Teachers vote to ban internet

You know, I believe that part of the problem is that teahers really don't know what their responsibilities are.

I know in the States, they complain that they are becoming more and more "surrogate parents" and not teachers. Yet, in the same breath, they wish to actually regulate student behavior away from the school and on the weekends.

It is hypocritical. If they wish to teach, teach. Leave parenting to the parents. If a student is disruptive, throw his butt out of the classroom.

And elect school administrators that will support such action.

I know in the States, they complain that they are becoming more and more "surrogate parents" and not teachers. Yet, in the same breath, they wish to actually regulate student behavior away from the school and on the weekends.

I think you are confusing teachers and administrators here. It's the principals who seem to have a fetish for controlling off-campus, off-hours behavior here in the States in my experience.

Adapic:

It's both. I have good friends, live in my neighborhood. Their son got in a fight on our tennis courts on a Sunday. We're about ten miles from the school he attended. The other kid's parents went to their son's home room teacher, complained (and transmitted lies) about the fight, the home room teacher went to the principal, and the principal made my friends' kid take an "anger management" class before he was allowed back in school.

If they don't want to be parents, they should not undertake to try to exercise the parental role.

So, it's both.

If they don't want to be parents, they should not undertake to try to exercise the parental role.

So, it's both.

Sounds to me like the teacher didn't try to exercise a parental role, though. Other parents came to the teacher and the teacher passed it on. The principal is the one that made the kid take anger management, not the teacher.

You know, I believe that part of the problem is that teahers really don't know what their responsibilities are.

I think part of the problem is also that a lot of teachers don't know how to use the technology. Several of my teachers from high school wouldn't have known what to do with computers in their classrooms and depended on the computer lab techs to explain computer procedures to us. And most of us could have figured those out on our own anyways, and pretty much slept through the talks. The first computers science teacher I ever had basically played tutorials on the TV and if anyone had a question he would spend 15 minutes flipping through the textbook before coming up with a (usually incorrect) answer. We eventually learned to just rely on each other.

Eric:

I gotta tell you, I have the funniest story about your assertion that teachers don't know squat about the technology.

My son has always been tech oriented, even when young. In elementary school, he was the "go to" tech guy if the teacher was having a computer problem. Usually he could fix it.

I got a call from the principal, had to go and meet with her (my wife also). Seems our son, in fifth grade, had told the teacher to do something unmentionable.

We get there, and it turns out that the teacher had asked my son to fix a computer, he tried, but couldn't so said "we have to give it the three finger salute." OF course, he meant "ctrl, alt, delete"

She took it as if he was going to give it and her the finger. When it was explained to her what a "three finger salute" was, she was mortified and apologized. I told her, don't apologize to me, apologize to my son. I brought him in, and she did.

I taught my mom, a school teacher, how to use the Internet and within a year she was teaching others at her school how to do it. She ended up spending the last few years of her life as a district administrator in charge of technology but often helping teachers learn how to use technology in the classroom.

I know this is only tangential to this conversation but there ARE teachers who know what they are doing. What's unfortunate is most schools don't want to be bothered to help them get brought up to speed and yet get mad if they don't read emails listing who is absent that day so they can compare notes for their records.

It's typical that the British media have whipped up this almost hysterical concern over WiFi radiation. How many of these parents, or teachers, show the same concern for the radiation caused by the mobile phone in their pockets? Dozy buggers - they hear the word "radiation" and fear the worst. There's very little evidence to suggest that it's harmful in any way.

@David
I had not really thought about it until now - I guess I have just been assuming WiFi is safe. Better hope so as many downtown cities are implementing it, not to mention airports, hotels and so on.

But, I totally agree this looks like one of those media-induced hysterias.

I guess I have just been assuming WiFi is safe

Assume away, until someone discovers otherwise. As things stand at the moment electrosensitivity is not proven and evidence suggests that much of the perceived effects are all in the mind.

To my mind there's no evidential reason to ban WiFi or other sources of electromagnetic radiation at similarly low levels.

this is like burning books because of a few filthy ones.

Hear, hear...like throwing out the baby with the bath water. Is that what 'education' is really about?