Monday, 21 June 2010

"This is appalling to a degree almost beyond words."

So says blogger Darleen Click at 'Protein Wisdom', about a concept I really, really hope we don't import over here:
...increasingly, some educators and other professionals who work with children are asking a question that might surprise their parents: Should a child really have a best friend?

Most children naturally seek close friends. In a survey of nearly 3,000 Americans ages 8 to 24 conducted last year by Harris Interactive, 94 percent said they had at least one close friend. But the classic best-friend bond — the two special pals who share secrets and exploits, who gravitate to each other on the playground and who head out the door together every day after school — signals potential trouble for school officials intent on discouraging anything that hints of exclusivity, in part because of concerns about cliques and bullying.
Read the rest. It's frightening.

And I wouldn't put money on it not rearing its head over here, either.

Update: And from the same source, this:
The Department of Education wants to ban both cyber bullying and sexting in New York City’s public schools at all times, even outside of school hours.

“We’ve always been respectful of first amendment rights. I think we’ll get the right balance here,” said Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
Logic FAIL!
at

5 comments:

  1. ChrisM21 June 2010 at 13:26

    “We’ve always been respectful of first amendment rights. I think we’ll get the right balance here,”

    'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.[1]'

    I can't see how 'balance' comes into it. The first amendment is pretty unequivocal.

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  2. JuliaM22 June 2010 at 05:52

    You'd think so, especially for someone born there and growing up with that assurance, wouldn't you?

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  3. Biffo22 June 2010 at 07:46

    Wearing my tinfoil hat - if kids (or adults) don't have best friends they can't really criticise/comment on/protest about anything the govt (of whatever country) does. After all, it's only with our best friends that we feel secure enough to say 'so, what do you really think about.....?' and from there arrive at our own final opinion on any subject - get rid of close relationships & march backward to the world of East Germany & NWO. Extreme? Think about it.

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  4. Stewart Cowan23 June 2010 at 00:32

    Biffo,

    Please remove your tinfoil hat. The agenda is obvious and you clearly know it as well as I do.

    The motive is the same as that of the anti-family and pro-homosexuality social engineers: to destroy normal, healthy relationships that produce a strong society which doesn't rely on Big Government. Notice also how Stonewall uses 'bullying' to try to change society's norms.

    Despicable.

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  5. JuliaM23 June 2010 at 05:29

    Biffo:"...if kids (or adults) don't have best friends they can't really criticise/comment on/protest about anything the govt (of whatever country) does."


    Stewart: "The motive is the same as that of the anti-family and pro-homosexuality social engineers: to destroy normal, healthy relationships that produce a strong society which doesn't rely on Big Government. "

    You seem to both be saying the same thing, at heart.

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