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School or Prison
201–210 of 497 posts
Re: School or Prison
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where is the forced labor in schools, barracks, hospitals and factories? I understand there are some instances where this might be the case, but generally people go to those places because they want to, or because it offers them a favorable outcome that they're willing to temporarily trade some autonomy for. You can deconstruct the whole of society and make an argument that all labor exchanged for capital is oppressi…
> but generally people go to those places because they want to, or because it offers them a favorable outcome that they're willing to temporarily trade some autonomy for. I don't think this is why kids go to school. You go to school because you have to . There is no realistic option not to go. If you don't go, then you'll be forcefully put into a school for troubled kids. Even if you don't consider the above, there i…
I wish there were solid alternatives to school.
I hate the current system but I also want my kids to be socialised and have friends.
I'd definitely pay a private company providing "home schooling" and using a different model of education where kids are learning by doing instead of memorising crap and at the same time can share a location with other kids of the same age (+ a few tutor available to unblock kids when needed but not delivering frontal lessons).
Re: School or Prison
#203I get what the comparison is about, I do. But really- how many different ways are there to house hundreds of people in an institutional setting?
Each ground-level classroom could have doors which open onto the surrounding garden. Upper floors can have external stairs, like personal residence buildings.
A school building could provide maximum natural light to the occupants. For example, it could have shape and orientation so most of its windows get sunlight throughout the year. Interior spaces can have skylights and be used for short-duration activities like restrooms, locker rooms, and equipment storage.
Re: School or Prison
#204In one of the largest high schools in Texas, we weren't allowed to leave campus, we couldn't even take our lunch out of the double doors and eat our sandwich outside. It's something I absolutely despise about our contemporary culture. I live in Latin America now and envy the kids for getting 45 minutes free at lunch time to hang out outside, socialize, buy from the street vendors that will gather at that time, maybe…
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Re: School or Prison
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember sitting in third grade class, red in the face, hand patiently up in the air for minutes straight, simultaneously crying and pissing myself in my chair while Tiffany pointed and laughed at me with her bright red cheeks! I was a good kid! If I had of robbed or killed someone and been to Juvenile Hall, my pants would probably have been dry.
There is a middle ground between passive and aggressive called assertive. That is what one should aim for. The world chews up and spits out good kids. I vowed early on that I wouldn't let anyone shit on me again and it really shaped my early life, not necessarily for the better. I overshot assertive by a decent margin. Fortunately, I eventually settled into a healthy middle ground. I do wonder if there is a method of…
Unfortunately, through much of school "assertive" is interpreted as "aggressive" and punished. I would classify it as assertive if a student, after raising their hand without results for a minute, said they had to go to the bathroom & then got up & went to the bathroom.
The teacher on the other hand might decide it was time for a trip to the principal's office & call home to parents because the student caused a disruption to the class by leaving without permission.
Re: School or Prison
#206A more meaningful comparison would be bathroom privileges. In prison you can pretty much poop or get a drink of water whenever you want. In school you need special permission, and hope the teacher wasn't in a bad mood or that 3 other kids hadn't needed to pee in the last half hour, meeting some mental quota the teacher has for the appropriate # of people that should have to use the toilet during a given period of tim…
Comments here suggest you're in the majority with your experience, though I wonder if there might be a little participation bias with regard to strong memories of such bad policies. As a contrast, at my school the policy was far more reasonable: you still needed permission to leave, but if you didn't abuse the privilege—using it every day, or disappearing for half the lesson—the teacher wouldn't give you any grief.
Things seem to have changes for the better since my time: How old are you? < 30? I have two kids in grammar school right now & they no longer face this same type of issue, but I also don't know if that's a local change or a more general re-think on students' biological needs.
Re: School or Prison
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
The latter could have gotten you in some serious trouble. Better and more effective to just go in your pants.
Yeah, because students won't turn that into your permanent nickname mr. peepeepants.
They will, but you won't have to register as a sex offender. Major difference in life outcomes.
Re: School or Prison
#208A more meaningful comparison would be bathroom privileges. In prison you can pretty much poop or get a drink of water whenever you want. In school you need special permission, and hope the teacher wasn't in a bad mood or that 3 other kids hadn't needed to pee in the last half hour, meeting some mental quota the teacher has for the appropriate # of people that should have to use the toilet during a given period of tim…
> In prison you can pretty much poop or get a drink of water whenever you want. In school you need special permission [...] Uhm. Where in the world do you live?! :O
FWIW This was also my experience in Australia.
Re: School or Prison
#209In one of the largest high schools in Texas, we weren't allowed to leave campus, we couldn't even take our lunch out of the double doors and eat our sandwich outside. It's something I absolutely despise about our contemporary culture. I live in Latin America now and envy the kids for getting 45 minutes free at lunch time to hang out outside, socialize, buy from the street vendors that will gather at that time, maybe…
Anecdotally, I've heard of that more at suburban schools where you pretty much have to access and leave the campus via car. At my high school in Chicago (2003-2007, ~2,000 students) we were free to leave the campus at any time and often spent lunch at a nearby hot dog stand or sitting in the park and hanging out. The only restriction was that you had to re-enter through specific entries so they could check school IDs…
Yes, same here at a high school in a medium-sized city at around the same time. Although there wasn't any restriction on where you could return, either, but I think that's more of a smaller vs. bigger city thing. I do remember that some kids got their privilege to leave campus rescinded because they got caught extremely, obviously high after going to do bong rips at someone's house near the school.
In elementary and middle school, we weren't technically supposed to leave the schoolyard but the monitoring was lax enough that older kids frequently got away with it.
Re: School or Prison
#210A more meaningful comparison would be bathroom privileges. In prison you can pretty much poop or get a drink of water whenever you want. In school you need special permission, and hope the teacher wasn't in a bad mood or that 3 other kids hadn't needed to pee in the last half hour, meeting some mental quota the teacher has for the appropriate # of people that should have to use the toilet during a given period of tim…
The teacher faces the same problem. Taxi/bus drivers have the same problem.
I've been on a city bus several times when the driver just pulled over, turned off the engine, said "I'm going to the bathroom", entered the business he'd parked in front of, and came back after a couple of minutes. It didn't cause a problem, so municipalities who don't allow that are abusive. I'm sure that in general drivers try to keep that to a minimum.