Some ranting about American propaganda

[Paul]

So I've been reading some Noam Chomsky, which has led me to reflect on American prepaganda and its effectiveness, and how incredible it is that I still run into Americans who spout a bunch of garbage about how free they are at the slightest provocation.

My wife comes from a country where they truely don't have the freedoms that we have in America. Heck, they don't have any freedoms at all. She would probably spout a lot more of what you refer to as garbage about the freedom she now has as an American than you've ever heard from any natural-born American.

As far as the school goes, who cares. :roll:

Best

[fiddleronvermouth]

Actually, I don't think there's anything wrong with the website, I just thought it was hilarious.

As for Chomsky's world view, I admire him as a very intelligent critic of media and government. My world view is my own, I read the occasional book, Chomsky included, to ensure that I'm informed.

But come on, is it reasonable that your child's school should be able to dictate what type of panites (if any) they wear?

Azalin, Jack himself directed me over here to get all the politics out of my system. There's a lot of it! So watch out!

The relevance of the website to my thoughts on propaganda is the observation that from childhood, people (not just American's either) are rigorously trained to respect authority, follow the rules and stick to the status quo. Statements like "NO RUNNING! Except when in gym class, where running is mandatory!" sound downright Orwellian to me. Am I the only one?

[missy]

fiddleron wrote:
"But come on, is it reasonable that your child's school should be able to dictate what type of panites (if any) they wear?"

Wear? No. DISPLAY? Yes.

[Paul]

Am I the only one?

Yeah.

[susnfx]

The relevance of the website to my thoughts on propaganda is the observation that from childhood, people (not just American's either) are rigorously trained to respect authority, follow the rules and stick to the status quo.

I assume you have traffic lights in Montreal. When they're red, it means "NO GOING THROUGH THIS LIGHT UNTIL IT TURNS GREEN." Hopefully most drivers are rigorously trained to respect the light, follow the rule, and stick to the status quo.

Freedom doesn't mean you're free to do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want, to whomever you want. And I don't believe that's too Orwellian.

Susan

[The Weekenders]

Azalin, Jack himself directed me over here to get all the politics out of my system. There's a lot of it! So watch out!

hmmmmmmmmmm.....

[s1m0n]

I'm with the person who thinks its none of the school's business what kind of underwear I'm wearing.

~~

And Yeah, if I was the teacher I'd be humiliated by the spelling errors on display. If that's what she's teaching her kids, she should leave off the rules and go take spelling lessons.

[s1m0n]

I assume you have traffic lights in Montreal. When they're red, it means "NO GOING THROUGH THIS LIGHT UNTIL IT TURNS GREEN." Hopefully most drivers are rigorously trained to respect the light, follow the rule, and stick to the status quo.

You've never driven in Montreal, have you?

[I.D.10-t]

As far as the school goes, who cares. :roll:

Actually, I would care. This is not this particular school, but in general. These people are learning many things; I fear that part of school experience is how to act in society. If they grow up with no expectation to privacy, or learning to live in a constant stat of distrust it will effect how they act as adults. Often I feel that rules telling people what to wear are arbitrary and difficult to enforce. It seems to me like some schools want to have complete control over the child’s actions and remove any responsibility from the child. From the site “no drugs, no illegal, prescription or over the counter drugs are to be in your possession” I would have hated to have to walk to the office every time I needed a puff on my inhaler. I have seen grown men that were subjected to authoritarian rules turn into mindless zombies; I would hate to see this happen to a child.

On the flip side, I actually believe in school uniforms. Learning to take care of a uniform and maintain it is a valuable lesson that I can see being taught (I still cannot stand it when I see an adult man that doesn’t know how to tie their tie correctly). When done for the right reasons, it can help establish a sense of community, and a feeling of equality. For this to happen though the teachers themselves would have to dress appropriately (something that one school tried to enforce was a dress code for teachers. The teachers and their union put an end to that quickly.

As always, it is no simple matter.

And Yeah, if I was the teacher I'd be humiliated by the spelling errors on display. If that's what she's teaching her kids, she should leave off the rules and go take spelling lessons.

Bad spelers unitte!

[susnfx]

I would have hated to have to walk to the office every time I needed a puff on my inhaler.

Most schools (in Utah at least) keep kids' required medications in the nurse's office. No child just carries an inhaler around with them. They must go to the office to get it. The problem my daughter had with this was that occasionally she would get a twit teacher who would question her need for her inhaler. We did have some problems with that.

I work in an allergist's office and we have form letters to send to schools with instructions about asthma medications and allergy rescue medications to be given in case of anaphylaxis due to food allergy.

Susan

[perrins57]

[quote="s1m0n"]I'm with the person who thinks its none of the school's business what kind of underwear I'm wearing.
quote]
It is if you wear it outside your uniform.

[fiddleronvermouth]

I assume you have traffic lights in Montreal. When they're red, it means "NO GOING THROUGH THIS LIGHT UNTIL IT TURNS GREEN." Hopefully most drivers are rigorously trained to respect the light, follow the rule, and stick to the status quo.

You've never driven in Montreal, have you?

Ain't that the truth!

[susnfx]

Um, actually I have driven in Montreal.

[ChrisA]

But as the parent of two teens, I see absolutely nothing wrong with this site, or with the rules this teacher wants in her classes, as long as the school administration and school board back her up.

I don't think the rules are for a specific class, I think they're rules for the whole school, at all times. That means, yes, that it is against the rules for anyone to hug their boyfriend or girlfriend, and it is against the rules to have a cel phone with which to call for a ride. For some reason, schools seem to be unable to make rules like 'no -use of cel phones- during class' and suchlike.

Depending on the school, there may be quite a few hours where one is -at- school but not -in class-.

They look, anyway, a lot like the rules that were campus wide when I was in school, only stricter.

I think for inhalers, epipens, and other 'emergency, as needed' medications, it's absurd and dangerous to keep them in the nurse's office. For scheduled doses, it's perfectly reasonable.

The clothing rules don't really bother me, though I do think at a certain point it might make more sense to just revert to a school uniform rule instead of making rules against something new every year...

[Wanderer]

I don't think the rules are for a specific class, I think they're rules for the whole school, at all times. That means, yes, that it is against the rules for anyone to hug their boyfriend or girlfriend, and it is against the rules to have a cel phone with which to call for a ride. For some reason, schools seem to be unable to make rules like 'no -use of cel phones- during class' and suchlike.

Depending on the school, there may be quite a few hours where one is -at- school but not -in class-.

They look, anyway, a lot like the rules that were campus wide when I was in school, only stricter.

I think for inhalers, epipens, and other 'emergency, as needed' medications, it's absurd and dangerous to keep them in the nurse's office. For scheduled doses, it's perfectly reasonable.

The clothing rules don't really bother me, though I do think at a certain point it might make more sense to just revert to a school uniform rule instead of making rules against something new every year...

These are the same rules, though slightly less strict, that I went to high school under, which was something like 20 years ago We didn't have cell phones then, but we weren't allowed the little LED football game. I guess the only rule we didn't have was the website one. In addition to the ones listed on the page, I remember our school not allowing boys to have facial hair. Shorts couldn't be worn in Summer (this is in Texas, mind you), and boys couldn't wear earrings.

I found many of the rules restrictive and silly..just a control mechanism for the teacher, to minimize disruption of routine.