There’s an interesting article in the Peoria, IL newspaper about a school district that is considering banning from after school activities any student who is failing a core class. So if a student is failing a core class they can’t attend a football game or go to the prom. Seems reasonable to me.
Of course they asked some students their opinion, and as you’d expect some weren’t happy about it. That’s fine, since it’s a teenager’s prerogative, neh, genetic destiny to feel oppressed by the man. Unfortunately some teenagers don’t understand the difference between rights and privileges. Here’s a quote from the article:
"I think it’s ridiculous," said Breon Woods, 17, a senior at Peoria
High School, "simply for the fact the school would lose money without
kids at the games – they’re the main spectators – you won’t have as
much school spirit. And prom is a right of passage."
Before going on to make my point I should point out that someone at the paper might need to go back to school. "Right of passage" in this context should be "rite of passage." Anyway, the kid makes a somewhat salient point about the money, although I’d argue that games don’t come close to actually making money even with the students, and yes a prom is a rite of passage. But his assumption seems to be that by being a student you have the right to participate, no matter what. That’s a false assumption.
As members of the community students have the right to have the same opportunity to an education as everyone else. Other than that it is their privilege to participate in school activities, to utilize the school facilities, to occupy space with the other students. It is the community’s expectation that the students use those privileges for their intended purpose, i.e. learning, and it is the community’s right to withdraw those privileges if the students don’t hold up their end of the bargain. In other words prom might be a rite of passage, but it is no student’s absolute right to attend.
Like most parents we spend a lot of time explaining to our kids the difference between need and want. As they get older we’re also beginning to deal more with rights and privileges. I think that will really come to the forefront when licenses start to appear in the kids’ wallets in the next two years. Like most middle class American teenagers they somehow feel that driving a car is an inalienable right akin to life and liberty. How quickly they’ll learn that driving a car is a privilege expressly granted by the United States of Mom, Dad and State Farm.
Once again The Daily Show has the best take on the current political goings on. I loves me some hypocrisy:
Hat tip to Ed Cone for the link.
I came across this post today on Boing Boing about a guy who is scanning all kinds of government regulations, laws, etc. and posting the images online for all to see. Apparently some state and local governments copyright their laws and regs and he’s hoping one of them sues so that they can hash out the issue in court.
How the hell does a government copyright what is ostensibly public information? Now, if you read the article that the Boing Boing post points to you can understand why a government would copyright its regs, but that doesn’t explain how it’s able to do it. Here’s the why:
To purchase a digital copy of the California code costs $1,556, or
$2,315 for a printed version. The state generates about $880,000
annually by selling its laws, according to the California Office of
Administrative Law.
That’s just horses–t.
The video below is the best explanation I’ve seen of RSS. It’s important to know because RSS really is the backbone of the "new" web, or Web 2.0, or whatever you want to call it. You may be using RSS and not know it, but if you’re not you should watch this and learn how you can greatly expand your online horizons and save time in the process.
If you’re looking for a good place to find Hurricane Gustav related information online there’s a good repository here: http://gustav08.ning.com. A guy named Andy Carvin used the site Ning to create a social network for all things related to the hurricane.
This is the second example I’ve seen of someone making effective use of Ning. A few months ago I witnessed a social network being born on Ning that is related to the practice of competitive intelligence (CI). I used to work with the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals and while they had ample opportunity to build an online network they never got one off the ground, so in the absence of an "official" CI social network a grass roots network was created on Ning and it is by far the most successful online collaboration that the CI sector has seen to date.
When I first heard about Ning I dipped my toe in the water by joining a small business network that quickly devolved into a kind of lame online version of lead sharing networks endemic to coffee shops in every city in America, so I just kind of wrote it off. Now that I’ve seen Ning used effectively by a few folks I’m beginning to realize the power it places in ordinary folks’ hands. Honestly any group can use it effectively and it literally takes zero technical knowledge to use, so I have a feeling I’ll see more and more groups using it in the future.
Man, I’m on cloud nine. My stature has climbed to the point that John McCain, THE John McCain, called me to tell me what he’s up to and why I should vote for him for el Presidente. I wasn’t home so he left a message, and he wanted to speak with me so much that he called back again ten minutes later and left another message. I tell you what he’s so good that his second message wasn’t almost identical to his first message. It was almost as if he was reading from a script.
Since he couldn’t get hold of me Senor McCain is going to mail me something, I think an absentee ballot, that he said I should receive in the next week or so. I can hardly wait!
Befuddled 