Misplaced Ingenuity
Written on June 24, 2009
Actually, misplaced desks and chairs. (If you don’t want to watch the video, it’s footage of a school prank where all desks and chairs were moved to the roof(s))
I bet the kids who displayed that amount of resource, invention and perseverance don’t do well in school.
Why did they choose to invest in classroom exertions of this sort? Tough question. Why anyone does anything is a very involved question.
Still, if the principal thinks that suspensions will help, she’s ignoring the bigger question of, “What makes school so unattractive that students would rather spend a night of manual labor than focus on their education?”
I’m not knocking discipline, but the purpose of discipline is to provide some useful feedback to help in re-evaluating and restructuring decision making. I’m not sure that’s going to happen in this case.
A pretty big prank is pretty big evidence of a pretty big problem.
But suspensions will make the principal feel better, and that’s what really matters, right?
Filed in: Uncategorized.
It could be evidence of a pretty big problem, or it might be just resourceful kids at the end of the school year who have been reading online about school pranks. Either way, the principle’s reaction does seem more antagonistic than necessary – it’s her annoyed tone that suggests to me it’s the former.