I might not have appreciated today's front-page Times story about cyberbullying if I hadn't received a?barrage of text messages this morning from a school aide?mad?at me?she said she was ?too enraged? to call?for a newspaper story I was quoted in.? Fortunately, I have a learned a few things over the years, texted back that I was off to church, then turned my phone off.
Our kids, according to the Times piece, are not having such an easy time of it:
It is difficult enough to support one's child through a siege of schoolyard bullying. But the lawlessness of the Internet, its potential for casual, breathtaking cruelty, and its capacity to cloak a bully's identity all present slippery new challenges to this transitional generation of analog parents.
And schools.? The whole thing?has quickly become ?another responsibility for schools,? Russell Sabella, former president of the Americanb School Counselor Association, tells the Times. After a generation of pushing technology, persuading parents and taxpayers that computers, smartboards, and the Internet?would save education (aren't these the 21st century skills that we hear so much about?) it will be hard to put the cell-phone genie?they are not phones, one expert tells the Times, they are ?mobile computers??back in the bottle.
Last week, in my small district, cell phones were blamed for inciting a weeks' worth of hallway and classroom fights, as students texted one another to the?latest brawl?and videos of it were instantly ?uploaded to the Internet. The cell-phone rule?a prohibition against disturbing a class?is unenforceable and?teachers have had to adopt a ?choose your battle? strategy of ignoring kids who are discreet with their texting.
The Times offers plenty of guidance for parents, but not much?for educators, ?other than to say that ?overburdened school administrators? say it is almost impossible for them to monitor regulations imposed on teenagers.?
Are the inmates running the asylum?? Suggestions, please.
?Peter Meyer, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
