It is unclear what the producers at Fox were pushing in this piece, but the headline over the video on the web site asks if the Indiana law is overreaching. Usually when media types ask questions like that, they are answering in the affirmative even if they don't say it explicitly. I have to ask myself why a conservative outlet like Fox would be asking such a question. I wonder if they were just trying to look "fair and balanced" by presenting the law as overreaching, or whether there is a drift among the east coast conservatives driven by the raging tide of political correctness.
It is clear why progressives would be opposed to such a policy. A law that allows school officials to consider private behavior infringes on privacy rights. Progressives are all about protecting those rights and even making some up where necessary: privacy rights like the privacy of the womb which allows a mother to snuff out the life of the little person growing there; privacy rights like those enjoined by President Clinton when his amorous affairs were being investigated; privacy rights like those granted to prisoners which afford them amenities generally associated with luxury hotels. It may even be this kind of thinking that causes the main stream media to overlook the extravagant getaways of the first family and cabinet level tax cheats and congressional nest featherers.
But in virtually every instance of see-no-evil ignorance of private behavior, someone in the public sphere is being affected. Returning to the academic setting, it is plain that situations which begin off campus infect the atmosphere on campus necessarily. The Facebook bully creates a dynamic that affects in-school relationships. When Johnny gets drunk on Friday night, he will often take his school buddies with him when he misses the curve at high speed and destroys their lives. The entire campus will be affected the next Monday. When Susie has unprotected sex (perhaps with a drunken Johnny,) her pregnancy cannot be separated from her school experience. In most cases, she will be separated from her school.
While they claim to be defenders of individual freedom, progressives don't really like freedom because free people seldom conform to the progressive agenda. Free people will drive SUV's and use 100 watt incandescent bulbs. Free people will reject the government subsidized electric car and CFL light bulb. Ignore for the moment that the politically correct choices will cost many multiples of the item they replace. When the government decides what is best for its citizens, the government must mandate much of what would otherwise be private choice. This situation puts the lie to the entire choice argument.
And choice is what makes us what we are. Barring divine intervention, humans are nothing more than the cumulative result of the choices made from day to day. Therefore, character is the result of choices made on campus and off. Kudos to Indiana for writing into law a common sense principle for principals. This suggests to me that someone in Indiana has decided that character building is an important part of the education process. Or maybe I am too optimistic; maybe it just means that they were taking another step towards governing every action so that their Utopian society can finally emerge. I hope it is the former.
At first blush, I thought absolutely not - this is not ok. Schools shouldn't be regulating what goes on in our private lives. But there really is no true separation between private and public because our actions bleed across those lines. Today, more than ever, teenagers are using all forms of social media on campus and off. They post not only from home PCs, but school PCs, library PCs, smart phones, tablets, and netbooks or laptops they carry with them. And, sadly, many parents aren't involved in this aspect of their children's lives. I have friended many of my daughter's friends on Facebook and am appalled at the language and information that is often posted. What's worse is rarely do I see a parent chastise or have their child remove those postings. Those postings never go away and they can have long lasting effects.
ReplyDeleteI am all for limited government. It can quickly become a slippery slope of who has the right to enforce what and where it stops. We certainly don't want to find ourselves in a Big Brother society. But cyber bullying has, indeed, become a major issue. While I certainly don't want the school parenting my child, they should have some recourse if my child is behaving in a manner that is negative for the other students. At the end of the day though, parents need to step up and take an active role in this situation. No, we can't force our children to do and be everything we want. But we're ultimately responsible for instilling a code of ethics in our children.