system" needs to be destroyed completely - at least below the college level - and replaced by an "educational industry" that provides learning technology to people. This would more be more like the way, in the early years of the US. education was provided by freelance tutors, rather than an institution noted both for its decades-old incompetence leading to the general lack of education in the US (and elsewhere, but especially the US) and its malevolent deforming of human children.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
That the mouse is now mightier than the pen. Will censorship somehow prevent students from having their bevhaviour glorified? Possibly, but isn't it the behhaviour that should be somehow prevented?