School Surveillance

Was a radio show topic I listened to yesterday, on education.  The debate was about the ethics of surveillance, or “spying” on kids in public classrooms and at home. 

Proponents of surveillance said teachers “get to” monitor kids’ to identify issues like self-harm, suicide, bullying, porn, and possible school shootings. 

Critics claim it is an infringement of privacy; and computer surveillance is imbalanced due to long standing socio-economic factors. Kids who cannot afford computers or have access to wi-fi.

Typical stats, data and ‘arguments’ were delivered for “what is better for kids,” filled the hour discussion.  

Here is my thing- oh, so many things- to name a few,

  • It is not, nor should ever be the job of a teacher to be responsible for issues like self-harm, suicide, bullying, porn, and possible school shootings. 

  • It is not, nor should ever be the responsibility of kids to pay for the long standing socio-economic factors of their own society.  (In fact, shouldn’t it be the other way around?)

  • Critics and proponents both defer to the pandemic as the culprit.  But let’s be honest, this shit has been going on long before the pandemic.  

If you can see through the rhetoric, it is simply the same old recycled debate about politics and economics. I do think (most? some?) people involved are genuinely concerned about education and the well being of kids.  And certainly debates are provided to hash out details…. 

And these debates turn into another endless circular argument, which is not, by definition a logical argument; and which is not taught in school, not-surprisingly. 

Then we put pressure on kids to “compete in the global economic market” or else…. We tell kids to come to school when they are sick, tired, mentally struggling- when there are dangerously snowy conditions.  We make grades and college pretty much the main, if not the only measure of “success”. 

And the most baffling thing to me is when we ask “how could this __(event)__ have happened”? (Fill in the blank- mass shooting, drug overdose, name it) AFTER such brutal and rigorous conditioning. Go figure.

One last ongoing question, with surveillance in mind:  What is the purpose of education?