Monday, May 16, 2005

Another Social Evil

In my last post, I talked about societal trends that lead towards violence. School administrators in Bend, Oregon have latched onto one that may cause horrible, awful consequences if it gets out of control... hugging.

Sing along with me now... "Everybody knows that the world is full of stupid people..."

Here's the link.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, this is a preposterous example. Hugging is wonderful and affectionate, and luvvy-wuvvy and whatnot. But imagine you're a school administrator. You have to draw a line somewhere on PDA within school grounds. Public sex is obviously out of the question. Kissing may or may not be over the line, depending on your sensibilities. And so you decide "screw it, no physical contact whatsoever".

You and I think that's a dumb line, but it really just boils down to another "whose line is more arbitrary" contest (hosted by Drew Carey). When push comes to shove, it's the school district's prerogative to make that call.

But now that the line is drawn, it has to be enforced. If you prohibit hugging, and then turn a blind eye to it, then kissing and sex and dancing will be next.

So the way I see it, this girl wasn't really given detention for hugging, because that would be just stupid. She was given detention for breaking the rules. Even though the rule itself might be arbitrary, that's not her call to make.

- pierce

Ben said...

Hey, you've been memed again. This one's about music so maybe you won't hate it.

Mike said...

Why is public sex obviously out of the question? I think that would be damn funny.

As an admitted hugger, as well as a civil libertarian, I am obviously opposed to the policy. However, there's a larger point here that I'd like to make real quick.

There are obviously a lot of problems with our national education system, and one of them is the way students are disciplined and for what actions. For example, a guy I knew in middle school was suspended for bringing a walkie-talkie to school as a prop for drama class. Supposedly, the administration believed any devices providing communication to the outside world were being used to sell drugs. Now, times have changed, and even cell phones are allowed in school now, but the point is this. The principal talks about fostering a learning-centric environment, but how does disciplining actions that in no way damage a student's ability to learn aid in this endeavor? I would argue it hurts it. A student who arrives to school willing to learn and participate should be welcomed, and harmless actions external to the classroom should be, well, ignored.

Incidentally, the guy from middle school failed to graduate high school.