Yesterday I wrote of an insane new rule imposed by a Mount Martha school banning touching of any kind.
Unfortunately, this school is not alone when it comes to over-regulating and implementing extreme measures for everyday problems. Let’s investigate some other shocking examples:
- There is the case of the teacher suspended for daring to give a zero score to students who neglected to even hand in their assignments.
- There is the student who was suspended for wearing a t-shirt that read, “Life is Wasted Without Jesus”.
- There was a school that decided to confiscate a 4-year old child’s lunch because it didn’t contain a vegetable in it.
- There is a school that banned ball games because it took too much space in the playground.
How can we be surprised when our children tell us they hate school?
Tags: Edmonton Public School, Education, Forest Heights Community School, Judy Beckworth, Let’s Move! Campaign, Lynden Dorval, Mount Martha Primary School, No-contact rule, No-touching rule, Pope Paul Catholic Primary
Topical Teaching 
June 15, 2012 at 4:53 pm |
How can we be surprised indeed!
What amazes me is how the people who enact these insane rules get to the position they occupy. I believe it is the result of psychopaths in charge selecting their own kind when filling vacancies.
People are no longer assessed on the job by sane people (who have come up through the ranks) in leadership positions but are selected on the basis of their own self promotion.
School rules go mad because people who make them don’t have a compass that points to true north. They are guided by pragmatism (what works) and utilitarianism but being without a compass for direction try to generalise what works in one situation to a completely different situation. This is the logical outworking of tension between situational ethics (where there are no absolute standards) and the need for absolute standards. (A compass that points to true north is an absolute standard in contradistinction to the post-modernist drivel which would ask: Well, which way is north for you?)
We end up with, not what is right but what is expedient. We end up with arbitrary benchmarks not grounded in reality but in wishful thinking.
Without absolute standards we are cast adrift on a sea of particulars with no idea of the meaning of the particulars. Without absolute standards societal ethics and morals are subjected to erosion over time. (Science calls this entropy).
Let me give you an example, but not a popular one.
In the not too distant past same sex relationships were considered wrong. They were conducted in secrecy. They made no demands on the majority of society. In some jurisdictions they were illegal. In time and after much publicity same sex relationships became tolerated. Now they are being recognised. Next they will be enshrined in legislation. The final stage is compulsion. Denmark, I am informed, has reached that stage. The law there compels Christian churches to perform same sex marriages if asked for.
I don’t wish to single out same sex relationships per se, merely to show an example of how our society is disintegrating, sorry, changing.
Once extra-marital sex was considered wrong. Today it is commonplace. Once bad language in the media was considered wrong. Now it is par for the course. Bullying has long been considered wrong but if you call it something else (normal management procedure), it’s OK.
I recommend a series of books, entitled, “The Politically Incorrect Guide to………..” Subjects include, Islam, American History, Darwinianism and Intelligent Design, and Capitalism. Written by a variety of authors, I don’t necessarily agree with all viewpoints put they are a wealth of information.