Are the Web Filters at Your School

Too Restrictive?
We ask this question in honor of Banned Books Week. This year the American
Library Association is promoting Banned Websites Awareness Day on Sept. 28. to
“raise awareness of the overly restrictive blocking of legitimate, educational Web
sites and academically useful social networking tools in schools and school
libraries.”

What Web sites, blogs and social networks are blocked in your school? How has this
affected teaching and learning for you?

In a statement about Banned Websites Awareness Day, the American Association of

School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association, includes the
following background:

Usually the public thinks of censorship in relation to books, however there is a

growing censorship issue in schools and school libraries – overly restrictive filtering
of educational websites reaching far beyond the requirements of the Children’s
Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Students, teachers, and school librarians in many
schools are frustrated daily when they discover legitimate educational websites
blocked by filtering software installed by their school.

Filtering websites does the next generation of digital citizens a disservice. Students
must develop skills to evaluate information from all types of sources in multiple
formats, including the Internet. Relying solely on filters does not teach young citizens
how to be savvy searchers or how to evaluate the accuracy of information.

Over extensive filtering also extends to the use of online social networking sites such
as FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, etc. In order to make school more relevant
to students and enhance their learning experiences, educators need to be able to
incorporate those same social interactions that are successful outside of school into
authentic assignments in the school setting. Unfortunately, filters implemented by
school districts also block many of the social networking sites.

To raise awareness of the overly restrictive blocking of legitimate, educational

websites and academically useful social networking tools in schools and school
libraries, AASL has designated one day during Banned Books Week as Banned
Websites Awareness Day. On Wednesday, Sept. 28, AASL is asking school librarians
and other educators to promote an awareness of how overly restrictive filtering
affects student learning.

Students: Tell us what Internet sites are blocked in your school and why, and
describe how that has affected teaching and learning. Do you agree with the A.L.A.
that filtering websites “does the next generation of digital citizens a disservice” and
that social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can have legitimate
educational purposes and value? If so, what would you say to your principal or school
board if asked to argue for making your school’s filters less restrictive?
 Does Technology Make Us More
Alone?
Technology is supposed to make us more connected. We can stay in touch with our
friends all the time on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, and, of course, by texting. But
are our smartphones actually getting in the way of real socializing? Could
technology be making us more alone?

In the article “Disruptions: More Connected, Yet More Alone,” Nick Bilton writes
about a YouTube video that comments on our smartphone-obsessed culture.

Last weekend, I was watching television with a few friends, browsing the week’s most
popular YouTube videos, when a piece in the comedy section called “I Forgot My
Phone” caught my eye. As I was about to click play, however, a friend warned: “Oh,
don’t watch that. I saw it yesterday, and it’s really sad.”

The two-minute video, which has been viewed more than 15 million times, begins
with a couple in bed. The woman, played by the comedian and actress Charlene
deGuzman, stares silently while her boyfriend pays no mind and checks his
smartphone.

The subsequent scenes follow Ms. deGuzman through a day that is downright
dystopian: people ignore her as they stare at their phones during lunch, at a concert,
while bowling and at a birthday party. (Even the birthday boy is recording the party
on his phone.) The clip ends with Ms. deGuzman back in bed with her boyfriend at
the end of the day; he is still using his phone.

Ms. deGuzman’s video makes for some discomfiting viewing. It’s a direct hit on our
smartphone-obsessed culture, needling us about our addiction to that little screen
and suggesting that maybe life is just better led when it is lived rather than viewed.
While the clip has funny scenes — a man proposing on a beach while trying to record
the special moment on his phone — it is mostly … sad.

Students: Tell us …

 Does technology make us more alone? Do you find yourself surrounded by people
who are staring at their screens instead of having face-to-face conversations? Are you
ever guilty of doing that, too?
 Is our obsession with documenting everything through photographs and videos
preventing us from living in the moment?
 Do you ever try to put your phone down to be more present with the people in the
room?
 Do you have rules for yourself or for your friends or family about when and how you
use technology in social situations? If not, do you think you should?
 Do you think smartphones will continue to intrude more into our private and social
spaces, or do you think society is beginning to push back?

SEARCH

 How Should Parents Handle a

Bad Report Card
 That’s the question the Motherlode blog asked adults last week, and now
we’re asking you. How do your parents react to your report cards? Do you
think you should be punished in some way for bad grades? Rewarded for
good ones? How?
 Here is the Motherlode post in its entirety. After you read it, you may want to
scroll through the more than 100 answers parents gave in the comments
section below the post:
 Report card time. That has always been a fairly good day at Alyssa’s
house in Houston. This time around, though, things aren’t going so well,
and Alyssa’s mother is looking for some advice. Here’s the comment she
left Tuesday on an unrelated post:
 “My daughter is 12 and in seventh grade. I just found out from her
school that they distributed report cards last week and she did not give
hers to me. She hid it in a drawer in her room because she didn’t want to
be grounded for her low grade of 76 in science. She’s a really good
student and kid for the most part. She has starting the teenager back-
talk stuff, but she’s over all a really good kid. I have no idea what I
should do about her hiding her report card. Should I punish her?
Ground her for hiding it? We have an 85 percent rule in the house: her
grades need to be 85 percent or above or she is grounded to the house
until the next progress report.
Advice on what I should do?
Alyssa’s Mom”
 Poll of the readership: how do you handle bad report cards at your
house? What do you consider “bad”? Does punishment work? Is the
problem here really the report card? Or the hiding? What should
Alyssa’s mother do?
 Students: Tell us how you you think parents in general — and maybe your
parents in particular — should handle bad grades. Should kids be punished for
them in some way? Why? Should students be rewarded for good grades?
How? What have your parents taught you, explicitly or implicitly, about the
role of grades in your school career in general?

 Should Middle School Students Be
Drug Tested?
Schools in several states now require drug testing for students who want to
participate in sports and other extracurricular activities, starting in middle school.
Do you think this is a good idea? Why or why not?

In “Middle Schools Add a Team Rule: Get a Drug Test,” Mary Pilon looks at both
sides of the issue:

Olympic athletes must submit urine samples to prove they are not doping. The same
is true for Tour de France cyclists, N.F.L. players, college athletes and even some
high school athletes. Now, children in grades as low as middle school are being told
that providing a urine sample is required to play sports or participate in
extracurricular activities like drama and choir.

Such drug testing at the middle school level is confounding students and stirring
objections from parents and proponents of civil liberties.

… Some coaches, teachers and school administrators said drug-testing programs

served as a deterrent for middle school students encountering drugs of all kinds,
including steroids, marijuana and alcohol.

“We wanted to do it to create a general awareness of drug prevention,” said Steve

Klotz, assistant superintendent at Maryville School District in Missouri. “We’re no
different than any other community. We have kids who are making those decisions.”

There are no known instances of a middle school student testing positive for
performance-enhancing drugs like steroids or human growth hormone. The few
positive results among middle school students have been attributed to marijuana,
officials said, and even those cases are rare.

… “It starts early with kids,” said Matthew Franz, who owns the drug testing
company Sport Safe based in Columbus, Ohio, and is a member of the Student Drug-
Testing Coalition, an organization of drug-testing proponents. “You want to get in
there and plant these seeds of what’s out there and do prevention early. The 11th and
12th graders, most of them have already made a choice. But the eighth graders,
they’re still making decisions, and it helps if you give them that deterrent.”

Students

 Do you believe, as Mr. Franz does, that testing students in middle school will keep
them from using drugs? If so, is high school “too late” to use testing as a deterrent?
Why or why not?
 Do you believe schools should test their students for drugs? If so, at what age should
the testing begin?
 Do you think drug testing is an invasion of privacy? Why or why not?
 Why do you think some schools require drug tests for all extracurricular activities?

Is Cheating Getting Worse?

A recent study shows that more students are cheating — and that many are
cheating not just to survive, but to thrive. What have you observed about cheating
at your school? If there seems to be more of it, why do you think that is?

In the article “Studies Find More Students Cheating, With High Achievers No
Exception,” Richard Perez-Pena writes:

Large-scale cheating has been uncovered over the last year at some of the nation’s
most competitive schools, like Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, the Air Force
Academy and, most recently, Harvard.

Studies of student behavior and attitudes show that a majority of students violate
standards of academic integrity to some degree, and that high achievers are just as
likely to do it as others. Moreover, there is evidence that the problem has worsened
over the last few decades.

Experts say the reasons are relatively simple: Cheating has become easier and more
widely tolerated, and both schools and parents have failed to give students strong,
repetitive messages about what is allowed and what is prohibited.

…“There have always been struggling students who cheat to survive,” said [Donald L.
McCabe, a professor at the Rutgers University Business School, and a leading
researcher on cheating], but more and more, there are students at the top who cheat
to thrive.”

Students: Tell us what you have observed about cheating in your school. Do you
think there is more of it than ever? If so, why? Do you agree with an expert quoted in
this article that “Students are surprisingly unclear about what constitutes plagiarism
or cheating”? What or who is to blame? Do you think cheating is always wrong? Why
or why not?

Do Violent Video Games Make

People More Violent in Real Life?
Young people, especially boys, are playing bloodier and more realistic video games
than ever before, and scientists are looking for links between real life violence and
violent video games. However, the research so far is inconclusive.

What do you think? Do violent video games make people more violent in real life?
Why or why not?
 In “Shooting in the Dark,” Benedict Carey writes about research looking for
connections between violent video games and violent behavior.

The young men who opened fire at Columbine High School, at the movie theater in
Aurora, Colo., and in other massacres had this in common: they were video gamers
who seemed to be acting out some dark digital fantasy. It was as if all that exposure
to computerized violence gave them the idea to go on a rampage — or at least fueled
their urges.

But did it really?

Social scientists have been studying and debating the effects of media violence on
behavior since the 1950s, and video games in particular since the 1980s. The issue is
especially relevant today, because the games are more realistic and bloodier than
ever, and because most American boys play them at some point. Girls play at lower
rates and are significantly less likely to play violent games.

A burst of new research has begun to clarify what can and cannot be said about the
effects of violent gaming. Playing the games can and does stir hostile urges and
mildly aggressive behavior in the short term. Moreover, youngsters who develop a
gaming habit can become slightly more aggressive — as measured by clashes with
peers, for instance — at least over a period of a year or two.

Yet it is not at all clear whether, over longer periods, such a habit increases the
likelihood that a person will commit a violent crime, like murder, rape, or assault,
much less a Newtown-like massacre. (Such calculated rampages are too rare to study
in any rigorous way, researchers agree.)

Students: Tell us …

 Do you ever play violent video games? Do your friends?

 Do you think violent video games make people more violent in real life?
 Do you think these games make people less sensitive to real-life violence, blood and
gore?
 If you play violent video games, how do they make you feel when you play?
 Should legislation regarding violent video games be part of Congress’s response to
the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., or do you think violent video games are not
part of the problem that leads to mass shootings?


SEARCH

Do We Give Children Too Many

Trophies?
Have we gone trophy-crazy as a society, bestowing trophies on children for almost
anything, even just showing up? Are we afraid children will be hurt by losing, so we
 make everyone a winner? Or are awards an effective way to raise children’s self-
esteem and keep them motivated to do better?

Do we give children too many trophies?

In the Op-Ed piece “Losing Is Good for You,” Ashley Merryman writes about the
decades-old trend of giving children countless participation trophies and awards.

As children return to school this fall and sign up for a new year’s worth of
extracurricular activities, parents should keep one question in mind. Whether your
kid loves Little League or gymnastics, ask the program organizers this: “Which kids
get awards?” If the answer is, “Everybody gets a trophy,” find another program.

Trophies were once rare things — sterling silver loving cups bought from jewelry
stores for truly special occasions. But in the 1960s, they began to be mass-produced,
marketed in catalogs to teachers and coaches, and sold in sporting-goods stores.

Today, participation trophies and prizes are almost a given, as children are
constantly assured that they are winners. One Maryland summer program gives
awards every day — and the “day” is one hour long. In Southern California, a regional
branch of the American Youth Soccer Organization hands out roughly 3,500 awards
each season — each player gets one, while around a third get two. Nationally,
A.Y.S.O. local branches typically spend as much as 12 percent of their yearly budgets
on trophies.

It adds up: trophy and award sales are now an estimated $3 billion-a-year industry in
the United States and Canada

Students: Tell us …

 Do we give children too many trophies? Do you agree with Ms. Merryman that giving
everyone awards, instead of just an exceptional few, leads to children
underperforming in the long run?
 Have you ever gotten a trophy you didn’t think you deserved? How did the award
make you feel? Did it affect how hard you tried?
 Does the possibility of earning a trophy or an award help to motivate you? Can you
give an example?

Should Students Be Able to Grade

Their Teachers?
States around the country are trying to better assess how teachers are performing in
classrooms. They are primarily using standardized test scores and observations by
administrators. But shouldn’t students be included in the conservation too? After all,
aren’t they the ones who spend the most time with their teachers?

Should students be able to grade their teachers?

In the article “Grading Teachers, With Data From Class,” Farhad Manjoo writes
about how a tech start-up called Panorama Education is using student
questionnaires to evaluate how teachers are doing.

Halfway through the last school year, Leila Campbell, a young humanities teacher at
a charter high school in Oakland, Calif., received the results from a recent survey of
her students.

On most measures, Ms. Campbell and her fellow teachers at the Aspire Lionel Wilson
Preparatory Academy were scoring at or above the average for Aspire, a charter
system that runs more than a dozen schools in California and Tennessee.

But the survey, conducted by a tech start-up called Panorama Education, also
indicated that her students did not believe she was connecting with them. Ninety-six
percent of the students at Lionel Wilson are Hispanic, and 92 percent receive school
lunch assistance.

“It’s a very different population from where I grew up,” Ms. Campbell, who is white,
said in a recent interview in her classroom. “I wasn’t scoring where I wanted to with
questions like ‘I feel comfortable asking my teacher for help’ or ‘My teacher really
cares about me.’ I was below average, and I don’t want to be below average.”

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us …

— Should students be able to grade their teachers? Can students offer insights and
observations about teachers that school administrators and teachers themselves
might otherwise miss?

— Should student questionnaires, like the ones described in the article, be used by
districts and administrators to help improve the quality of teaching at schools?

— Does your school ever ask students to give feedback on teaching or classes? Would
you want your school to ask for your opinion? Why?

— Do you think most students would be fair and honest when grading their teachers?

Should Schools Put Tracking

Devices in Students’ I.D. Cards?
At Anson Jones Middle School in San Antonio, students wear name tags that use
radio frequency technology. School personnel can pinpoint exactly where students
are inside the school building. Why might this be helpful? Why do you think some
people object to tracking the whereabout of students?

In “Student IDs That Track the Students,” Maurice Chammah and Nick Swartsell
write:

In Texas, school finance is a numbers game: schools receive money based on the
number of students counted in their homeroom classes each morning. At Anson
Jones, as at other schools, many students were in school but not in homeroom, so
 they were not counted and the district lost money, said Pascual Gonzalez, a
spokesman for the district.

“We were leaving money on the table,” he said, adding that the district expects a $2
million return on an initial investment of $261,000 in the technology at two pilot
schools.

But the radio frequency identification nametags have prompted concerns from civil
liberties groups and electronic privacy watchdogs, which fear a Big Brother
atmosphere in Texas public schools.

Matthew Simpson, a policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas,
said the technology was easy to acquire, meaning people outside a school might be
able to monitor a student if they obtained the student’s unique tracking number.

Mr. Simpson said the technology was originally designed for shipping goods and for
cattle. “It was never intended for people,” he said.

But students and educators at Anson Jones say they are excited about the practical
advantages — getting to eat lunch faster by scanning their bar codes in the lunch line,
or being able to locate a child quickly in an emergency.

Students: Tell us how you feel about the idea of tracking students while they are in
their schools. Would you welcome radio frequency technology in your school? Why
or why not?

 In what situations would it be helpful to know where students are?

 What are other possible solutions to the roll call-related problems described in the
article?
 What do you think of Mr. Simpson’s concern that people outside of the school could
track a student if they have his or her identification number?
 In many workplaces, employees have I.D. cards that also can be swiped to make
doors unlock, thus allowing managers to track when people enter and leave the
building, and even when they move through certain areas like hallways and
stairwells. How does tracking students compare to tracking employees?
 Do you think these practices are necessary? Why or why not?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. Please use only your first
name. For privacy policy reasons, we will not publish student comments that
include a last name.

Teachers: We ask a new Student Opinion question each weekday, and leave most
open to comment indefinitely. Here is a list of the 163 questions we asked during the
2011-12 school year.