blogging it real

Since Saturday's NZH cover story about "non-suspicious deaths" linked to cell phone bullying, the media's been full of reports of schools looking to ban the use of phones in school. Which basically means that pupils will need to return to the age-old tradition of bullying each other face to face during the school day, and by every other means conceivable after hours.

Here's a provocative suggestion: the problem isn't cell phones, it's schools. Y'know, the places we adults and our elected legislators compel children to attent to undertake at least 11 years of group socialization.

Many of the unpleasant aspects of school experiences are the predictable outcomes of children being forced to interact with others they don't like or have nothing in common with beyond year of birth and temporary geographical proximity.

My sense is that things change significantly at University/College: although you can't pick your classmates, you tend to have rather more in common with them that just age and location, and moreover there is generally no compulsion to interact with
those you don't care for. (e.g., you can choose not to sit next to the sniffing guy in the next lecture). Moreover, to a large extent, you're there by choice ... not by order of state and parents.