Tony Rosen of I Am Always Right may not actually always be right, but did a good job of pointing out that there is nothing really to argue against putting webcams into classrooms. [full story]
Although I am not hopeful to see a beginning to a Big Brother environment on a general basis, I actually think monitoring of classrooms for the benefit of students, teachers, school systems, parents and, if need be, the law enforcement community, is the first positive step in improving what is broke with the our present day school systems. If they could still take a recalcitrant child to the principal's office and whack their butt a few times like they did in my day, and that the parents took the teacher's side of the story against that of their child, maybe things would not have gotten to this point where constant monitoring is necessary. However, with all the parents who seem to think their Little Johnny is different than the rest of the thugs that inhabit our planet and should be picked out for special molly-coddling and handling with kid gloves, maybe being forced to sit in a chair, Clockwork Orangish, eyes held open by toothpicks, and watch their darling 4th grader shooting spitballs across the room at some other child while the teacher was trying to teach the rest of the class how to add numbers without the assistance of a calculator will literally open their eyes as to how Little Johnny behaves while in class.
Posted by Tiger at August 11, 2003 02:37 PMTiger, first off, the guy's name is Tony, which alone should tell you that he is ALWAYS right! Forgive me but I have to stick-up for my namesake. Secondly, webcams in classrooms, I think that this is a violation of rights. True, parents need to become more involved with their children and take an active part in their schooling. Teachers need to have more power in the areas of discipline. When I was in school, paddling was an effective method of showing most trouble-makers the way of the well-mannered child. It worked on me and my parents weren't too sympathetic to the treatment either for I got punished again when I got home. Anyway, I think that parents need to be part of the solution.
Posted by: Tony S. at August 11, 2003 10:16 PM