Blocking Blogging
Raising parents’ awareness of what students are doing on the web outside of school is a very important thing. There is a whole world of blogging and instant messaging that can lead to online bullying and other nasty situations if students aren’t being careful and appropriate in what they say and do online.
Still, I have qualms about wholesale banning students from blogging. A private school such as Pope John High School certainly works under a different set of expectations than a public school, which I understand and respect. It just seems a bit of overkill to suspend students for using a communication system that they will use for the rest of their llives, or at least until the next technology comes along. Not letting kids use MySpace because some people post innappropriate stuff is sort of like not letting them answer the phone because some people make obscene phone calls.
I feel like there has to be a rational balance here somewhere. I’d rather spend more time teaching kids how to be appropriate with their online experience, rather than cut it off entirely. Sooner or later they will be out from under our control, and I want them leaving with the skills to protect themselves already in place, not dropped unprepared into the virtual world.