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Batavia school board disciplines teacher after Fifth Amendment survey flap

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Re: Batavia school board disciplines teacher after Fifth Amendment survey flap

#11

Post by unimpressive »

fmstephe wrote: post #3

I worry that sitting here and reading the articles which turn up in HN each day that I am getting a very particular impression about life in America. Between this and Kiera Wilmot I feel genuinely horrified. Am I just seeing outliers here? Am I seeing frightening trend where children are needlessly criminalised (Kiera) or willfully (even if well intentioned) manipulated (my interpretation of this survey debacle)? Oth…

It's basically random, depending on where you live. (Another thing that hasn't changed since Paul Graham was in high school.[0]) I think that the shitty things you see on places like HN are on an upward trend, but it's always been kind of bad. If you want to get an education into how long this sort of thing has been going on, try one of the reddit threads that pops up every so often with a title like "Did you ever get expelled? What for?"

http://www.reddit.com/r/ProtectAndServe/comments/1dksjq/16_y...

I especially like the anecdote about the guys school experience "77 years ago".

http://www.reddit.com/r/ProtectAndServe/comments/1dksjq/16_y...

Re: Batavia school board disciplines teacher after Fifth Amendment survey flap

#12

Post by yummyfajitas »

smutticus wrote: post #4
fmstephe wrote: post #3

I worry that sitting here and reading the articles which turn up in HN each day that I am getting a very particular impression about life in America. Between this and Kiera Wilmot I feel genuinely horrified. Am I just seeing outliers here? Am I seeing frightening trend where children are needlessly criminalised (Kiera) or willfully (even if well intentioned) manipulated (my interpretation of this survey debacle)? Oth…

Something happened in the past 10-20 years where teachers became the scape goats of the failing American education system. It might be related to the attacks on their unions and the privitization of education. I'm not totally sure. But regardless of your opinions on education privitization teachers are not regarded with the same reverence in American society that they once were.

Something happened in the past 10-20 years where teachers became the scape goats of the failing American education system.

The reason for this is simple deduction. If you believe teacher quality is the primary drivers of educational outcomes and outcomes are not as you desire, it must be caused by low teacher quality.

(Personally I don't accept the premise that teacher quality affects educational outcomes much, but my views are way outside the mainstream...)

Re: Batavia school board disciplines teacher after Fifth Amendment survey flap

#13

Post by rbanffy »

fmstephe wrote: post #3

I worry that sitting here and reading the articles which turn up in HN each day that I am getting a very particular impression about life in America. Between this and Kiera Wilmot I feel genuinely horrified. Am I just seeing outliers here? Am I seeing frightening trend where children are needlessly criminalised (Kiera) or willfully (even if well intentioned) manipulated (my interpretation of this survey debacle)? Oth…

I believe we see them because they are outliers. If such events were the norm, they'd disappear in the background.

We don't read much about privacy violations in China after all.

Re: Batavia school board disciplines teacher after Fifth Amendment survey flap

#14

Post by stfu »

What I was wondering is this: Are there any good tutorials teaching kids their basic rights of freedom/privacy?

With the right framing this could become really popular ("How to avoid your parents snooping on you"). I guess most kids have some phase of freedom-seeking and I would be happy to donate to a campaign encouraging this mindset even more.

Re: Batavia school board disciplines teacher after Fifth Amendment survey flap

#15

Post by Jare »

smutticus wrote: post #4
fmstephe wrote: post #3

I worry that sitting here and reading the articles which turn up in HN each day that I am getting a very particular impression about life in America. Between this and Kiera Wilmot I feel genuinely horrified. Am I just seeing outliers here? Am I seeing frightening trend where children are needlessly criminalised (Kiera) or willfully (even if well intentioned) manipulated (my interpretation of this survey debacle)? Oth…

Something happened in the past 10-20 years where teachers became the scape goats of the failing American education system. It might be related to the attacks on their unions and the privitization of education. I'm not totally sure. But regardless of your opinions on education privitization teachers are not regarded with the same reverence in American society that they once were.

It's not an American phenomenon, most people who care about education (parents, students and educators alike) in Spain believe exactly the same thing. We haven't (yet) undergone a massive privatization of our education system, so privatization is not the core issue.

(I think this is the result of many factors conspiring to undermine the ability, energy and willpower of parents to be truly engaged with their kids' education, but that's material for an entire book)

Re: Batavia school board disciplines teacher after Fifth Amendment survey flap

#16

Post by akama »

I find this whole deal very amusing because I suspect that most answers on this survey is wrong. I think we are not giving the students enough credit. I know that I was given surveys like this when in high school and I never answered them correctly, nor did any of my friends. Although the issues with punishing the teacher who is looking out for students is a problem, we should also be looking at why this survey was given in the first place. It seems like a complete waste of money and time by the school district.

Re: Batavia school board disciplines teacher after Fifth Amendment survey flap

#17

Post by squozzer »

Teachers should probably not dispense legal advice, but school admins should not take on the role of pop psychologists.

Were I a parent, I would expect the school system to secure my permission to ask my child questions of a personal nature. Which I probably would grant after a discussion with my child.

Re: Batavia school board disciplines teacher after Fifth Amendment survey flap

#18

Post by davidw »

fmstephe wrote: post #3

I worry that sitting here and reading the articles which turn up in HN each day that I am getting a very particular impression about life in America. Between this and Kiera Wilmot I feel genuinely horrified. Am I just seeing outliers here? Am I seeing frightening trend where children are needlessly criminalised (Kiera) or willfully (even if well intentioned) manipulated (my interpretation of this survey debacle)? Oth…

> Am I just seeing outliers here?

They are 'outrage posts' - stuff that gets attention because it makes you angry.

I do not think they are very healthy for the focus of this community because the number of outrageous injustices in the world far outweighs the number of good posts about startups and hacking. Also, they attract pretty much anyone because it's not hard to have an opinion about them, whereas "Clojure vs Erlang for a distributed system" is likely to attract a far more restricted group of people.

Re: Batavia school board disciplines teacher after Fifth Amendment survey flap

#19

Post by samolang »

unimpressive wrote: post #11
fmstephe wrote: post #3

I worry that sitting here and reading the articles which turn up in HN each day that I am getting a very particular impression about life in America. Between this and Kiera Wilmot I feel genuinely horrified. Am I just seeing outliers here? Am I seeing frightening trend where children are needlessly criminalised (Kiera) or willfully (even if well intentioned) manipulated (my interpretation of this survey debacle)? Oth…

It's basically random, depending on where you live. (Another thing that hasn't changed since Paul Graham was in high school.[0]) I think that the shitty things you see on places like HN are on an upward trend, but it's always been kind of bad. If you want to get an education into how long this sort of thing has been going on, try one of the reddit threads that pops up every so often with a title like "Did you ever ge…

That "77 years ago" guy says he's 25 years old in another post.

Re: Batavia school board disciplines teacher after Fifth Amendment survey flap

#20

Post by samolang »

fmstephe wrote: post #3

I worry that sitting here and reading the articles which turn up in HN each day that I am getting a very particular impression about life in America. Between this and Kiera Wilmot I feel genuinely horrified. Am I just seeing outliers here? Am I seeing frightening trend where children are needlessly criminalised (Kiera) or willfully (even if well intentioned) manipulated (my interpretation of this survey debacle)? Oth…

You have to remember that America is a large country. With so many people there are more likely to be these outrageous events that draw a lot of media attention.
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