ON THE EDUCATIONAL HORIZON
Drug czar: Test for drugs in schools

From the Bennington Banner via Eschaton:

BOSTON (AP) -- President Bush's drug czar told New England governors Wednesday that drug testing in schools would be an effective way to combat a growing problem of drug use among young people, but area school officials caution there are problems with it.

Well, at least someone has a problem with it. Click here for more.

Here's what I wrote on Eschaton comments in response to another commenter having a problem with Atrios describing schools as gulag-like when he linked to this story:

Actually, this is a rather appropriate metaphor. Even though it is not well known, the American public school system was quite consciously based on the 19th century Prussian school system which essentially was designed to militarize the Prussian population in the wake of a big defeat by the French.

Check this out:

(education expert John) Gatto says the American educationists imported three major ideas from Prussia. The first was that the purpose of state schooling was not intellectual training but the conditioning of children "to obedience, subordination, and collective life." Second, whole ideas were broken into fragmented "subjects," and school days were divided into fixed periods "so that self-motivation to learn would be muted by ceaseless interruptions." Third, the state was posited as the true parent of children.

Needless to say, this is how US schools operate today. Trust me on this one, I'm a teacher. Since Columbine, things have only gotten worse, what with increased surveillance, security, and idiotic "zero-tolerance" policies.

The school where I teach is, indeed, a soft-touch gulag, and f$$k you if you disagree with me. By the way, I'm quitting at the end of this school year, it sucks so bad.

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