The Stacked Deck
Dear Fred,
Thanks for your email.
In Catholic school settings like those of our youth I am open to the judicious use of corporal punishment.
However, I have serious reservations about corporal punishment in public schools where student bodies are "categorically" divided by class and race. (Try to get right-wingers to acknowledge this flamboyantly obvious truth! Lamentably, they are preempted by self-congratulation over personal perfection and the supposed applicability of "justice for all." In America, racial justice is blind only because we've poked "her" eyes out.)
As I understand the circumstances of the South Carolina girl who got "rag-dolled" by the cop-thug, her mother -- and grandmother -- had recently died.
Notably, the battered student was not causing disturbance but simply using her phone in "quiet mode."
It is true that she had refused to stop using her phone just as she refused to surrender it.
Personally I think all black people should be able to keep their cellphones at all times.
Furthermore, they should have the legal right (or at least decisive social encouragement) to videotape any encounter -- with any authority figure -- at any time.
It is The Least we can do.
From 1989 'til 1996, I taught in a multiracial public high school.
If a student in this girl's circumstance decided to quietly do something other than "pay attention" I would have welcomed her "zoning out."
Do the math Fred.
People who are uninterested in what "a teacher" is offering, or are too tired to pay attention, or are simply pre-empted by other concerns, are not going to respond to pedagogical "exhortation."
Those who think otherwise are the same folks who believe finger-wagging is morally reformative.
Duh.
Notably, the battered student was not causing disturbance but simply using her phone in "quiet mode."
It is true that she had refused to stop using her phone just as she refused to surrender it.
Personally I think all black people should be able to keep their cellphones at all times.
Furthermore, they should have the legal right (or at least decisive social encouragement) to videotape any encounter -- with any authority figure -- at any time.
It is The Least we can do.
The Deadly Oppression Of Black People: Best Pax Posts
From 1989 'til 1996, I taught in a multiracial public high school.
If a student in this girl's circumstance decided to quietly do something other than "pay attention" I would have welcomed her "zoning out."
Do the math Fred.
People who are uninterested in what "a teacher" is offering, or are too tired to pay attention, or are simply pre-empted by other concerns, are not going to respond to pedagogical "exhortation."
Those who think otherwise are the same folks who believe finger-wagging is morally reformative.
Duh.
If you did not see my a.m. post about this case, I encourage you to check it out:
"There Are No Innocent Black People"
Pax tecum
Alan
On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 12:25 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
In an ideal setting, and this can happen quite often -- nobody hits nobody, but it is better for the teacher to hit the students than for the students to strike the teacher or each other. Teachers are capable of kindness and restraint. Cops are suited for work on the street, not the classroom. But if the teacher can't restrain the student, then you need the cop and that is often over-doing it, as we saw in that video.I think corporal punishment, administered by teachers, is the best way to go.The teacher should have pulled this stubborn girl by her ear and pulled her into the hallway and sent her down the office.
No comments:
Post a Comment