Posted on 07/29/2008 8:25:24 PM PDT by Reform Canada
Pros
Parents can monitor their children at school Teachers are less likely to pursue a hidden agenda Greater control of bullying Incompetent teachers can be identified Overall classroom behavior likely to improve
Cons
I don't see any
LOl, what an idea. Every classroom in America can have webcams and parents can log on and check out all their kids classes on their home computers.
Sounds good to me. And for those parents who don’t logon, send them a video once every two weeks of their special little snowflakes.
Would you want every thing you did in school shown to your parents?
Wow this is awful!
Cons:
I don’t want other people, strangers, NAMBLA, observing my child, learning what they wear, like and dislike.
Academic freedom of both students and teachers would be non-existent, something that is very important in secondary and post-secondary education. Parents calling up and pushing their agendas (Think of evolution vs. creationism or socialist vs. capitalist)
I might have teachers playing for the camera and the Parents, hoping to avoid or at least minimize criticism from home, instead of focusing on involving and educating students. I don’t know if there is a conflict there but it might be worth considering.
“Greater control of bullying” and “classroom behavior likely to improve”
Clearly this is out-of-touch, have you seen the incidents of bullying and harassment that kids post on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook? If anything, kids inclined to act like turds will be even worse for the cameras in the hope of gaining an audience.
Oh yea, how do you plan on paying for this? Taxes? Unless you can tie it into a football/sports budget line most local school districts would vote it down.
This is gonna get creepy when the “Guilty/Not Guilty” crowd weighs in!
Academic freedom is irrelevant in elementary school, competent teachers and child safety is much more important. As far as strangers viewing, log ons can be restricted to parents, predators can stroll through a park much easier than stealing class log ons and every log on would would leave an IP address. Even in post secondary school many parents spends tens of thousands of dollars on an education and have the right to know if the profs are calling 9/11 victims little Eichmans.
Web cams are dirt cheap in five years time you will be able in put cameras in every class in a high school for only a couple of thousand, many even less. Computer technology is one thing that continues to get cheaper.
Cons: I don’t see any?
You’ve got to be kidding? What about pediphiles obtaining access to children? How about bully parents using subtle small issues during the year to beat teachers over the head with? How about a child/student staging an incident to be put on Youtube? Or staging an incident to get a teacher fired? I could go on, but I’m not sure it would make any difference if you couldn’t think of these things in the first place.
Web cams in the teacher’s lounge would help reduce alcohol consumption by teachers on the job.
No. And hell no.
“Web cams in the teacher’s lounge would help reduce alcohol consumption by teachers on the job.”
You must watch way too much TV. Do you really think this is a common problem?
“Web cams are dirt cheap in five years time you will be able in put cameras in every class in a high school for only a couple of thousand, many even less.”
So 1 camera per class? So that still means 29 other strangers and their families are viewing my child? No thanks.
Pediphiles wouldn’t have any greater access than they already do. Honest parents would have a change to identify bullies and have them dealt with. Small issues with would generally be irrelevant after a short period. Obviously it wouldn’t be perfect but it would improve education in the long haul. Those who play up to cameras would learn to stop when their parents start paying fines for disrupting the educational process.
it is in los angeles.
i don’t know about on the job,
but at home, yes.
i met several l.a. teachers being treated for alcoholism and they were up front:
would you want to work with kids who are more interested in fighting?
and meanwhile the county sheriff’s helicopter is hanging above the school.
one guy had his knee broken by a student.
When I was in High School I had three teachers that I could smell booze on.
“i don’t know about on the job,
but at home, yes.”
So? Teachers aren’t ever allowed to have a drink on their own time NOT at work?
Sorry, I think truckers that stay up all night hoped up on speed are far more dangerous to society than a teacher who enjoys a beer during dinner.
Alcoholics are in any profession, if anyone drinks on the job (in any profession) they should be fired immediately.
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