Safety

This week's session dealt with safety issues. We spoke at length about all of the factors to take into consideration when dealing with safety. For me, the timing of the class was creepy, in the wake of all of the allegations going on at Eisenhower in New Berlin. I'd like to elaborate a bit on that today.

I spoke about this is class, but my biggest concern is educating the parents. Last year, for example, I had quite a few students who were the primary English-speaking people in the house. On student, in particular, had been posting on mySpace, and using language and attitudes that I doubt the parents would approve of. However, since they didn't speak English, they couldn't read or know what she was saying, and HAD NO CLUE what their child was posting.

For me, as a parent and as a teacher, that scares me. I would think that at the 6th grade level, you would want to know what your child was doing on a computer. I've found a very non-plussed attitude in a few cases. I have kids who are on mySpace and YouTube, and other than me bringing it up in a conference, I'm not sure that the parents are fully aware of what their kids are doing online. I can remember as a kid having to constantly check in with my family to tell my whereabouts--rarely were there times in which I could get away with something at home (trust me, I tried...) I'm afraid that some students nowadays are walking a very fine line between safety and tragedy.

Again, in the past, I can remember taking classes in "Stranger Danger" every year to prepare for situations that might occur. I think we need to do this on a more updated level. The idea of Internet Safety needs to be presented, and I think it's something that you should bring in the police for, to really show the seriousness of the topic.

My only other question is, when, as a society, did we become so trusting? It's scary how much people post about themselves and leave in full view of the public. That's something else that I think needs to be addressed.

The reality is, technology and computers are going nowhere anytime soon. We need to make sure that we keep that in mind as we prepare our students for the real world. The story of a stranger in a car trying to tempt you with candy has been updated; we need to update as well to combat that.