Junior High Lives of Others

If you objected to high school students getting spied on in their homes by school district-issued webcams, maybe junior high students under nonstop cam surveillance on school grounds by a tubby administrator with a chinbeard (but no chin) will be the charm:

 

This video is from the PBS documentary digital_nation, co-hosted by the tirelessly tiresome Stollian scold Douglas Rushkoff, but this segment presents the in-school panopticon in a fairly positive light.

I'm creeped out by the obvious glee with which Beardy McBeardsworth describes his prey at a Bronx junior high school in almost exactly the same tones you hear from Air Force flacks narrating thermal footage of hits on insurgents. But I must acknowledge that the concept of school as a place where the rights of students are severely curtailed dates back at least to my own schooling during King Philip's War, was recently upheld by the Supreme Court in the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case, and seems to enjoy broad popular support. For the majority of Americans alive today, the function of school has always been to break you for a workplace where you will meet obstruction and indignity every day, be subject to every type of invasive surveillance, and generally, as even that greatest of working stiffs Jerry Langford put it, "have idiots plaguing your life."

Two pieces of advice: Don't google "clifford stoll," as the first page returns multiple trojan-upload pages. But definitely click on the "Stollian" link above, for 17+ minutes of Cliff Stoll showing off Klein bottles, measuring the speed of light using the wave equation, and generally being a brilliant mensch.

Comments

[SugarFree]

That barely deserves to have any -beard suffix at all. It's basically hairy ball-sack chin-pubes.

Fat, giggly pedophile has facial hair he deserves.

[Warty]

For the majority of Americans alive today, the function of school has always been to break you for a workplace where you will meet obstruction and indignity every day, be subject to every type of invasive surveillance, and generally, as even that greatest of working stiffs Jerry Langford put it, "have idiots plaguing your life."

That's a wonderful sentence.

[Ice]

I always find it odd how many parents will freak out about "stranger danger" yet when school officials have the right to strip search them and put survillance cameras in the bathroom they are all for it.

[Jorgen]

Well of course. Their children are angels and would never do anything wrong, so they aren't going to be strip searched. It's those monsters that other people raise that could hurt their little angels that will be strip searched.

[Warren]

But I must acknowledge that the concept of school as a place where the rights of students are severely curtailed dates back at least to my own schooling during King Philip's War, was recently upheld by the Supreme Court in the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case, and seems to enjoy broad popular support.

Well, the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case, would seem to say that school children have little to no rights at all, whether in school or not. So 24/7 surveillance by bureaucrats who like to watch children all day should be okie dokie too far as I can tell.

[martin]

Waddayamean Warren? There is a whole childrens' rights activist movement out there. Wait, that's not about children's civil rights, that's about the State's rights to make parents observe their childrens' rights.
My head spins, whose rights? What?

[David]

Wow, it's Gallagher's smarter twin.

[Kiwi Dave]

Nice title, btw. "Lives of Others" was a good film.

[a mother]

"I'm creeped out by the obvious glee with which Beardy McBeardsworth describes his prey..."If this footage is recorded they could end up as prey for anyone who manipulates the footage.

[Episiarch]

It's perfectly fine to have the creepy dude watching your children when he's the "certified" school administrator and it's "for the children". Fuck, man! It's god damned free day care! What more could you want?!?

[a mother]

Epi, I can see a shit load of problems since the girls are using the laptop as mirrors.

[Slut Bunwalla]

"Move the towel...move the towel...yeahhhh."

[a mother]

slut b, either your mother spanked you too much or not enough.

[T]

When you surrender your kids to the state for 8 hours a day, don't be too surprised at what the minions are doing to them. Power corrupts and all that.

[ed]

For all the bellyaching over "official" surveillance, there are millions of people willingly, even insistently, renouncing their privacy via Twitter, Facebook, traceable cell phone calls. The official spies can relax a little--we're doing much of the work for them.

[BH]

Beardo enjoys his job a little too much I think.

[dennis]

Schools are prisons.

[Mike Laursen]

But definitely click on the "Stollian" link above, for 17+ minutes of Cliff Stoll showing off Klein bottles, measuring the speed of light using the wave equation, and generally being a brilliant mensch.

Ugh! God, he's that forever-babbling wonk that inhabits the Advanced Technology Labs of any major software company. "Brilliant", but incapable of focusing on a project long enough to produce anything of coherent value. Lay off the Mountain Dew, guy. Ugh!

[ugg discount outlets]

Sometimes I sound like I'm arguing, when I'm actually not. I just have a way of putting my posts stronger than intended.It's easier to keep out of the conversation and not take the chance of being misunderstood.