FTA...But Terri Burke, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said requiring students to wear the GPS bracelets full-time raises privacy concerns.

"We're all for keeping kids in school, and we applaud any efforts to make that happen," Burke said.

"But the privacy issue: What happens with the bracelet or anklet after school is out? Is that appropriate for the school or courts to know where and what this person is doing outside of school?"

Burke said truant students and runaway kids are different issues.


I'm with the ACLU on this one.

And everyone laughs at me for proposing vocational programs to teach those not suited for college a trade skill. "But WHO is suited? Who picks?!?!"

Jesus. Yes, everyone can now go to either college or prison. GREAT compromise!

At least the Army is still hiring.

I knew a girl in High School that had to wear an ankle 'bracelet'...

She had gone to court and been found guilty of something or another involving drugs. She had to wear it for year. But yea, she did commit a crime.

It's awesome to see that the authorities have nothing better to do than to track truancy. That is an excellent way to spend resources.

NewportBarGuy: And everyone laughs at me for proposing vocational programs to teach those not suited for college a trade skill. "But WHO is suited? Who picks?!?!"

Jesus. Yes, everyone can now go to either college or prison. GREAT compromise!

At least the Army is still hiring.

You mean high schools don't have that? I know for a fact that my high school had a programme that would get kids who weren't interested in university into the trades.

Canadian Canuck: programme

WTF language is that, commie?

...so let's get started integrating the two. After all, both ways are a "public system" aren't they?

Geez, dumb ass school boards.

There's a magical, wonderful, cheap and amazing way to solve this problem that school officials drool over...

Suspend 'em!

Next they'll put in one of those "invisible fences" like they have for dogs. Try to leave during school hours -- zap!

fark this plan.

High school is bad enough, don't make it even more like a prison.

"We are at a critical point in our time where we can either educate or incarcerate."

Most schools choose the latter.

This plan would work better if they installed GPS on the parents.

"I'm sorry, your kid skipped school today. You will have to report to your probation officer when you get off work to discuss the situation."

End of problem.

keithmccants: Nothing new

If only Foucault knew how to use a period... I mean sometimes he has sentences that are longer than paragraphs should be; it makes it difficult to follow.

\I read that book at jury duty, waiting to see if I would be called up.

If I had to wear one of those, they'd find it in the back of a cattle truck south of Juarez, or a park outhouse.

Let them skip school. Let it be up to the parent to deal with their kids skipping school. Forcing students who don't want to be in school to go to school is only going to make things worse for the other students and the teacher.

I read that: "We are at a critical point in our time where we can either educate or incinerate."

Heh... all the kiddies DIAF.

I think the system we had back when I was in school worked just fine. Too many unexcused absences in a class = fail. Simple, easy, and no privacy concerns.

That and if you got caught skipping, you got Saturday school. If you skipped said Saturday school, you got suspended. Each required notification to your parents.

Plain, simple, easy.

As someone who was once a truant teenager frequently in juvenile court, I hope to god this gets shot down hard and quick.

My method of dealing with this is far different than the current one. When the world puts me in charge the school system would work much differently. Starting about the 7th grade in my system getting kicked out of school would be quite easy to achieve under my system, as a matter of fact school would only be for those who wanted in starting at about that point. The 7th-8th grades would be a lot like current high school (with tons of aptitude testing), and 9th-12th would be college. You would have to qualify for High School (college) under my system, and your aptitude testing and scores in general from the 7th-8th grade would determine which classes were available to who qualify for the higher education.

Also under my system, corporate sponsorship would be allowed. Why the hell not? School is to train our children to be workers. I see no problem with Dow/Dupont/Shell etc... sponsoring the chemistry classes. I see no problem with the NBA/NFL/MLB sponsoring gym class. I see much better classrooms/equipment and practical education coming out of that arrangement.

I've also considered - to cut cost - specialty schools. Maybe regional or national specialized sports, chemistry, math, etc... schools. I can't decide if that should be on the 9th-12th level or "post graduate" continued education.

Sure, it violates "no child left behind" but it's closer to what really happens anyways without the pretending. Those who want to be in school will be in school and can get a college education regardless of income and without having to suffer classes dumbed down for their peers (like I did) and those who just don't want to be in school wont be. "No child left behind" translate as "Many kids dragged kicking and screaming" based on my observations.

Land of the free MY ARSE!

That this is EVEN being considered in a country that touts itself as "The Land of the Free" sickens and appalls me.

A better option is to overhaul the education system, other countries have done it to great success.
Make wider use of tech schools for those that don't want or are not able to learn in the classic ways.
Of course it's a sign of the friggin times that instead of overhauling the system they want to use force to keep crap the old busted way.

This used to be a country worth living in.

Treetop1000: This used to be a country worth living in.

No sheeit man.

This is awful. I cut a lot of high school, but I managed to get 2 college degrees. I now work in a field that has absolutely nothing to do with what I went to school for. School is mostly bullshiat anyways. Its primarily used to condition kids, like training animals, to sit still and shut up at some life draining job. They compete with each other for the positive attention of the boss figure (teacher), as training for being a good little kiss ass corporate slave. They don't teach you anything of much value at school anymore anyways. Civics class-gone, music-gone, shop classes-gone...the only things that are left at many broke ass schools is math and reading, because, in the words of Carlin, they want people just smart enough to operate the machines and do the paper work, and dumb enough to passively accept, stagnant wages, shiattier work conditions, longer hours, no benefits etc.

Besides, take a look at education and presidents:

Abraham Lincoln - Self Educated with the exception of about 1 or 2 years of formal education.


George W. Bush - Ivy League Graduate, MBA from Yale



Who would you vote for in an election between those two???

ronaprhys: I think the system we had back when I was in school worked just fine. Too many unexcused absences in a class = fail. Simple, easy, and no privacy concerns.

That and if you got caught skipping, you got Saturday school. If you skipped said Saturday school, you got suspended. Each required notification to your parents.

Plain, simple, easy.

I'd add on one caveat: Various federal, state and local programs get cut off or decreased for every kid in the household that lapses into truancy. Welfare? Cut. Federally subsidized mortgage coverage? Cut. Subsidized child care? Cut. And make it hold for the student through adulthood. You didn't want the program that would get you out of the morass of poverty? Wallow in it biatch.

OTOH, I'm a big believer in public boarding schools, because there are plenty examples where the kid isn't going to school because the parent hasn't emphasized the importance of education and discipline of study; give the kid a chance toward improvement.

Kongressman Grandma: Besides, take a look at education and presidents:

Abraham Lincoln - Self Educated with the exception of about 1 or 2 years of formal education.

George W. Bush - Ivy League Graduate, MBA from Yale
Who would you vote for in an election between those two???

Neither, they're both republicans.

WraithAscendant: That this is EVEN being considered in a country that touts itself as "The Land of the Free" sickens and appalls me.

A better option is to overhaul the education system, other countries have done it to great success.
Make wider use of tech schools for those that don't want or are not able to learn in the classic ways.
Of course it's a sign of the friggin times that instead of overhauling the system they want to use force to keep crap the old busted way.

Okay, MOST towns and regions still have tech colleges available for students.

Also, we're not talking about full citizen adults; we're talking about high school students. High school students don't have the freedom to make an amusing protest sign off school grounds without getting disciplined by school. Basically, all they can do legally is have abortions. Requiring education through at MINIMUM 16 is not crazy considering we're theoretically a democracy and we need educated citizens. It could be argued that for at least the past generation, we've failed, and now we're getting the government we deserve.

pecosdave: My method of dealing with this is far different than the current one. When the world puts me in charge the school system would work much differently. Starting about the 7th grade in my system getting kicked out of school would be quite easy to achieve under my system, as a matter of fact school would only be for those who wanted in starting at about that point. The 7th-8th grades would be a lot like current high school (with tons of aptitude testing), and 9th-12th would be college. You would have to qualify for High School (college) under my system, and your aptitude testing and scores in general from the 7th-8th grade would determine which classes were available to who qualify for the higher education.

Also under my system, corporate sponsorship would be allowed. Why the hell not? School is to train our children to be workers. I see no problem with Dow/Dupont/Shell etc... sponsoring the chemistry classes. I see no problem with the NBA/NFL/MLB sponsoring gym class. I see much better classrooms/equipment and practical education coming out of that arrangement.

I've also considered - to cut cost - specialty schools. Maybe regional or national specialized sports, chemistry, math, etc... schools. I can't decide if that should be on the 9th-12th level or "post graduate" continued education.

Sure, it violates "no child left behind" but it's closer to what really happens anyways without the pretending. Those who want to be in school will be in school and can get a college education regardless of income and without having to suffer classes dumbed down for their peers (like I did) and those who just don't want to be in school wont be. "No child left behind" translate as "Many kids dragged kicking and screaming" based on my observations.

I like your plan. Though my one change would be to divide high school into two paths, one a jr. college the other a vocational school.

My plan for K-6 would be warning all the parents that it's a public school, if you don't like the theory of evolution, you might want to pull your kid out now and enroll him/her into a christian school because science, not religion, will be taught, and creationism and intelligent design are not science.

Kindergarten is just an basics class. Letters, numbers, getting used to school.

1-6, the districts will be in charge of what is taught at all the schools. The teachers will be given out what all children in that class should know by the end of the year, and all students will be tested on those requirements. So now, instead of teaching to a standardized test (with will be eliminated) you're teaching to district curriculum. Math, english, science, health, reading, history will be on the test each year. Basically, a final exam for everyone. Students who do extremely well in some subjects will be allowed to take classes that expand upon those talents. For example, if Joe scores 99% in the first, second and third grade in math, in the fourth grade, Joe can go to a teacher who does math at an advanced level to challenge Joe. Also, if Sue shows that she has difficulty in english, then a teacher will be on site for students like her. Technology will be focused as well. Typing, installing/uninstalling a program, changing out a hard drive, other techy stuff will be covered.

In the jr. high area, a mandatory life skills class. Teaching students how to budget, balance a check book, tie a neck tie, interview for a job, change a tire...so on and so forth.

Sex education would be about safe sex, condoms, STDs and birth control. Abstenance (I know it's not spelled right) wouldn't be mentioned. There would even be an amnesty box of sorts were someone can get condoms and no one would know.

And finally, no zero tolerance policies. Everything is dealt with on a case by case basis. Also, permission slips will be handed out to the parents. If returned with a 'yes' vote, that child will be subject to a padlin' if ever needed.

Geez. Thank goodness that in my day we were just suspended for multiple truancies.

Public school, especially in higher grades, isn't for every kid. Very bright kids can suffer as much in school as kids who struggle with the coursework, and other factors - social, personal, familial - can make attendance torment. My best friend and I spent much of 7th grade ditching our final class to avoid some neighborhood thugs who walked home the same way we did. (Both we and the thugs were girls.) The school counselors wouldn't believe I was in the library reading much of the time I was ditching class and insisted I must be off smoking pot. I was such a nerd.

My situation wasn't true of every truant, and possibly not even of most, but an ankle bracelet? I don't think so. Save the restraints for criminals. If they tried strapping one onto my child's ankle, my family would be in the car and out of that state.

/ hated school and everything about it. Started learning once I graduated. Loved college, where learning, rather than surviving, is the point.

Fair or Foul? Students who skip school a lot to be tracked with ankle bracelets [VOTE] - Link (new window)

Much more effective educational tool than a tracking bracelet.

This is a result of NCLB. By 2014, it is required that schools have 100% attendance (as well as 100% passing rates and 100% graduation rates). The closer we get to that date, the more crazy things you're likely to see.


Also, in my area, students who are considered drop-out risks or who are not suited for the normal high school curriculum, are sent to our very good technical school. This already happens in many areas. Not that I am not saying the system could be improved upon (by a lot).

Canadian Canuck:
You mean high schools don't have that? I know for a fact that my high school had a programme that would get kids who weren't interested in university into the trades.

We had a program, but it was for dropping extraneous letters. :/

A far better solution that what the US is doing would be to track students into a trade school or for college prep for at least the last two years of high school.

Frankly, a future car mechanic isn't going to benefit in the least from taking calculus or writing research papers.

Teaching them basic accounting and other life skills and getting them apprenticeships or internships would make a hell of a lot more sense.

If you do not Educate...you must Incarcerate!

Too smart for school? Awesome.

Starve to death.

st.theresa: Okay, MOST towns and regions still have tech colleges available for students.

That's funny. I didn't have those options or at least wasn't in the least informed of said options.


Also, we're not talking about full citizen adults; we're talking about high school students. High school students don't have the freedom to make an amusing protest sign off school grounds without getting disciplined by school. Basically, all they can do legally is have abortions. Requiring education through at MINIMUM 16 is not crazy considering we're theoretically a democracy and we need educated citizens. It could be argued that for at least the past generation, we've failed, and now we're getting the government we deserve.

Did I say ANYTHING about not requiring education? Argue with what I said and not what you think I said.
Education SHOULD be required to some degree, but it should be offered for all different learning styles and interests so that the grease monkey that just wants to learn how to fix cars can not suffer because he or she doesn't want to learn a load of stuff that he or she will never use anyway, instead he or she SHOULD be taught to be the best damn grease monkey he or she CAN BE, rather than left behind as some sort of defect. If that was the case you would NOT have the drop out rate we have. This is coming from a former A and B student that is also a drop out.

The system is failing US. And instead of trying to fix it to better SERVE US they are blaming it on us and attempting to tailor us to fit the system. Which look at your history, NEVER WORKS!

Don't you think the system should SERVE the people rather than vice versa?

Workemon: I read that: "We are at a critical point in our time where we can either educate or incinerate."

Heh... all the kiddies DIAF.


approves

/huddah huddah huddah

Great Janitor:
I like your plan. Though my one change would be to divide high school into two paths, one a jr. college the other a vocational school.

That's sort of what I had in mind. I was thinking the "high school" level could be more like a general college type education, or with vocational programs. Any boarding schools would definitely be vocationally specialized rather High School or Graduate school level.

Kindergarten is just an basics class. Letters, numbers, getting used to school.

I agree - Kindergarten was originally established to program young minds with specific progressive ideas and view points, with an excuse for education. I would do everything in my power to get that sort of thing out of the school system (and I remember a lot of the programming attempts first hand). The only philosophy I really want to teach at a core level as a matter of policy is personal responsibility.

1-6, the districts will be in charge of what is taught at all the schools. The teachers will be given out what all children in that class should know by the end of the year, and all students will be tested on those requirements. So now, instead of teaching to a standardized test (with will be eliminated) you're teaching to district curriculum. Math, english, science, health, reading, history will be on the test each year. Basically, a final exam for everyone. Students who do extremely well in some subjects will be allowed to take classes that expand upon those talents. For example, if Joe scores 99% in the first, second and third grade in math, in the fourth grade, Joe can go to a teacher who does math at an advanced level to challenge Joe. Also, if Sue shows that she has difficulty in english, then a teacher will be on site for students like her. Technology will be focused as well. Typing, installing/uninstalling a program, changing out a hard drive, other techy stuff will be covered.

That does cover some of my aptitude ideas. My term of "grade level" is a stand in term since there's no current term to cover the mastery level system I have in place for the 1st-6th grade levels. One of the problems with the current system is that a student who is awesome at general science and reading but sucks at math has to fail an entire grade over it. Under my system all grade school age groups have the same mastery classes. You have to have all subjects to a 5 to achieve the current Junior High level (7th-8th). I think being the only 12 year old in a class full of 8 year olds would be sufficient to encourage improvement. Fail to make at least a mastery level 5 in every thing by a certain age, it's ditch digging time. (as the supreme ruler of this mythical country the legal working age is lowered to 13)

In the jr. high area, a mandatory life skills class. Teaching students how to budget, balance a check book, tie a neck tie, interview for a job, change a tire...so on and so forth.

I like it (but as supreme ruler of my mythical country the British derived current business attire would become a thing of the past - AKA no ties)

Sex education would be about safe sex, condoms, STDs and birth control. Abstanance (I know it's not spelled right) wouldn't be mentioned. There would even be an amnesty box of sorts were someone can get condoms and no one would know.

I like most of it, but I would not forbid the mentioning of Abstinence, personal responsibility is the focus. I would teach the results of the actions and mention just not doing them is the safest, but if you're going to - there's the amnesty box over there.

And finally, no zero tolerance policies. Everything is dealt with on a case by case basis. Also, permission slips will be handed out to the parents. If returned with a 'yes' vote, that child will be subject to a padlin' if ever needed.

And how! Fist fights would become a minor offense (kids fight after all, always have, always will) - I would even consider a monitored ring for real grievance settling that can even be used as a office decided method of conflict resolution. However pulling a knife or other weapon stashed on your body for anything but the most life threatening self defense purposes would be an expulsion candidate level of offense. Padlin' is a certain.

Lame. I used to skip some school every day in those young years of public education. I would only go to the classes specifically required for me to get into the state colleges later.

Most days I skipped at least one class. The administration went postal, but in the end they couldn't do much about it since they can't kidnap people.

Tracking, however, would suck. I spent those free hours listening to CDs and smoking Ganja on the trails. A tracking device would have made that difficult. But I'm not in high school anymore, so I don't care as much as I thought I would.

"We are at a critical point in our time where we can either educate or incarcerate," Penn said, linking truancy with juvenile delinquency and later criminal activity.

Keep breeding future criminals guests of the Prison-Industrial Complex.

"educate or incarcerate"

Somehow I read that as "educate or eradicate". Whatever.

Ha. Wait till the democrats require RFIDS implaneted in all children to "Protect Them". Then move on to people who have benn convicted of felonies, DUIs, traffic tickets, having a SS#.

meh...call me when they educate someone.

Who's the firestarter, Twisted firestarter......
/Psychosomatic
//Addict insane

But, they can be accessorized so nicely:



And I didn't know they were waterproof...

Who benefits from a normal education? I'm 41. I went to university and I can say I remember very little of what I was taught. Most of my education came after school. On the everyday job. Some of my skills were learned as an appendix on what I was taught, but a lot of the practicality was learned as I lived.
So. What good is a normal sit-still-learn-in-8-hour-chunks of education? And I say. Little if any. It's a make work project designed to keep children and teens busy long enough to keep them out of mischief. Our ancestors weren't stupid. They realized that children are curious and restless and wanted to do something with their awake time. Unfortunately it usually meant getting into trouble (short version), so schools slowly developed. In reality though, it does little good outside of the basics of learning standard mathematical practices and the gift of learning to put two abstract ideas together to form a sentence to educate people past a certain point. We would be better as a society to invest our children with a practical education. Skills are more important that geography, historical facts and differential calculus. I have 3 sons and many times I've seen the impracticality of trying to teach them what I thought was interesting (basic electronics for example). They weren't interested so they never learned. Same with languages. I love languages. They couldn't care if they learned Russian, German or Spanish. It holds no interest so why learn? It's a shame we've built this box we've put ourselves into that believes we're doing good educating the masses with information they'll never use. And it's actually a perverse idea we're helping by frustrating growing minds that want to do more physical challenges by making them sit still. Education's a waste for the most part.

//my lawn. It's green and beautiful. Sit on it if you want. No worries.

Yes, yes... you are either going to generate cash for the coffers by working like a slave for a megacorp, or we'll MAKE you generate some cash by feeding you into the now mostly privately, corporate-owned prison system. Incarceration is a great way for American companies to turn "useless" people into money machines, just like the rest of us.

thedarkshadow: Who benefits from a normal education? I'm 41. I went to university and I can say I remember very little of what I was taught. Most of my education came after school. On the everyday job. Some of my skills were learned as an appendix on what I was taught, but a lot of the practicality was learned as I lived.
So. What good is a normal sit-still-learn-in-8-hour-chunks of education? And I say. Little if any. It's a make work project designed to keep children and teens busy long enough to keep them out of mischief. Our ancestors weren't stupid. They realized that children are curious and restless and wanted to do something with their awake time. Unfortunately it usually meant getting into trouble (short version), so schools slowly developed. In reality though, it does little good outside of the basics of learning standard mathematical practices and the gift of learning to put two abstract ideas together to form a sentence to educate people past a certain point. We would be better as a society to invest our children with a practical education. Skills are more important that geography, historical facts and differential calculus. I have 3 sons and many times I've seen the impracticality of trying to teach them what I thought was interesting (basic electronics for example). They weren't interested so they never learned. Same with languages. I love languages. They couldn't care if they learned Russian, German or Spanish. It holds no interest so why learn? It's a shame we've built this box we've put ourselves into that believes we're doing good educating the masses with information they'll never use. And it's actually a perverse idea we're helping by frustrating growing minds that want to do more physical challenges by making them sit still. Education's a waste for the most part.

//my lawn. It's green and beautiful. Sit on it if you want. No worries.

Sits in total agreement!

"all in all your just another brick in the wall"

A wise property owner tracks their property at all times.

Lowjacking works good, but engraving a serial number would be cheaper.

It'll be easier to track them thru the school-mandatory volunteer-prison/military cycle.