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in USA | America "The War
On Kids"
I am encouraged to hear of this movie. It shows the things I have been talking about for several years on EQI.org Here is more info about it |
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A shocking chronicle of institutional dysfunction, “The War on Kids” likens our public school system to prison and its disciplinary methods to fascism. At least now you know why little Johnny won’t get out of bed in the morning. Arranged in sections that range from merely interesting to downright horrifying, this provocative documentary suggests a system regulated by fear and motivated by the desire to control. Tracing the evolution and application of zero-tolerance policies on drugs and violence, the director, Cevin Soling, amasses overwhelming evidence of institutional overreaction. When an 8-year-old can be suspended for pointing a chicken finger and saying “Pow,” we know that common sense has officially left the building. Impassioned interviews with educators, authors and medical professionals — and some very perceptive students — warn of the consequences of surrounding children daily with armed security guards and surveillance cameras. “They don’t really prevent anything; they just take pictures of it,” says Jessica Botcher, a student at Columbine High School. Those pictures, however, are electrifying: an armed SWAT team terrorizing high school students in South Carolina; a tiny, terrified girl being handcuffed by burly police officers. Offering neither balance nor solutions (a segment on the overuse of medications like Ritalin is especially powerful, but especially in need of counterargument), “The War on Kids” questions what kind of citizens we are producing. Parent or child-free, we all have a dog in that particular fight. |
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A reader left this comment Homeschooling is an important solution to oppressive schoooling. After my own happy traditional schooling, I became a teacher. Then I quit when I felt I was becoming part of the system, like a guard in Zimbardo's prison study. My colleague Joshua Hornick and I created North Star in 1996 to make homeschooling possible for any interested teen where we live. Now in our 14th year, we have helped several hundreds of local teens leave school and use homeschooling as an approach to improve their lives. See www.northstarteens.org for more. Making homeschooling viable and inspiring for any local teen is the best way for me to spend my career, and I am delighted to share what I have learned with others who may want to do the same. – Kenneth Danford, Hadley, MA |
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Related Link The Case Against Adolesence - Robert Epstein argues that teens are far more competent than Americans believe and that social rules are causing the behavioral problems people blame on teens. |
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| School
is Prison - Article by
Peter Gray, Boston College
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