As one who grew up in a family of school teachers, and interacted with teachers well beyond grade school, it’s maddening and sad how ignorant and naive they are about the world.
If it’s not written n the textbook or discussed on NPR, the idea is out of bounds.
Education is no longer about exploring; rather it’s Comply and Conform!
What lame schools and Teachers Unions. Wow, we wouldn't want the kids to actually learn something while also enjoying a once in a lifetime event with their friends at school. Oy....
Why has no activist group decided that looking at the eclipse is genocide? Every other idiotic issue of theirs seems to be another form of genocide. Why not eclipses?
And how exactly does letting children stay home and go outside on their own help them avoid looking up at the sun? Is it more likely that while in school you are going to be staring up in the sky?
The safetyism wave is easily explained. Women tend to be more risk averse, have more influence in society due to 60 years of feminism and, most importantly, are having fewer children later in life. The chance that one of these (rarer) kids could be harmed simply isn’t worth taking.
It wasn't just the schools! Accuweather's eclipse weather articles went on ad nasuem about the dangers of trees falling on you cause by rain storms loosing the soils and wind blowing them on your RV and told you to know where all nearby storm shelters were. I was by myself in the woods in Indiana--fast and intense and amazing... But I did see several young families with kids wandering around the woods, so most people know that being outdoors is good for your health, mind, and spirit.
It gives the kids an abundance of anxiety, likely. And school districts are probably worried that one stupid student will ignore rules and warnings, do something stupid, suffer harm and then the administrators will have to listen to a bunch of Karens bitch and complain about how the school failed to prevent their moronic child from doing something moronic.
True, true, true. Stupidity is upon us and being taught in our schools. Administrators and unions are cowards. Hang them all.
However, the folks in Indy were correct on not wanting kids the busses headed home fighting the million or so visitors. I just returned from the zone of totality on a trip that usually would take 1.75 hours that took 3.5. Maps app guided us onto rural roads for much of the travel or it would have been worse. Doubling the bus ride mightn't have been good for those kids.
The EVENT itself? Amazing. Just fucking amazing. A hole in the sky surrounded by a ring of the corona. It was like a portal to another dimension. Lasted just shy of 4 minutes. I've waited decades for the opportunity. As to such things, this was on a par with watching a Saturn VB rocket launch on a moonshot from Cape Kennedy in December 1972. The loudest noise imaginable and night turned to day as 3 people were launched to the moon.
Life has its extraordinary moments. Today was one for me.
You missed an important part of this story. If one student stares at the eclipse too long...lawsuit. I don't blame schools for showing an abundance of caution if taxpayers get fleeced for a 50k settlement of they don't.
Sadly, a kid needs to be 16 to travel on Amtrak without an adult these days (at least if the conductors wish to enforce the rules). These restrictions are potentially illegal since many cities where Amtrak operates, like NYC, have codified age nondiscrimination. But this removal of unaccompanied kids from public life is very hard to fight.
As one who grew up in a family of school teachers, and interacted with teachers well beyond grade school, it’s maddening and sad how ignorant and naive they are about the world.
If it’s not written n the textbook or discussed on NPR, the idea is out of bounds.
Education is no longer about exploring; rather it’s Comply and Conform!
Abundance of distrust is exactly right
I despise safetyism, but the danger of a young child staring at the eclipse is very real.
My high school kept students indoors when the May 1984 annular eclipse passed through Atlanta. In 1984!!!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_May_30,_1984
Sometime in the early 1980s, when GenX was in the midst of adolescence, this damned safetyism began to take hold.
Someone needs to go back in time and get rid of the Safety Tyrants.
What lame schools and Teachers Unions. Wow, we wouldn't want the kids to actually learn something while also enjoying a once in a lifetime event with their friends at school. Oy....
Did the author realize that the word “pupil” in the headline has two meanings?
Why has no activist group decided that looking at the eclipse is genocide? Every other idiotic issue of theirs seems to be another form of genocide. Why not eclipses?
And how exactly does letting children stay home and go outside on their own help them avoid looking up at the sun? Is it more likely that while in school you are going to be staring up in the sky?
The safetyism wave is easily explained. Women tend to be more risk averse, have more influence in society due to 60 years of feminism and, most importantly, are having fewer children later in life. The chance that one of these (rarer) kids could be harmed simply isn’t worth taking.
It wasn't just the schools! Accuweather's eclipse weather articles went on ad nasuem about the dangers of trees falling on you cause by rain storms loosing the soils and wind blowing them on your RV and told you to know where all nearby storm shelters were. I was by myself in the woods in Indiana--fast and intense and amazing... But I did see several young families with kids wandering around the woods, so most people know that being outdoors is good for your health, mind, and spirit.
It gives the kids an abundance of anxiety, likely. And school districts are probably worried that one stupid student will ignore rules and warnings, do something stupid, suffer harm and then the administrators will have to listen to a bunch of Karens bitch and complain about how the school failed to prevent their moronic child from doing something moronic.
True, true, true. Stupidity is upon us and being taught in our schools. Administrators and unions are cowards. Hang them all.
However, the folks in Indy were correct on not wanting kids the busses headed home fighting the million or so visitors. I just returned from the zone of totality on a trip that usually would take 1.75 hours that took 3.5. Maps app guided us onto rural roads for much of the travel or it would have been worse. Doubling the bus ride mightn't have been good for those kids.
The EVENT itself? Amazing. Just fucking amazing. A hole in the sky surrounded by a ring of the corona. It was like a portal to another dimension. Lasted just shy of 4 minutes. I've waited decades for the opportunity. As to such things, this was on a par with watching a Saturn VB rocket launch on a moonshot from Cape Kennedy in December 1972. The loudest noise imaginable and night turned to day as 3 people were launched to the moon.
Life has its extraordinary moments. Today was one for me.
Another term for
"Abundance of Concern" is
"Afraid of getting sued"
Much of our concern is generated not out of concern for the child as it is of fear of the courts.
You missed an important part of this story. If one student stares at the eclipse too long...lawsuit. I don't blame schools for showing an abundance of caution if taxpayers get fleeced for a 50k settlement of they don't.
Sadly, a kid needs to be 16 to travel on Amtrak without an adult these days (at least if the conductors wish to enforce the rules). These restrictions are potentially illegal since many cities where Amtrak operates, like NYC, have codified age nondiscrimination. But this removal of unaccompanied kids from public life is very hard to fight.
We tell our kids how everything is scary and dangerous. And then wonder why they are anxious and risk averse
These moronic teachers all need to read Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge on the idiocy of safetyism.