No matter how hard I try, I don’t understand the convoluted way we go about trying to protect kids from… Well I’m not really sure what.
We don’t allow students to post any of their work outside the walls of the school even under the supervision of a teacher.
But when they leave our sphere of influence, we express all kinds of amazement when they let loose with their thoughts, creative and otherwise, that don’t meet our standards.
We strongly discourage schools from posting the names and faces of students in places where someone from outside the walled garden might see them.
Except for those receiving athletic, arts, or other honors in which case their full names, faces, schools, and plenty of other details are printed up in a newspaper that will likely republish it to their web edition.
We work very, very hard to filter and block the real world from the classroom at the same time that students are gaining access to some very powerful communications tools as soon as the bell rings.
I’m sure this rant only applies to us here in the overly-large school district but around here we spend far more time, effort and money on “protecting” kids than we do on educating them.
On doing everything we can to stop kids from connecting with the world beyond the front door instead of helping them learn how to do it right.