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The Holyoke Mall just passed a rule that on Friday and Saturday nights, anyone under 18 can't come into the mall without a parent or guardian. It's sad. Imagine you have a license to drive, you've graduated high-school, but you can't go buy a shirt at the Gap without your mom. What's a Food Court for if it's not for teenagers to check each other out over slices of pizza on a Friday night?
Where in the world can you go anymore?
4 comments:
This reminds me of a recent news story I saw down here in New Haven. High schools and middle schools in two surrounding suburbs are going to require students wear nametags on their clothing in the coming school year. Being caught three times sans said tag results in suspension.
I wish I could express my digust and absolute bafflement at this.
At Springfield Central, they have become very strict about the I.D. policy, as well. It's not a name tag per se but a photo I.D. card that is worn on a lanyard. It has cut down on the number of incidents of non-students coming to the school looking for fights, or at least relocated them to the fringes of the parking lot (which makes it harder for the aggressors). The savvy intrepid drug dealers who aren't students just get dummy I.D.s if they need to get into the school but basically they carry on out in the parking lot also. So some of the aims of strictly enforcing the policy have been compromised; on the other hand, it's not a difficult policy to follow and most of the students admittedly agree with the purposes behind it, which also include knowing who's who for midterms and finals (which aren't proctored by teachers of the actual classes), and various other things.
It would be awesome if all those kids started bands, and dozens more places like Flywheel or the Space opened up for them, but we all know THAT won't happen. I feel bad for the kids, even though malls are pretty miserable places to have as your first choice of hangout.
All those kids HAVE started bands, believe me.
I briefly flirted with the notion of offering a halved admission price to anyone forced to wear an ID tag to school. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be too effective a message to send, and wouldn't help alleviate any of the problems (real or otherwise) that brought about the IDs in the first place.
Tony, my main issue with the mandatory ID's is more emotional than practical, in that tagging them as if they were cattle promotes that very brand (moo!) of thinking in this class of students and each successive one down the line. It sends a harsh message, that as adults we don't trust or respect them and that we aren't going to, which in turn creates an invalidation of their opinions, contributions, and personal growth. This, of course, is the entire opposite of what school is supposed to be about, so you have teachers that have to work harder to keep students educated, exploring, and enthusiastic.
If a student doesn't feel respected by their school, then there's nothing in their head that's going to stop them from dealing drugs on that same school's property later on in life. After all, the dealer is just making life in "that hellhole" a little easier to deal with for all the kids that have come after him/her. I'm not saying that the ID program is definitely going to create drug dealers, but it's certainly not going to help discourage anyone who (for whatever reason) thinks that dealing drugs would be a good idea.
The ID tags also make me worry that a somewhat mindless obedience will creep in over time, and that in turn will set a precedent for their adult lives in their dealings with employment/government/economy/etc. Imagine a generation of people that are okay with not-questioning the officials they elect, that accept aggressive and intrusive product marketing as inevitable, that don't know that employers aren't actually allowed to withold pay/make you work overtime/fire you for no reason/sexually harass you/etc., that accept constant surveillance tagging of every aspect of their lives. I mean, a generation that accepts all of this MORE than we already do.
Basically, it feels to me like another tiny whittling away of personal independence in the interest of safety and security. So schools should be considered terrorist states now? It may seem like I'm extrapolating an extreme outcome of a tiny change, but over time that tiny change becomes comfortable and normal, and harsher clampdowns then become acceptable. Over time, the number of people that remember when it *wasn't* that way become fewer and fewer, and we've wasted time combating the symptoms with a short-term solution instead of tackling the problem itself.
Phew. I didn't mean for this to turn into an essay...
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