Category: education and schooling

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education and schooling general freedom too much government

No Smiling, No Hugging

Things sure have changed since I was a kid. It used to be okay to smile. Encouraged even. And hugging someone was considered nice, friendly, compassionate.

Today, in my home state of Virginia, the Department of Motor Vehicles, or DMV, is discouraging smiles. No, not just discouraging smiles, wiping them out entirely. 

The DMV is telling people not to smile — or say “cheese” — when getting their photos taken for their drivers’ licenses. If they do smile, the picture cannot go on their license and they have to take another.

And all over the country, public schools are banning hugging.

Why the official suppression of friendliness and good cheer?

Well, in schools the administrators apparently cannot tell a friendly hug from a sexual grope, or a jovial high-​five from a bullying slap.

So they’re outlawing all touching.

When I was in school, I don’t remember any rules against hugging or holding hands or even kissing — unless folks got carried away. And we trusted teachers and principals to make the judgment as to what was going too far.

Now, any touching invites what one administrator calls a “gray area.”

The DMV may have a better excuse to suppress smiles and grins and such: They are developing facial recognition software, and smiles get in the way. It’s all to protect us from identity theft, they say.

And yet isn’t it odd that protecting us makes us less human? Can that really be protection?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob. 

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education and schooling

History, Economics, Pizza

The recession deepens and budgets tighten. 

This isn’t news to citizens of Pocatello, Idaho. Students, teachers and administrators of the school district sure feel it. Cuts in state aid are leading to a $10 million shortfall. Citizens voted down a tax increase.

So every light switch has a warning next to it, to save electricity.

More interesting is history and economics teacher Jeb Harrison’s response. He went out shopping for a sponsor, and nearby Molto Caldo Pizzeria agreed to supply Harrison’s class with 10,000 sheets of paper.

Charity?

Community spirit?

No. Advertising.

Every sheet has the imprint of Molto Caldo Pizzeria. For a mere $315 the pizza joint places its name in front of a most promising clientele. With every test, pop quiz, worksheet, and info sheet on the Great Depression, students see the tasteful ad for what I hope is tasty pizza.

Though a schoolboard member gave kudos to Harrison for “creativity,” there are critics. One news report quotes Susan Linn, a Harvard psychologist, saying that this “crosses a line.” 

OK … but, just maybe, instead, this sort of classroom advertising should increase. Students in public schools could bring home their report cards printed on on paper with ads from competing private schools.

“Learn more, better, faster — at Joe’s Education Emporium.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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education and schooling

Educational Snow Flakes

Up north, it snows enough that schools can’t just close every time a few flakes fall. But I live in Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, and it doesn’t snow that much here.

Weeks ago it snowed eight inches, a lot for us. The schools in my county — and throughout the region — closed. 

But in Washington, DC, the schools stayed open. And controversy ensued. 

Was opening the schools unsafe? Was it a waste of money, since only a small percentage of students and teachers showed up? Or was a school day too valuable to lose? 

For me, that’s all beside the point. I think a day having fun in the snow is more valuable than a yet another day in class. 

This came to mind again when I listened to President Obama’s recent speech about public education. Obama wants our kids to attend school more days and longer hours. Apparently, children in South Korea go to school more and score better on tests.

Not only am I skeptical about such comparisons, and those tests, I’m totally uninterested in educating my kids to best the Russians or the Germans or the Japanese or anybody else. 

To me, education is all about encouraging my kids to love learning, and then facilitating their very personal pursuit of their own dreams. It’s not an international competition demanding ever-​more hours of drudgery.

So, let it snow. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense education and schooling general freedom

What Leads Us?

There’s a commercial that asks, “What leads us as a society?” And then answers, “Education.” I don’t agree. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against education (who does?), but I’ve always thought that individual freedom leads our society.

Daniel Pink, writing in Reason magazine, makes my point. “Whenever students around the world take those tests that measure which country’s children know the most, American kids invariably score near the bottom,” Pink observes. But he adds, “by almost every measure, the American economy outperforms those very same nations.”

“If we’re so dumb, how come we’re so rich?”

Well I know: it’s because Americans have been more free than other people to dream and to endeavor to make those dreams come true. So we’re more inspired. You didn’t think we were somehow born better than other people, did you?

Pink calls America the “free agent nation.” The richest man in America and the world, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, is a college drop-​out. In fact, nearly 10 percent of the Forbes 400 richest Americans never completed their college education. Four of these multi-​millionaires never finished high school!

Now I have a child of my own starting college next year and I’m sure not suggesting she drop out. But I do think our kids’ futures depend less on some stupid test score, and more on the freedom they have to chase their dreams. And if you need to teach yourself something to chase that dream, you’ll do it even without a professor giving you an assignment.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.