Kids Being Groomed For A Surveillance State
Very troubling news from PogoWasRight on the creep of the surveillance state. In the latest blithe attempt to eliminate kids' expectation of privacy, aConnecticut school district wanted to require students to carry an RFID card-chipped ID so their location could be tracked:
The surveillance capability included locating the student if they were off school premises and in town. Today, I came across another news story from earlier this month that also involves tracking students. KTVU in California reported that the Contra Costa County School District began introducing a tracking system for preschool students that would alert staff when a student leaves school premises. In order to accomplish that, students will reportedly be required to wear a jersey that contains the RFID tag that uses Wi-Fi to send signals to sensors located throughout the school.I realize that some might argue that these are just little pre-schoolers and of course, we want to protect their safety, etc., but keep in mind that one of the major justifications for the program is to save staff time in terms of having to manually record attendance, etc. In exchange for that time and cost-saving, what price do we pay psychologically as a society? It strikes me that schools are grooming our youth to simply accept being tracked and monitored wherever they go and that anything they do, anywhere, can be used against them in school or elsewhere.
Is this really how we want to raise our children? To be sheep who accept being tracked and who have little sense of privacy or entitlement to privacy?
Why is this upsetting?
You'll already bend over for faux-police because you want to fly on a plane.
It's for your own good.
Right?
Radwaste at September 1, 2010 2:11 AM
Flying is a matter of choice. (Not that I have any regard for the dog-and-pony show that is airport security.)
Living is not. Big difference.
cpabroker at September 1, 2010 4:36 AM
Some hell if anyone's ever tracking my kids. This GPS thing is one reason I don't have a cell phone, and I will never have a nav system in my car.
momof4 at September 1, 2010 6:21 AM
And what happens after school is out and they are back in their parents care? What if dad takes little Johnny to the local bar for a hamburger & fries for dinner? Does he get reported to CPS?
Jim P. at September 1, 2010 6:28 AM
The purpose of public education is to create compliant citizens for the state. This is not a bug, it's a feature.
MarkD at September 1, 2010 6:34 AM
This is indeed how some people want to raise (or have someone else raise) their kids.
Does anyone remember how the kerfuffle over the school that was using the webcams to "check in" on students that were given school-issue laptops shook out? I was heads down in a work thing for a while there.
Elle at September 1, 2010 6:54 AM
Check out John Rosemond's latest column, which touches on the above issues:
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/31/2189214/living-with-children.html
It may surprise you, in small ways.
lenona at September 1, 2010 7:25 AM
We're talking pre-schoolers here. We had the same type of tag on my Mom, who has Alzheimer's. She had walked away from her open care center a few times and had no idea where she was or where she was going. The police found her both times within 20 minutes. She is in a secure facility now so now doesn't need one.
Eric at September 1, 2010 8:29 AM
Eric, your mom walked because no-one was watching her. With an adult, that has Alz onset, there may be a tipping point where they will need to be watched, else not. But she lived there.
A pre-schooler similarly needs to be watched. It's not enough JUST to know where they are, with a blip on the screen.
This sort of thing ALL revolves around maximization. If we can have the all seeing eye watching you, we don't need to have people looking out. But, it's a false economy. What if jonny, biff, and mikey are on a corner of the playground beating the heck out of each other. Does the blip tell you that? Or does the fact that Ms. McCreavey is out there pacing around STOP lil' jonny from instigating.
Having had several children in modern schools, I can tell you they don't watch very close NOW, much less what they will when they have the tracking chip like your dog has. When I was a kid, there was a FENCE around the school, and only 2 ways in/out. Teachers manned those ways in, and once classes started, the only way in was through the office. Some schools still do that in the building, but not their grounds... so recess is a free-for-all.
But the answer isn't to chip people FOR EVERYWHERE. ONLY when you are on school grounds should you be under their supervision. If they want to start having them wear a student ID that they pick up when they get to school, I dun' have a problem with that. If the ID has an RFID that is used in the building? Sure.
But DO NOT tattoo my serial number on my arm.
If you don't know what that means, look up Konzentrationslager Auschwitz. Also, if you think I am over reacting, consider that you cook frogs by slowly raising the temperature in the boiling pot... they don't realize they need to get out until it's too late.
SwissArmyD at September 1, 2010 9:29 AM
This is CYA stuff for lawsuits while making sure they keep all the power schools have gained in the last 100 years. The justification they will use is the "in loco parentis" notion. While at school, the kids are essentially property of the school, they are the parents. Tis why schools can search lockers without a warrant.
That notion always makes me laugh when I read about teachers crying that parents aren't involved in their kids upbringing and education anymore. Well duh, you've pushed them out and taken that power over yourselves.
Sio at September 1, 2010 10:00 AM
If I had kids, it would be home school or private school.
Feebie at September 1, 2010 10:25 AM
My take? this whole idea is totally unworkable unless they strip the kids naked and plant the chip under their skin. My son is 24 now but when he was three he could have beaten any system that was not permanently embedded in his body. He had already beaten the Mario Brothers and learned how to ride a two wheeled bike with no training wheels when he was two. He also ran the washing machine and programed the VCR. Jerseys with a chip in them can and will be removed, the tag can be cut out and tossed into the bed of a passing pickup truck or the entire jersey can be placed in the backpack of another student. Make a system idiot proof and the world can and will build a better idiot. :-) The system will either go broke replacing the tags or the Jersey before these nannies sh*t can it all together.
Isabel1130 at September 1, 2010 11:01 AM
Privacy? Do people even want it anymore? Seems like between reality shows, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter it's evident that everybody wants everybody else to know everything about them. Everything. Every little microscopic detail.
And parents are as much to blame as the school system if the kids are turned into sheep.
Ye gods, it makes me feel good to be old and childless. Right now I'm channeling Craig Ferguson doing his old man impersonation. (You needed to know that, right?)
Pricklypear at September 1, 2010 2:26 PM
PP, I think the answer to your question is: People want privacy for themselves -- but they don't want anyone else to have it.
Cousin Dave at September 1, 2010 6:19 PM
"As long as you have a net connection, you can reach the WordPress admin panel: there's nothing you need to install at your end. (There is an option to copy some of the admin functions to your local machine, which I've never seen the need to utilize, and I have three WP blogs already.)"
Bertha Uriostejue at July 8, 2011 12:59 AM
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