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The Wi-Fi On the Bus
theodp writes "For students who endure hundreds of hours on a school bus each year in a desert exurb of Tucson, the Wi-Fi on the bus improves the ride. Last fall, school officials mounted a $200 mobile Internet router from Autonet Mobile to bus No. 92's sheet-metal frame, enabling students to surf the Web. What began as a hi-tech experiment has had an unexpected result — Wi-Fi has transformed the formerly boisterous bus rides into a rolling study hall, and behavioral problems have virtually disappeared. 'Boys aren't hitting each other, girls are busy, and there's not so much jumping around,' said J. J. Johnson, the Internet Bus driver."
I doubt it.
1-to-10 says they're all on facebook.
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
Up and down... up and down. the wifi on the bus goes down and then, all peace ends.
"behavioral problems have virtually disappeared" --- well, that depends on what you consider a behavioral problem. I find it healthier for a bunch of kid to be noisy and hyperactive (even if this involves occasionally hitting each other) than to be all hunched down on their 7'' netbooks checking Facebook.
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
Just like good parenting...
Stick a TV/DS/Xbox infront of your kid and they act all perfect.
Can't wait for the virtual elementary school. Just strap your kid to the gurney and put the goggles on 'em.
I know, I know. This is robably a good thing. Kids fighting on a school bus is probably not the safest thing. But on reading the article, I can't help but compare it to medicating a kid so he doesn't run around as much and so he's docile and well behaved and compliant and conforming. That's scary to me.
The boys are all looking at porn, and the girls are on social networks discussing how to get their boy's attention or how to make themselves look nicer than the professional porn stars...
In all seriousness however, in ten years I imagine that the internet will be accessible in every location and being unable to access the internet in the middle of the desert or on top of a mountain will result in some serious complaints to the phone companies.
Over engineering if you ask me. The same result can be accomplished with a roll of duct tape. Silence is golden, duct tape is silver as the saying goes.
Right, because before putting wifi on the bus, there were so many opportunities for learning and self-achievement
If anything, making people shut the fuck up in the bus will help the introspective types that just want to be left alone so they can get some reading done. From personal experience, the most distracting thing about reading in the bus was not trying to read through the bumpiness and the constant starting and stopping. No, the most distracting thing was the guy next to me trying to get into a fight with the dude directly in front of me, reducing my personal space to whatever my eye's shortest focal length could be.
This signature serves no purpose other than to help you see which posts were made by me.
I don't know about this. I'd assume that if kids were behaving so wildly Internet access wouldn't help the situation. Kids would just beat each other up for mobile devices, surf for porn etc. Personally I think they've found a way to emit Ritalin waves via the wireless transmitter. Now please excuse me, I'm late to an appointment with the drycleaner. My tinfoil hat was getting rather dirty.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
It looks just like a telefunken U47.
Don't make a fuss, just get on the bus!
You'll love it.
It's a way of life!
One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces. - PF
So what exactly should the bus driver be doing? Isn't better if he can concentrate on driving the bus instead of disciplining kids?
The kids never actually have to interact with one another. Problem solved.
The three most important words in a relationship are "I love you." The two most important are "Humor me."
Since I was the one usually getting hit, frankly I dont' wouldn't care what they are were hunched down on as long as it isn't me.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
Well, reading is "distracting" and "entertaining". My kids use their computers to play games, sure. Listen to obnoxious music, sure. But they also study the videos of their swims, (they're competitive swimmers), do homework, write poetry and stories, and such. (I'm sure they're going to be Nobel-winning authors. NOT. But they have fun with it.)
This just takes it up to the next level. I hated riding the bus; I'd rather take the subway. Too many kids being assholes on the bus.
I think all in all this is good. The bus driver has to drive, not be a nanny. The more attention s/he can pay to driving and not to screaming fighting kids, the safer everyone is.
And, best of all, listen to the kids. They like it, although no doubt they didn't quote the disaffected ones.
Or the idiot parents that get the DVD player in the minivan. That one blows my mind. "Going to the store kids! pick out a movie for the 5 minute ride!"
wow..... just wow....
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
In a time when school budgets are being slashed, this is pretty expensive. You put this on 50 buses and you've just lost a teacher.
That's really about the only thing which would make me dislike the service. Buses are notoriously rowdy places, and hotbeds for bullying. If you have a long bus ride, it probably could function as a partial study hall - especially with the filtering that most public schools put in place. Even if the kids are just pulling up online magazines to read, or chatting with friends, it's not that bad - their gainfully occupied and relatively quiet.
A bunch of posters seem to think that a bus should be rowdy. Why? Is the bus driver not normally distracted enough? And what, exactly, is "normal" or "free" about sticking 30 kids in an enclosed space for 45 minutes twice a day with nothing to do? It sucks. Might as well give them something to do that doesn't involve carrying (yet more) books to read on the way, or give them an option other that talking/arguing with the 6 other kids that happen to sit near them.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
There's not one minute of my childhood I wished I'd be crammed in a bus being forced to sit still and shut up because it builds character and patience.
Life is short. Wasting away your life because you think you have so much of it is one of the worst things you can do. /says the guy posting on slashdot.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
mental and social development is more that just studying.
Boys and girls use different methods to increase their social competence and one important element is their little fighting, shouting and jumping. The girls should also make noise and difficult towards each other. This is necessary. Educators should know this. Well, good educators, anyway.
And kids should not be studying on the bus at all. This attitude of "more TIME spent studying = better" needs to go the way of the Dodo. Socializing is probably even MORE important. And I know most of /. probably got beaten up on the school bus, but that was also a part of finding our social circle and knowing how to behave around jocks and other idiots. Part of the reason that you are an alpha geek is that you figured out that you don't have anything in common with those half-simian mooks on the school bus..
But seriously. BAD idea.
well, you gotta remember these are long-ass bus trips we're talking about. more than an hour each way. conversation with the kid next to you only goes so far, and i'm sure at least some of the kids appreciate the chance to work on some homework.
---
Is this the MPAA? Is this the RIAA? Is this the DMCA? I thought it was the USA!
Geez. Everyone knows that all signals cause cancer or enable the government to control our minds!
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
"This is just so typical. Let's not teach children to behave, have patience. imagination, read books, or anything else. Let's just DISTRACT/ENTERTAIN them."
If the choice is between being a bullying beast and a zombie, zombify the little fuckers so they leave the smart kids alone!
BTW stop pretending that "teaching" them to behave is a fucking option without the ability to IMPOSE discipline which is what builds SELF discipline!
Getting them to sit down and shut up is a great accomplishment, and the smart kids can use the net access to their benefit.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Pretty much depend on what they are doing while there, what you consider "education", and how much you consider education what they would be doing if that werent implemented. In any case, the main difference between internet and the things that parents put them at home, is that tv is not even interactive, and games are usually alone, no interaction with others.
Anyway, if they are so plugged at the bus, then at home they wouldnt be tv/ds/xbox, but pretty much at what they are doing at the bus.
BTW, i live in Uruguay, where most school children have an XO (and few days i read that they plan to give them to even younger kids), and there seem to be a trend to be quieter and plugged to them for some children at least. I hope that that kind of education don't have a clear negative effect (if it will be the end of childhood, please that be the A.C.Clarke version)
They are learning to run a virtual farm on facebook.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
I can think of a vast number of trips in the car that I experienced as a child that would have been improved a million-fold by the presence of a movie. Driving is usually boring. I did a lot of reading on trips, but that was trouble on long trips - I wouldn't always finish the book when we were near a major metro area.
Most things that kids get dragged along to are things that the adults really don't want the kids around for - like grocery runs - but that would be too expensive to hire a babysitter for every time you wanted to do them. Couple that with increased expectations of supervision by the authorities (see here; Illinois requires supervision at all times for all kids under 14, and the site and several states' CPS suggest that children should be 12 before they're ever left alone), and you've got kids spending a lot more time in the car than thirty years ago. I was left home alone by 7 or 8 for short trips, by 10 for several-hour blocks, and by 12 I was babysitting my sister all day during the summer. I also walked home from school, about a mile, from third grade on. (If the weather was nice, I'd ride my bike both ways, but I liked to sleep late too much to wake up early enough to walk there.)
I just took a trip to Penang. Wifi buses are widespread there - perhaps 1 in every 5 that pulled up. I just wonder when bystanders will start staging 'accidents' so they can finish their surfing ...
Adopt the restraint technique used for Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs: Face mask, straight jacket, and tied to a hand cart for easy mobility.
Parent: How was school today?
Child: mmrrmmph...
Parent: Awww, isn't that special.
Right, because before putting wifi on the bus, there were so many opportunities for learning and self-achievement
Actually, you're right. They're missing the mark on the public school mission, and what public schools are best at: socialization.
Really, there's no better argument for mass public schools: get along with those around you and you'll be a good adult, or some such shit. The education is shit, so nothing to remark about as a positive there.
So, truly: the wifi is detracting from the Mission Statement. Someone will probably have to get rid of it.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Serious question: How many kids have you raised?
I occasionally take the Montreal-Magog bus in Quebec. This is a 90 minutes ride, mostly highway. Still, the bus has access to the Internet through free wifi. It's especially good considering most of the ride is through rural areas.
Most Estonian railroad and bus companies have had WiFi on them for years using Kõu (thunder). Loving it.
This is a good thing in the sense that it gives students an opportunity to be more productive during a time that they normally wouldn't be. However, being rowdy and stupid on the school bus is part of being a high-schooler. Kids at that age should be loud and crazy, simply because they won't get the opportunity to do that elsewhere or when they age. Sure, some people might get the short end of the stick (I did when I was in HS and middle school, though I almost always walked to school), but I always thought it was part of growing up.
While I don't regret the way my high school years panned out, some social issues I'm facing now would have certainly been made easier to deal with had I relaxed a little back then. Being quiet and structured all the time has its flaws.
O'Doel RULES!
Most Estonian railway and bus companies have been offering free WiFi via Kõu (thunder) on longer rides for some years now. Loving it.
I followed your link, then another link, and found the Illinois law actually says:
So based on that little snippet, it says "an unreasonable period of time" and "without regard for their safety."
And that pretty much leaves it to the judge unless those terms are defined.
I don't think it's unreasonable to leave a 12 year old alone for 3 or 4 hours after school if it's a responsible kid.
I do think it's unreasonable to leave him alone for 3 or 4 days.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
Indeed, even Mike Tyson agrees.
Some say your school years are the best years of your life, but that's really looking through rose tinted glasses. There's bullying, isolation, social discomfit, inferiority complexes, and all manner of other things. There are good things too, and for most of us it's the friends we make at school.
I agree with the general consensus, those kids aren't studying up for the next exam - they're on Facebook / Twitter / Myspace or downloading pr0n. Now, what they should be doing instead of placing a bloody great big laptop shaped barrier between themselves and the other kids is SOCIALISING with the group of people that will most likely be their friends from here till death. Who are your friends in middle age? It's your school chums and work mates for many. Any new barrier between them and you is a potential lifelong loss of friendship.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Facebook to see what my old school friends and previous work mates are chatting about today.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
A bullying victim can't have a cop or a teacher or a parent standing over them, protecting them all the time. The only people who are always present when bullying occurs are the perp and the victim. The only person who is always available and able to convince the perp that bullying is a bad idea is the victim.
Refuse to be a victim.
Specific instructions as to how to do that would only open this post to criticism based on unimportant details, so I'm not going there. Let the principle stand: You, the victim, can break the cycle of abuse. It's absolutely heartbreaking that so many kids don't figure this out before they're 40 years old.
Young adults, when given internet, will use it!
I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
You know, it's times like these that I wish I had a sockpuppet account just so I could mod up an insightful commentary on my post.
Its not about "shutting the fuck up" or even being introspective (which one should be able to do without a computer/mobile device in their hands). Its about being able to handle yourself without some sort of on demand self-determined audio/visual stimulation.
I am genuinely concerned that kids are living in a world where they are almost always able to distance themselves from the here and now. They are not as empathic, not inclined to listen or engage in, or with, the unfamiliar when its not self-directed. Not that kids aren't 'bored enough' but its being able to genuinely think and act creatively in an otherwise blank slate of time that kids are missing out on. /plus I like to think, "what happens when the bombs fall and we don't have technology to coddle us every single second of our lives?" Power outages become truly devastating when kids are emotionally tethered to their devices.
This bus is on the information superhighway!
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Now THAT'S the opiate of the masses.
Something like what the old man went through in Soylent Green might be nice!
Usually gadget theft is by persons that know each other. I don't think a bus - which is a bit of a controlled and certainly closed environment - is a great place for theft.
As trying to attack the bus itself, I can't image too many people stooping that low. And even if they would, imagine the consequences when you get caught or convicted of a crime like that. Society is very protective of its children.
The biggest threat is probably from local (kids) gangs and bullies when walking from the bus to the home.
They are using wifi as a distraction to modify behavior. These are kids. They should be able to behave without a electronic distraction. Yes, kids can be mean. Kids can bully. The solution is not to give those causing problems a shiny object to distract them. The solution is to actually teach kids to be responsible.
This isn't an either/or situation where the kids will misbehave or have wifi. It's using wifi instead of correcting the underlying issue. Kids can be taught to behave. But here is another situation with electronics are parenting, not the parents. There was a time where a kid misbehaving was reported to the parent and the situation was corrected except in the most drastic of situations that usually was medical at its root.
But now we give them wifi.
Disclaimer. I am a parent. I used to ride the bus to school.
Can't wait for the virtual elementary school. Just strap your kid to the gurney and put the goggles on 'em.
Unfortunately this situation seems to exist in the form of poorly trained teachers, for whom science education is limited to videos on the interactive whiteboard.
While good advice for the individual, it doesn't fix the bigger problem of the bully moving on to bully someone else, as well as the bully often being an unhappy person for various reasons (like bullied in their past). There is a lot to be said for well functioning communities too. Example of advice for the community:
http://www.beyondbullying.com/whatyoucando.html
"""
You can help to stop bullying in your school. Check your own behaviour. Refuse to be involved in any bullying situation.
Do not allow someone to be deliberately left out of a group.
Encourage a bullied pupil to join in with your activities or groups.
How To Challenge Bullying Behaviour
If You See Someone Being Bullied:
Do not smile or laugh.
Tell a member of staff what is happening.
If you can, tell the bully to stop what they are doing.
If you can, show the bully that you disapprove of his or her actions.
If you do nothing when you see bullying, you may be allowing it to happen, or even encouraging it
"""
This biggest problem with school bullying is that compulsory schools themselves are usually bullies and demonstrate that all the time by the authoritarian environment. So, you get a lot of what the school intentionally or not teaches.
http://www.newciv.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
It's a great story (ie, if the WiFi is reliable, across the trip to school), but we just want to point out that a similar "work on the trip" scheme was available to ASEA employees traveling from Stockeholm & the ASEA company town (whose Swedish name escapes me, for the moment).
Workstations - desks with FAXes, computers & phones, from all reports - were available on special passenger cars on each AM & PM train, so that staff could catch-up or finish-up as they commuted.
(Of course, this was before WiFi, so, FAXes would have worked via the mobile network.)
PS ASEA was the company that had the 1-person, doorless "non-stop elevator"... to go up or down, just hop-in (as the slowly elevator passed the hole in the wall, next to the elevator buttons.
Note: Be sure to hop out, ie, before the loop of elevator cars took you over the top of the vertical loop! (I suppose, if you didn't, a safety-device would stop the whole loop - eg, to preclude injury, but - in the process - stop the others, as they tried to shave a few seconds off their up/down travel time...)
"Second wise, minute foolish"?
Maybe... but at least they innovated in that era!
(It might have saved some electricity, eg, in a busy building.)
Does any past ASEA insider have details of the (pre-'Net) net-savings (or otherwise) brought by either of these innovations?
Do any current [ABB] runs of the Vaesteraas train still offer such workstations, eg, with Internet connectivity, or other additions?
"Towards a Post-Scarcity New York State of Mind (through homeschooling)" :-) because ultimately local schools will grow into larger vibrant community learning centers open to anyone in the community and looking more like college campuses. New York State could try this plan incrementally in a few different school districts across the state as pilot programs to see how it works "
http://www.pdfernhout.net/towards-a-post-scarcity-new-york-state-of-mind.html
"New York State current spends roughly 20,000 US dollars per schooled child per year to support the public school system. This essay suggests that the same amount of money be given directly to the family of each homeschooled child. Further, it suggests that eventually all parents would get this amount, as more and more families decide to homeschool because it is suddenly easier financially. It suggests why ultimately this will be a win/win situation for everyone involved (including parents, children, teachers, school staff, other people in the community, and even school administrators
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
...but was I the only one racing to get homework done the morning before school? This could be a good opportunity for all the procrastinators to get that last bit of homework done.
Notice how the character of the bus changed when it became a place with more learner-directed learning-and-playing-on-demand instead of just an extension of day prison. (This is not to advocate violent games for behavior control, of course.) But, as with all such reports, there is no acknowledgment of the bigger issues, or apologies for past trauma and pain caused by aspects of schooling and ignored. What about all those years of bus problems? Those are just ignored, even as they are admitted now that there is a possible solution. What about the implications about children having more control over what they do versus behavior problems including aggression? Again, ignored. Also, what are the political implications of schools controlling network access to children and logging everything they do? Also, ignored. What are the implications of some kids having computers and others not? Again, ignored. Granted, it's a short article, my question is not so much about the reporting as the schooling culture it might reflect.
There are negative issues for media like being indoors away from sunlight and vitamin D, issues of being sedentary (even on a bus), issues of problematical content, and issues of other displaced healthy activities. But those need to be weighed against benefits of media for education, creativity, connectedness, and empowerment. And that media landscape continues to change with new technologies or new understanding about health issues.
Some more thoughts on the general topic; rather than wi-fi on the bus, why not just give the school taxes directly to the parents to spend on their family in the free market based on their own unique needs?
http://www.pdfernhout.net/towards-a-post-scarcity-new-york-state-of-mind.html
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
I graduated at around the same time you did, but I'm going to say I've noticed things have changed. You didn't need a laptop in 2006, because there were large computer labs and less homework needed computers. Now, with more courses having online components, and with schools slashing their computer lab budgets (my college has less computers now than there were in 2006), you need a laptop just to get anything done outside of home. And, counter-strike is very useful for passing the time in large gen-ed classes with mandatory attendance yet little substance.
A: This solution will get us there.
Q: What is "Separate But Equal" Alex?
Go back and audit some classes, I disagree completely. In '05 plenty of people had laptops in classes and my visits show that it's become even more dominant. Many people I know carried laptops with them if only to use in between classes or later in the library. Now a bunch of them have netbooks. Update your Facebook while having a pint or take some notes during a lecture or fine tune a paper minutes before it is due. Perhaps it depends on the university, discipline aside maybe different universities have different adoption rates.
"And that pretty much leaves it to the judge unless those terms are defined.
I don't think it's unreasonable to leave a 12 year old alone for 3 or 4 hours after school if it's a responsible kid."
The problem is that many people now think that is not responsible. Those people may include judges. If you are ever in front of a judge it is also likely that something rare but bad has happened and CPS is not on your side. Makes for great media ratings. So people get paranoid.
Well in this case it's a 70min bus ride each direction to a digital school. This school issues every student a laptop instead of the old standard heavy text books. No problem with some students not having laptops. These high school students spend more then 2 hours each day on the bus. Some live on ranches and most likely have a long list of chores to do at home as well, I know I did when I lived on a ranch.
I agree that not all the kids are going to be doing something productive with the internet, the artical even talks about that, but the ones not being productive are not bothering the ones that are. Think of it as a library setting where the kids are waiting to be picked up, this one just happens to be rolling.
For those that think the cost is too much. Consider this is only being used on an extremely long route, one bus and that I highly doubt they are paying for the service over the summer. And for those that say being rowdy on the bus is part of growing up. It was just that rowdiness that caused an accident when I was on a bus ages ago. The driver looked up into the mirror to see a fight breaking out and hit a parked car. The bus is not the place to be rowdy.
All it will take is for a couple of the geeks, nerds and ~wads to fire up World Of Warcraft or start up a torrent client and saturate the bandwidth.
The bullies will realize this and will then do what they do best.
"What kind of speeds can I expect? Over the 3G network, download speeds average from 400kbps-800kbps. Upload ranges from 128kbps-300kbps. When not on 3G the average download is 120kbps-200kbps and 50kbps-100kbps for upload."q>
Now we know why the kids are so quiet. They spend the whole trip waiting for something to load.
Nothing like the hypnotic effects of glowing rectangles to lull the children into a dull trance.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
I don't think todays kids are learning to deal with boredom very well.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
I agree with you that laptops are nice for working when labs are unavailable in college; This article, however, is about school buses for primary/secondary students.
In order for the bus wifi to be cost-effective it must be utilized; for that to happen, the schools must either provide laptops or encourage students to bring laptops.
Way back in the stupid ages when I was in high school, the school's policy discouraged bringing expensive/fancy gadgets - they're neither helpful in classes with curricula that assume students bring pens and paper nor secure in halls full of mischievous students.
I'll be your candy shop of infinite deliciousity if you'll be my discotheque of endless rump-shaking.
When did you last audit a primary or secondary school class?
The topic at hand is using technology funding for wifi on buses as part of compulsory education.
If the bus-based wifi is not limited in such a way that it can only be used for schoolwork, why should the school's budget pay for it?
Assume it is limited, proxied, etc. so that students don't just surf for porn and update Facebook.
If the schools pay for mobile wifi subscriptions, then they may have to provide laptops as well to ensure each student has an equal opportunity to make use of the technology.
Those laptops should provide enough reference material (eBooks, cached wikipedia, etc.) to be useful while disconnected from networks, so even with cheap hardware they may require a fair deal of licensed material.
Providing wifi on buses is a slippery slope toward using costly technology in places where it has never been needed before.
That seems like a big investment to reduce the frequency of hair pulling and yelling among kids of an age where such bad behaviors are normal.
I'll be your candy shop of infinite deliciousity if you'll be my discotheque of endless rump-shaking.
The wifi on the bus goes up and down,
Up and down, up and down.
The wifi on the bus goes up and down,
All through the town!
</sing>
Seriously though, will we get this on city buses and trains? And the stations? This could considerably encourage the use of public transportation at a fairly low cost to cities.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Yes, we need continues horseplay in a moving vehicle
bigger antenna ?
This could be wonderful for socialization. Imagine this from a kid's perspective. On a bus, you get to socialize with whoever is seated close to you, and not do much else but horseplay. If you could instead spend that time to do homework, you gain the same amount of free time at home to socialize with the people you LIKE (who may or may not be the same people as you sat with on the bus), and *gasp* maybe even go outside and play!
More likely though it'll get used to play networked games with or against each other. That's still not a bad thing though, since that is likely something you'd do when you got home anyhow.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
I don't think it's unreasonable to leave a 12 year old alone for 3 or 4 hours after school if it's a responsible kid.
You don't think so, but you don't get to make that decision. I'm not in Illinois, but the law is worded very similarly here. I have a child neglect conviction for allowing my then 12 year old to walk home alone. The school principal found out my daughter was walking for 15 minutes along a quiet suburban street. Child Protection here "recommend" that children under the age of 14 are never left unsupervised, and failure to comply with Child Protection recommendations is considered child neglect or child abuse, unless proven otherwise.
Oh, and in response to all the people who'll say they walked home from school from age whatever, I tried telling them that I walked home alone from age 9. I was told "This shows how abused children grow into abusive parents, and we're here to break the cycle of abuse." Sorry, anyone who disagrees with Child Protection is a child abuser, by definition.
To me? One. And it's ongoing. And I don't want my child to have wifi on a bus. Kids are too "plugged-in" today. They're plugged in at school. They have to be plugged in at home, though that can and should be moderated. And now they're plugged in on long bus rides to and from school? And the real reason is behavioral? That's insane.
:)
Ignoring the semantics about what I'm about to say, I think the internet is the greatest *invention* of all time. I think kids should be exposed to it (and obviously almost all are). But it needs to be moderated with our children. They need to learn without the magic answer button, and they need to learn to coexist with each other IRL
The only problem with this argument is that most of the socialization that occurs in public school settings is unhealthy!
Well done ^_^ But you know that's just because they're all playing World of Warcraft and Left for Dead.
Who needs ritalin when you've got wi-fi on the bus?
Most of the kids mentioned in the article were doing work. Not all, but well over half. Just a little fyi for all those who assumed every kid was on facebook or playing games.
"You only get ONE LIFE." Richard Rahl, Faith of the Fallen - Terry Goodkind
Oh Gizz... Come on everyone. On a $200 router you figure you've got all the security locked down for these kids. On computers the KIDS own, you can't lock down shit. How did that song go again. Oh yeah "The Internet is for PORN" The boys arn't beating on one another 'cause they're beating themselves!
Right now I'm living in a Chicago suburb (which is, of course, in Illinois,) and I'm pretty sure the neighbor's kids - most of whom appear to be under 14 - are out wandering around outside (gasp) unsupervised (oh my God) and even (what are they thinking) walk to school, a full 2 blocks away.
In fact, I see a lot of grade-school and junior-high aged kids walking down the sidewalk, presumably to and from school.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
by this large 8th grader on the bus. He pretty much bullied everyone.
One day I was ignoring his insults so he punched me in the arm. I turned around and punched him in the nose with a solid left hook. Blood splattered the back of the bus.
Never got bullied by him again. Thanks Mom, for all those years of Tae Kwon Do starting at age 4.
I got suspended for 1 day. Him, 3 days. Mom didn't mind so much, as I followed her rule: "You can defend yourself, but never throw the first punch."
How many more years will slashdot have an off-by-one error on your Score in your profile?
I do think it's unreasonable to leave him alone for 3 or 4 days.
So what's your take on William Munny? He left his ~12 year old son and daughter alone at home for /weeks/ in Unforgiven.
My guess would be "continued"; s being next to d, it's an easy typo to make.
The average school bus doesn't carry 100 kids. The bigger busses will do 72. 36 to 48 is the more common size, with most school divisions also have a number of 'bitty busses' that carry about 16.
So if we use 40 for our average bus size, you're at $100 per kid.
Secondly: Judging the cost of running a school bus by the fuel cost alone is a crock. The rule of thumb I've used is that fuel = 1/3 of TCO, with another third for maintenance and miscellaneous expenses, and 1/3 for fixed costs and depreciation. (Depreciation is front loaded, maintenance and repair is back loaded.)
On top of that you have to pay for the bus drivers.
So your $100 per year is now around $400 per year.
finally candy bars is probably not the most economical choice for fueling kids.
Third Career: Tree Farmer Second Career: Computer Geek First Career: Teacher, Outdoor Instructor, Photographer.
I think a 12 year old from 100 years ago was much more mature than the 12 year old of today, and it isn't a fair comparison.
My grandfather was born in 1913 or 14; when he was 13 he was routinely driving a truck delivering sand, gravel and groceries for his father's businesses. He probably would have been fine for weeks.
I'm not 100% convinced my 19-year-old step-son would be. He'd survive but it might not be pretty. He'd probably be wearing dirty underwear and smelling pretty bad after a week or two. So he'd fit right in on Slashdot.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
On the other hand, here in a suburb of Cleveland it is nearly unheard of for a child not to walk to and from school. This is true from kindergarten right up until the first of their friends start to drive. In fact the schools are set up around that idea.
Xavier Rabourdin for president 2012