Well, actually it isn’t that simple. My daughter attends Catholic elementary school and my son is a recent grad of catholic high school. Generally speaking the parent association make these rules. If enough parents are against it, it will go away. Unfortunately, I think if such a proposal appeared before my association, the parents would go for it hook line and sinker. Anything to protect their little munchkins from the big bad world out there.
It is a stupid rule but I agree with the posters who say - it’s a Catholic school.
Add me to the Pit of people who can’t parent their own kids. I just saw in another thread where someone has the kid’s computer in their room, and I was going to open their mouth when I saw - they keep a very close eye on how long the boy is on the Internet! My SO’s cousin is 16 and he spends hours in his room with the door shut on the computer and his mother wonders what he is doing. :smack: (Honestly, wasn’t anyone else ever 16?)
Eh, won’t matter. MySpace is so 2005.
After some of my virus cleansing jobs (“uh, hi, sis, I don’t know what’s wrong with the 'puter”) I convinced Lilbro to stop visiting the pr0n section of certain sports sites (things like a pneumatic chick wearing an absolutely tiny, wet Real Madrid bikini). It’s kind of weird, giving pr0n links to your li’l brother… but heck, it took me all of fifteen minutes to determine which site was the one giving him the flu and five to figure out what kind of chicks he likes.
Are those parents so absolutely computer illiterate themselves?
I’m sorry but its being a Catholic school does not give it leave to hire the SS to ‘visit’ kids’ homes and ‘investigate’ the kids’ computers (probably the next step). It’s a ludicrous rule, and even if the parents’ council agreed, the principal should take a stand against such paternalism.
Instead of teaching kids how to be responsible Netizens, they keep them off it entirely so if/when they do go online, they’ll be as ill-prepared. It would have been much much smarter for the school to maybe make MySpace sites a project for the kids, help them set up the sites, and then help monitor them for dangerous practices.
It’s called a learning opportunity.
I’m just wondering how they’re planning to enforce that policy. My parents for sure had no idea how to work them fancy intarnets and would have been highly astonished if anybody told them of my presence in various chat fora. And I guess interrogating li’l Kevin if he is “hookrznblackjack91” on myspace would yield less than satisfying results…
So the kids are pretty much banned from the Internet (what are they to do, read CNN, post on The Dope?) so they grow up to be the morons who buy stuff from spammers and get caught by phishers.
People have been kind of hinting at this, but this is basically applying the abstinence theory of birth control to the Internet. Doomed to failure.
Actually, it’s being a Catholic (or any other private school) DOES give them the right to set their own rules. Anyone who doesn’t like the rules can pull their kids out and find a school that suits them better.
Not sure where you get your “next step” from…seems a little paranoid. Not to mention that, again, even if the school was to go to that “next step,” if the parents don’t like it, there is an easy way to avoid it…take the kids out of that school. It’s not like it’s the government and they don’t have a choice.
I’m not sure why the principal’s opinion should override the parents. One of the reasons people send their kids to private schools is to have more input into school rules and policies.
Not a bad idea, although I’m not sure, as a parent, that I would want class time devoted to that kind of project.
Meh.
Many schools, public or private, will kick you out if you’re caught with drugs or alcohol regardless of whether you’re on school property when you do it.
The company I work for doesn’t give a shit what I type on this message board unless and until I start mentioning them by name. Then they’d care.
The NFL can fine or suspend a player who gets a DUI or into a bar brawl, even if it’s off sesaon. It falls under the conduct unbecoming clause.
Of course, if you don’t like the policy, don’t send your kids there. Simple as that. I send both of my daughters to private schools. Both received the “Student Conduct” handbook and both signed it. They know the rules. And if that means living without MySpace, then so be it. To me it’s a fair trade off for a top notch education.
And once again it is time to trot out this Parking Lot is Full comic.
It’s time to stop sheltering kids so damn much.
If we’re going to pit every retarded rule from every private organization, we’re going to need a new pit sub-section.
Einmon, one thing I’ve learned about kids is that they don’t know how to keep their mouths shut, even in the presence of adults. Suzie will tell Kenny who will tell Felicia who will tell Zach who will say something while Mr. Rogers is listening. Then they’ll all act surprised that the school knows.
Welcome to the world of raising teenagers.
My guess, not being part of the school, is that they’ll simply rely on the students to rat each other out. Which leads to interesting conundrums, of course: “Sister Mary Begonia, Mackenzie totally has a MySpace page!” “Really, Madison, how do you know?” “'Cause I was on MySpace checking my blog comments and - oh, crap!”
Well, why not? I mean, it’s worked so well for alcohol use! :rolleyes:
Well, sure it does. But, just like “If you don’t like the rules of the Catholic church then just leave!” or “If you don’t like the USA, then just leave!”, leaving it at that does nothing to spur conversation or debate. It lets the vocal minority (or, yes, majority) seize control with no discussion.
I don’t think anyone is claiming that they’ve done anything illegal here. Some of us are saying they did something stupid, or something feel-good with no real effect or something very shortsighted or perhaps even something immoral. It’s their right to do so, and as **Autolycus **points out, it’s our right to bitch about it on a message board and in newspapers and our right to insist at our own school board meetings that the same thing NOT happen here. In fact, perhaps my school board president will read this thread, read some very good reasons why this is a bad idea, and not bring it up at all (assuming she might have otherwise read only positive articles and decided it might fly here as well.) I know I, as a direct result of this thread, am going to email her later and see if there’s been similar discussion at our district, and go to the meetings I’ve been blowing off if it has. (And my kid’s not even interested in MySpace yet.)
There is room within all good and moral systems for debate, and this is no exception. If my child was at the school, I’d be debating it. I’d be writing letters and attempting to reason with the school board. Because, like my country, I’d rather work from within to fix the few flaws it has than discard it entirely for something worse.
“If you don’t like it, don’t send your kids there” presupposes that there’s anywhere better, or even as good, to send them. I hope for most families that’s the case. As I’m currently looking into parochial school of faiths other than my own because the local school sucks so very, very badly, I can’t assume that. Even if I disagree with a few of their policies, the local Catholic school might be the only acceptable academic option. Does that mean I have no right to speak up? Fuck that, of course I do. AS A PARENT AT THE SCHOOL, I’d have the same exact right and responsibility to speak up as someone who supports the administration’s decision.
And giving up their most favored items during early spring. WTF is up with that?
Or, they pay for it, they should have a say in the rules.
I could see a rule against using MySpace on SCHOOL computers. That seems reasonable. But at home? That’s going way too far.
Except just the parents part. And the part limiting it to schools.
In other news, wonder how that proscription against “self-abuse” is working out.
Jesus has 13 friends.
Peter
Andrew
James
John
Philip
Thaddeus
Bartholomew
Thomas
James
Matthew
Simon
Judas (Friend status in review)
and (of course) Tom
My answer was somewhat simplistic, but I was responding to the idea that the school doesn’t have the “right” to do this, which they clearly do. Personally, I am not sure I would love the rule, but I think the thing to do is get involved in the school and try to influence the decisions, and if I couldn’t, then find a school that suits me better. My point is exactly the one that you give here…the nice thing about a private school is that parents can get involved and actually have a chance to help set school policy, whereas in public schools it seems much more difficult to do so.
The examples you give are funny to me (the Catholic Church and the USA) because they are SUCH different organizations. This country is a democracy (well, a republic, but the point being that the people are supposed to have input). The Church, not a democracy by any stretch of the imagination. Catholic schools are a different story, but the Church itself is not big on the laity trying to effect change. That’s why there are about 27 million Protestant denominations now! I think this is why the Church has so damn much trouble with Americans…we are too used to being able to effect change! 
I wasn’t exactly talking about legalities, either, I was talking about rights. Independent organizations have the right to run themselves as they see fit, and I think this is an important principle to protect, that’s all.
I wouldn’t say it’s immoral. Perhaps short-sighted. As I said, I’m not sure it’s the right tack to take, or that I would approve of it if I was a parent at that school.
True enough, and if this was a rule in a public school, I would have the exact opposite opinion as to the school’s “right” to have such a rule.
I would be interested to know if they have been contemplating it. Since you refer to a “district,” I assume that you are referring to your local public schools. As I said, if I heard that my local public school was contemplating this rule, I would disagree with it strenuously.
Here’s the thing, though. I am not saying I would disagree with it from the point of view that it is a bad idea. I actually think that whether or not it is a good or bad idea is beside the point here. The point I was trying to make is a broader one of what kinds of policies government schools have the right to make, and what kinds of policies private schools have the right to make.
Well, of course, and I would do the same.
Absolutely you do. Perhaps more so, since you will be paying for the school rather than the taxpayers. As a parent in the school, it is not only your right but your duty to do what you think is best for your children. I am pretty sure that nowhere in what I have written here have I said that you don’t have the right to speak up. When I say you can remove your kids from the school, I was presupposing that a parent would be working with the powers that be to help create the kind of environment they want for their child. No school is going to be EXACTLY what you are looking for, but you certainly should try to find one as close to what you want as you can, and be involved to keep trying to make it better, as well. If there is a policy that you can’t change and can’t live with, then at least you have the right to find a new school.
That’s why I like this rule so much: it discourages parents from sending their children to parochial schools and pretty much guarantees that they will never be taxpayer-supported. Sorry, but that’s Catholic School. That boot is always above that face, whether it stomps on it or not. They can require your child to believe in the risen Christ, although they generally don’t strictly as a matter of internal policy. They can, if they wish, give your child an assignment to write about reproductive rights, and give zeros to anyone who doesn’t oppose them, or require that the Valedictorian remove a quote from his speech because the author was reputed to have been homosexual.
I’m not so crazy about this rule, myself, but, my goodness, can we at least react like we know how to think? We have people yelling about SS and coddling kids from 1 to 21 and all sorts of quite silly things. From the sound of things here you’d think it was about to become national policy or something. Unless I really missed something in the article, we don’t even know what level this school is. Are we talking high school kids here, or grade school? It’s one new rule at one private school, and I’d be willing to bet that by the end of the year they’ll be rethinking it. Given the fact that the principal say it has the support of nearly all the parents, I’d guess this is a grade school, and parents just haven’t had the experience with Myspace and places like that yet. They’ll learn and things will change.