Shot in the Dark

Abandon Ship

People in society at large are starting to notice what I wrote about six years ago; the public schools are insane asylums, run by the inmates, when it comes to Zero Tolerance.

Recent cases – a boy pointing a pop-tart “shaped like a gun”, boys being suspended for playing cops and robbers with finger guns, the usual – are old hat for me, personally.

Glenn Reynolds reaches the same conclusion I the better part of a decade ago; it’s not just about the petty, venal harassment of children (almost inevitably boys) on idiotic grounds; the worst part is what it teaches the children:

And that’s the problem with all of these cases. Our

justification for putting massive amounts of taxpayer money into public schools is that they’re supposed to teach critical thinking. But stories like these — and they’re legion — suggest that the very people who are supposed to be teaching our kids how to think are largely incapable of critical thought themselves.

A Pop Tart gun, a finger gun, or a toy gun — even a pink one that shoots, gasp!, soap bubbles! — isn’t any danger to anyone. Nor is playing with toy guns a sign that a kid is mentally ill or dangerous. It’s a sign that a kid is a kid.

When schools and teachers react hysterically to such non-threats, they’re telling us one of two things: Either that they lack the ability to respond realistically to events or that they recognize that there’s not any sort of threat, but deliberately overreact in order to stigmatize even the idea of guns. The first is educational malpractice; the second is educational malpractice mixed with abuse of power. Neither inspires confidence in the educational system in which they appear.

I vote for “educational malpractice mixed with abuse of power”, by the way; if you accept the idea that the left has turned the public schools into indoctrination centers – and more and more, I do – then that’s a no-brainer.

But Glenn’s mistaken as well; I’ve seen no evidence that the public schools care even a little about critical thinking.

 

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Mitch Berg

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4 responses to “Abandon Ship”

  1. J. Ewing Avatar
    J. Ewing

    Schools claim they teach “critical thinking” but as a matter of simple fact they cannot do it at all, let alone with the handicaps they give themselves. Critical thinking requires two things: A broad base of information on both sides of the question, and a broad base of experience against which to test the competing ideas for veracity and utility. Children do not have experience, it’s just that simple, and in public schools they often do not even get the information for ONE side of an issue upon which a “good citizen” might be expected to help in their own governance. On that score alone, our schools have failed the last generation or two.

  2. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    When I hear of “Zero Tolerance” policies I think of “Zero Thought” and “Zero Judgement” policies.

  3. Bill C Avatar
    Bill C

    There was a wonderful website a few years ago that chronicled bouts of insanity like this, called “Zero Intelligence”. It had hundreds of entries about this kind of zero tolerance crap.

    I predict “Idiocracy” will absolutely end up being a documentary, and not just a comedy. I also predict it will happen FAR sooner than the timeline in that movie.

  4. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    This type of idiocy is rife in society now. You would not believe the absolute foolishness that citizens who pretend to be the foundations of society are helpless to deal with alone. Police officers I know could go on for hours on this topic.

    Ironically wealth, education, and high social status are inversely proportionate to common sense, self sufficiency, and basic survival ability. Not sure if this comes from within our educational system or from without.

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