Webcams in all classrooms (BIG BROTHER ALERT!)

USA Today ^

[unixfox]

When students in Biloxi, Miss., show up this morning for the first day of the new school year, a virtual army of digital cameras will be recording every minute of every lesson in every classroom.

Hundreds of Internet-wired video cameras will keep rolling all year long, in the hope that they'll deter crime and general misbehavior among the district's 6,300 students -- and teachers.

[unixfox]

George Orwell was only a few years off in his prediction.

Get your children used to being watched by Big Brother now, and soon they won't care when they get older. This seems to me it's just another way of indoctrination.

Where do WE draw the line on government?

[TomServo]

He adds that students, teachers and parents in the small Gulf Coast community don't mind them at all.

Baaa-aaah! Baaa-aaah!

[unixfox]

Drawdy says the cameras are there for safety...

But a gun in the hands of law abiding citizens isn't. ;-)

[elfman2]

[vpintheak]

Nose pickers beware! Seriously though, this is rediculous. There is absolutely no reason why this is a good idea. All I read was statist propaganda, no common sense. As the X-Files said: Fight the Future

[freeeee]

Almost anywhere they go these days, Americans are on camera: at work, on the road, at public events. Why should schools be different?

And you call yourselves free. What a joke.

[elfman2]

Strange timing. The thought crossed my mind this morning that web cams in our school's classrooms would be a good way to ensure that the teachers weren't slacking off. Guess I'm part of the conspiracy.

[unixfox]

Almost anywhere they go these days, Americans are on camera: at work, on the road, at public events. Why should schools homes be different?

Replace schools with any place of your choosing and that is the direction we are heading. Tinfoil or not.

[Natural Law]

Are you nuts? A classroom is supposed to be a public setting. I for one want to see what is (or is not) going on inside that classroom. The ability to remotely monitor what is happening in my childs classrrom and what is or is not being taught would be a major benefit to all concerned parents.

[elbucko]

It amazes me that "Conservatives" consider that children have Constitutional Rights (unless they commit a crime). "Children", are a class and as such deserve the protection of society until they reach the age of majority and the full possession of their Constitutional imperatives. I'll admit, the camera's are a bit "Orwellian", but the only privacy I wanted my kid to have when she was in school was in the bathroom.

[elfman2]

" There is absolutely no reason why this is a good idea. "

- Flushes out incompetent and lazy teachers and highlights the good ones,
- Helps ID best practices for teacher training,
- Enables parental evolvement,
- Creates a record bad student behavior,

[Wonder Warthog]

"There is absolutely no reason why this is a good idea. All I read was statist propaganda, no common sense. As the X-Files said: Fight the Future."

Actually, this is one of the best ideas to come along, and one I have wondered why it "hadn't been done yet". The benefit from this is CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE (i.e. when teacher tells the parent that little Johnny has been mis-behaving, it is no longer his word against Johnny's--teacher HAS THE EVIDENCE ON TAPE), and in fact the very idea that mom and/or dad might be "tuning in" during the day will have the same effect on little Johnny that the presence of concealed carry licensees have on crime.

[elfman2]

"Almost anywhere they go these days, Americans are on camera: at work, on the road, at public events. Why should schools homes be different?"

Replace schools with any place of your choosing and that is the direction we are heading. Tinfoil or not.

I didn't write that. Try addressing your question to the person who did.

[So Cal Rocket]

Will the webcams have audio? I'd like to keep tabs on how the teachers are covering certain subjects.

I was aghast a few years ago when I read my daughter's high school history book. The Chapter on WWII mentioned Adolf Hitler's name once, yet had three full pages on the internment of the Japanese in the US.

[davisfh]

"Nose pickers beware!"

Those who pick and eat had better beware.

Seriously though, if there was ever an infringement on the privacy rights of people, this is it. This needs to be nipped in the bud once and for all.

[elbucko]

A classroom is supposed to be a public setting.

Exactly. If a parent, with suitable notice, can sit in the classroom during their childs instruction, I see no violation of privacy with a web cam. The idea may bother civil libertarians, but I'm not moved by their protests until they are as outraged about the quality of public education as they are about bogus privacy in a public institution.

[Centurion2000]

And kids will start using shaving cream to disable the cams before they start causing trouble.

This fascist crap makes me wanna puke.

[Centurion2000]

The ability to remotely monitor what is happening in my childs classrrom and what is or is not being taught would be a major benefit to all concerned parents

You honestly think they will give parents the option of watching these things ?

[elfman2]

"Will the webcams have audio? "

They'd be almost worthless if they didn't. Now that I think about it, they'd go a long way toward minimizing some of the pro-Democrat propaganda if the teachers thought that Republican parents were monitoring them.