To Curb Truancy, Dallas Tries Electronic Monitoring 462
The New York Times is reporting that a school district in Texas is trying a new angle in combating truancy. Instead of punishing students with detention they are tagging them with electronic monitoring devices. "But the future of the Dallas program is uncertain. Mr. Pottinger's company, the Center for Criminal Justice Solutions, is seeking $365,000 from the county to expand the program beyond Bryan Adams. But the effort has met with political opposition after a state senator complained that ankle cuffs used in an earlier version were reminiscent of slave chains. Dave Leis, a spokesman for NovaTracker, which makes the system used in Dallas, said electronic monitoring did not have to be punitive. 'You can paint this thing as either Big Brother, or this is a device that connects you to a buddy who wants to keep you safe and help you graduate.'"
I live in Dallas (Score:2, Interesting)
I have _never_ been more ashamed of this city than I am now.
Sounds about right (Score:3, Interesting)
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Benjamin Franklin
Freedom includes the right to screw up. Trying to protect people from themselves is the worst kind of tyranny. I only wish more people would realize this.
Re:Or like an actual PARENT (Score:5, Interesting)
Children are a somewhat different case because, in theory, they don't have all of the information that they need to make effective decisions about their future. Unfortunately, physical enforcement of what you think they should be doing isn't going to improve them, it's just going to let them know that they need to be trickier if they're going to avoid an oppressive state.
For children you have three paths. The first is to help them realize that cooperating with those around them and being productive is the most effective long-term strategy for pursuing their happiness. The second is to convince them that the entire world is a bunch of screw-ups that are only vaguely kept in order through threat of violence. The third is to let them screw up and take their lumps. Of the three, the second is actually the one most likely to result in violent, oppressive, and harmful adults.
Re:Not big brother? (Score:5, Interesting)
Legalize freedom! (Score:1, Interesting)
Fortunately I didn't have any of these problems when I went to high school since I went to a small private school with a graduating class of 30 students. The real solution to getting kids to make sacrifices today in return for a better future tomorrow is to convince them that they HAVE a future in the first place. If you believe you are going to spend most of your life in jail and get shot and killed before you see your grandchildren, then cutting school, hanging out, selling drugs, and getting all you can right now by any means is a rational choice.
Re:Or like an actual PARENT (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Really... (Score:3, Interesting)
Are those of you objecting upset because the kids are legally bound to attend school? Aside from that, I can't figure out what the problem may be.
Not everyone graduates. (Score:3, Interesting)
You can blame parents for failing to instill in their kids the idea that knowledge is valuable, but if they don't have it, electronically chaining them to the school is not the solution.
Re:The cost of uneducation (Score:3, Interesting)
No, it doesn't help if the lady changing the sheets know algebra. Not at all. It doesn't help when the 7-11 clerk has a basic understanding of economics. If the landscaper didn't learn to read by the time he got to high school, he never will. The lawnmower mechanic will not able to fix a lawnmower any better with a knowledge of history. Every one of your examples doesn't show that high school is necessary. It show why it is a waste of time for a large portion of the population.
The particularly annoying part of this often repeated and always wrong argument is the complete lack of comprehension that lack of a high school education is not the same thing as lack of an elementary school education. High school drop out does not mean illiterate.
The push to get everyone a high school diploma has turned our high schools into a joke, and now we are starting to see the trend move into the colleges. I have a cousin that was retarded. She never developed past the mental capacity of a 4 year old. Yet, somehow she not only graduated high school, but also got a college degree. This is not a wonderful story of someone who overcame adversity. This is a shining example that going to, and graduating from both high school and college doesn't mean anything. It is a sad story of a society that has become so obsessed with SAYING that everyone is educated that they just changed the definition of what "educated" means.
Re:Or like an actual PARENT (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Or like an actual PARENT (Score:1, Interesting)
Show me the research.
Re:Jokes come true (Score:1, Interesting)
We don't need a laptop for every child -- hell, education worked fine even prior to the computer age. With a computer for every student you'll achieve only porn, illegal downloads, and a maintenance headache.
It's time to go back to the fundamentals and stop deluding ourselves that the ability to browse the net and create a myspace account constitutes as education.
I say don't let them close to a computer -- nay, a calculator -- until they can count without using their fingers.
Re:Or like an actual PARENT (Score:1, Interesting)
I go on living, but I often wonder for what. At 38 I can see that I have years and years of hardship ahead because of the financial debt that will follow me until the day I die.
Now, I was never truant. Heck I was a goody goody, so upset at a tardy slip. So upset at a C. Even if I had to take a beating or two (and occasionally I gave a good accounting of myself), I never skipped school. However, the teachers at the school I was at were there for a paycheck. I remember one who liked to nap in class. Oh, I had some decent teachers, but did I need the school for an education? Actually, I think that public school is only useful for testing, and that you get an education mostly on your own. Oh, that and being a jail for children and teenagers.
I started out in Catholic school, but then my parents couldn't afford that anymore. I remember the shock when I was transfered to public school. Didn't take too many years before my parents were sending me to therapy.
People talk about school as a socializing experience, for me it was the opposite. I went from being a fairly happy, well adjusted Catholic school kid to a moody, violent, and angry public school kid.
Anyway, long story short, I eventually met the wrong woman years later and was grateful for the affection, and she cleaned me out and put me into debt. We're still together, by the way, sort of. I've nothing left to give, and she still want more.
Now, I almost made it. If I hadn't met this woman at the wrong time in my life I'd have gotten through it and probably have prospered. However, I know that the source of my emotional problems and naivety at the time were my horrible experience in school. My parents are good people, basically.
Well, I don't really know what the future holds. If I'm to have any kind of future it means dumping the women I'm with, her daughter, and my debts and running. Or I may blow my brains out with a revolver, I haven't made any decision yet.
The Jesuits said, "Give me the child till the age of seven and I will show you the man." Not entirely true, but keep hold of someone till they are 18? Trust me, the schools have more power over your kids than you do. You better vet your kid's school well. One way to tell that this might not be the right school for your children? If they need ankle bracelets to prevent truancy.
Re:Really... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm very much in favor of education, very much against compulsion schooling.