In today's Daily News, Julia Kirst wrote a letter to the editor criticizing the Newburyport High School administration for not respecting the students regarding their planned April Fools prank.
Kirst is no stranger to youth-adult relationships, as she points out in her letter. The selling point for me was respect: If we don't give it, we don't get it.
Kirst argues the adults did not respect the students, which to my recollection is one of the takeaway points from a recent report by the BEACON Coalition.
I wait for a counter letter to the editor on this matter.
April 9, 2008
Lack of respect
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3 comments:
Ari,
I guess I'm more of the "old school" that says you don't make threats (and then carry them out) when you don't get what you want. Sure, they were disappointed but life is full of disappointments; and from what I read, it was explained to them why the original prank was not being allowed. Wasn't that respectful? Not being respectful would have been just yanking it with no explanation ... and what about respect for the teachers who had tests planned for that time period?
Lastly, I don't think these kids are "adolescents"; most of them will be able to vote come November, after all. - Gillian
Good points. What strikes me with this whole situation, as I alluded on your blog the other day, is that a prank for April Fool's implies a element of surprise or trickery.
Who's tricking whom when everyone knows about it?
That was/is a good point as well. I'm not sure what they originally intended to do was a "prank," either. Isn't a prank also usually designed to make someone think one thing is happening but something else happens? For example, it would have been much better if they had called an assembly under the guise of showing a movie and then passed out an MCAS test instead ...
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