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To Curb Truancy, Dallas Tries Electronic Monitoring
The New York Times is reporting that a school district in Texas is trying a new angle in combating truancy. Instead of punishing students with detention they are tagging them with electronic monitoring devices. "But the future of the Dallas program is uncertain. Mr. Pottinger's company, the Center for Criminal Justice Solutions, is seeking $365,000 from the county to expand the program beyond Bryan Adams. But the effort has met with political opposition after a state senator complained that ankle cuffs used in an earlier version were reminiscent of slave chains. Dave Leis, a spokesman for NovaTracker, which makes the system used in Dallas, said electronic monitoring did not have to be punitive. 'You can paint this thing as either Big Brother, or this is a device that connects you to a buddy who wants to keep you safe and help you graduate.'"
I wonder which of these two conclusions the students will come to.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
That depends. If only students with a history of truancy are tagged, then I don't have a problem with this. However, as with all things handled by the government, they will eventually expand it to automatically tag all students, regardless of their attendance record.
-- Will program for bandwidth
I always joked that highschool was like prison. Nothing to do (with our poor education budget) but to wait to get out after you've served your 4 years. Now its really going to be true, thats really very sad.
Keep in mind a couple of things:
* The kids in the program were on the verge of being sent to the Texas Youth Commission, aka Juvenile Detention.
* Once you're in the TYC, you're likely to be beaten, raped, and held indefinitely.
When the choice is between being treated *like* a criminal, versus learning to *be* a criminal in Texas highly successful Criminal Conversion System, I think it's pretty obvious why any judge would choose to give the kid an ankle shackle instead of condemning him to (eventual) death.
Of course, the "choice" is mind-numbingly stupid. Now that the story of the TYC abuses has finally broken, maybe the next legislature will do something about the broken system that turns minor offenders into hardened criminals. Not likely, of course, because nobody ever got voted out of office for putting *too many* men, women, or children in jail.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Sounds like so much doublespeak to me.
What's next? Tattoos on the backs of the necks of the little snowflakes? Where are these kids parents, why aren't they getting involved and paying attention to what their kids are doing?
If I had a big brother, I'm sure that he, too, would want to "keep [me] safe and help [me] graduate."
However, I don't, and I did quite fine all by my self. The government can't even keep track of laptops, how are they supposed to keep track of kids?
It's total bull, just like airport security, only more intrusive. Why do all these "tracking" programs get tested on school kids? Just to get them used to the idea so by the time they're adults, they don't know any better...
It's shameful.
I was going to say that I have a problem with it no matter what, but on second thought, I think the question should go to the parents. Minors have limited rights, and if the parents want to monitor them using tools the state provides, in order to keep them in school, maybe that's OK. (Personally, if it were my kid, I would consider this a very desperate measure - it certainly doesn't foster mutual trust and respect.)
On the other hand, if this is forced on students without parents' consent, then it's a big problem.
Consider this: parents have a right to know where their kid is at all times; the school should only be concerned about that during school hours. When is the tracking turned off?
heh.
you haven't been to deep ellum recently, have you?
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
They have to start somewhere. If you look at the history of the US government over the past 100 years, this is exactly what you will see: small, seemingly harmless steps towards bigger and more powerful government that go unnoticed by the masses. Add up those 100 years of government expansion and today you've got a government that absolutely dwarfs the US government of only 100 years ago, both in revenue and power over the people.
Totalitarianism comes one small step at a time, never in one giant sweep.
...which is what these kids actually need.
If parents would actually PARENT, maybe we wouldn't need so much of a "Nanny" state. But until that happens, comparisons to 1984esque totalitarianism is absurd.
Your right to screw up ends at my right to not have to subsidize your screw ups.
How is the information on the map any greater a risk than allowing a child to go outside without constant supervision? That's something 10 year old kids used to get to do, and there weren't more abductions when I was a kid (a short 20 years ago) than there are now.
As for the parent/family member part, they usually have a decent idea where their kids live, so they don't need a map to find them.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
It puzzles me how many people still don't grasp the costs of an uneducated public. Public education isn't about getting ahead; it is about staying afloat.
It might seem hard for some to believe, but society really is better off if that minimum wage landscaper knows how to read and even how to type. It helps a lot when the 7-11 clerk has a basic understanding of economics. It helps if the lady changing the sheets at the local hotel knows algebra. It helps when the lawn mower mechanic knows something about world history.
There are some large scale issues that require a cooperative effort on a very large scale. Sure, bright, educated people can take the lead on most of these issues. But society will advance much quicker if the average man on the street can grasp the implications of the problem and the possible solutions. If smart people could spend more time thinking up solutions and less time explaining to the "dumb" people why and how to implement those solutions, society could advance more quickly. "Go fill out an application" is much more efficient than "Let me drive you over and fill out an application for you."
Imagine if a postal worker, or say a patent clerk, was capable of applying their education to solve difficult problems. What if a truck driver had enough education to streamline their operations and reduce fuel consumption? Or what if they used their elementary physics education and their hours on the road to conceive new ideas for the ball bearings in their 18 wheels?
Would that help somebody besides themselves?
School is NOT about education. It is simply jail/daycare for kids.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
They don't want to help you graduate... they want to get paid. Schools lose money when students don't show up. The whole program is simple math. They are planning on spend X amount of money on preventative programs in hopes of securing Y amount of dollars per student kept in school. They just need to make sure that X is less than Y and I'm sure that there are all sorts of studies that have been done by the vendor to prove that their device will reduce truancy by Z percent and that Z percent is high enough so that X will be less than Y.
Sure it does, just not in this case.
The problem is the left is blaming the right, and the right is blaming the left... the truth is that it happens at both extreme ends of the spectrum, and each side allows little bits at a time that jive with their perspective.
Of course, anyone that wants the government to stop and go back to it's size and scope from 100 years ago is labeled "lunatic fringe" and detractors don't even have to counter all the valid arguments, they just have to call you "crazy" to marginalize your campaign...
Stupid sexy Flanders.
would be to have all publicly elected officials wear these things as a condition of holding the office, followed by forensic analysis of their finances during and for 10 years after their tenure ends ;-)
Why? This isn't a requirement. It's an option equivalent to juvenile detention. As I see it, it gives a kid a choice between juvie and doing what they're supposed to be doing.
TFA clearly states that this is being used for kids with very serious truancy problems. It's not for some kid who's late a couple times. And if the kid prefers to wear the transmitter and go to school, great. And if not, he is detained under more traditional circumstances. At no time is the school system sneaking up on kids and tagging their ears -- this is a choice given to the kid and his family.
In theory, I agree with others around here that if it gets to this level, the parents relinquished control at some point. But be that as it may, until the kids are 16 they're not only the parents' responsibility, but the community's as well. You may take issue with the laws surrounding that issue, but that's not the point. The point is to make the child comply with existing attendance laws, and this seems to me to be a better way than locking them up with other kids who have screwed up their lives in whatever widely varying ways.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Golly gee, what are we teaching these kids? Think about it and you won't have to wonder why the world will be going downhill into the next generation. They learn by example and we're sure giving them one. By the way, kids do have full rights, given at birth by the constitution, just because we don't acknowledge it doesn't make it true. Just more proof that we're hypocrites and are happy to teach it to the youngest of us.
Wish I had those years back instead of wasting them in a 'public education/indoctrination institution'. I'm serious. My advice to any child is if you don't want to be there, drop out. It's mostly a waste of time. I cannot honestly point to anything I use today in life/career that I learned in school. Not a one. All you need now is an Internet connection and a library card. I'm convinced that if I had children I could have them well versed in the Greek classics and Latin by 11 years old. We are raising our children to be brainless machines & criminals.
because politicians are more than willing to make us pay for them later in life. You know the type, never a good job, poor health, usually a few addictions that get their money, and worse - children who repeat the cycle
I think school was much better when the fear of punishment (the oppressive state) did very well in encouraging you to behave. The simple fact is, some of these people need to be whacked up side the head. They need a "big brother" though the government isn't the best option.
Here is the question, do you want to pay to keep them from screwing up in the first place or pay for them for the rest of their lives.
and all because we put more value on their "rights" than the rights of the society that has to tolerate and pay for them
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
The screw up only has a right to be a screw up until it begins to effect someone else. Then they're screwing up society at which point society has a right to do something about it. Please look everyone. This is what fascism looks like.
It might not have the racism or militarism of the Nazi flavor of fascism, nor the more corporate efficiency of Mussulini's flavor. But, the appeal that society is more important than the individual is a strong fascist tennet.
Has anyone read Corey Doctorow's "Little Brother"? It not only describes this situation, but also the most likely response to it.
Anyone who thinks this is a good idea is not only an idiot, but is also the vilest danger to the American way of life I can imagine. First it's criminals. Then it's truant kids. Then it's all kids in school - to protect against child abuse you know. Then it's everyone, and objection to the policy is immediate grounds for suspicion ("Why are you complaining if you've got nothing to hide?").
Funny thing is, when we try to hold our government or corporations or even school boards up to the same transparency, they immediately throw hissy fits and start claiming executive privilege and "losing" emails. Why are they complaining if they have nothing to hide?
The crimes of eBay are a disgrace to it's pig latin heritage!
I'm lucky that my kids are sane and are doing well in school, but I'm aware that it is partly luck. I've known parents who thought things were okay, and felt that this was to their credit, only to find later that their 8th grader was part of a prostitution ring at school. Suddenly they felt that their own efforts were a little less of a factor, and all of a sudden it was "the culture," etc. We all want to take credit when things go well.