3 ms·

And oftentimes, children learn the best from the consequences of their mistakes.

• akhilcacharya 6y ago
  Completely agree. All of the above examples have pretty severe consequences in many cases. No reason why "experimenting" with racist language should be any different.
  • testfoobar 6y ago
    Most cases of experimentation with drinking, drugs, smoking, sex do not lead to severe consequences. For a lot of people, they lead to growth and better judgement along with some level of understanding the stupidity of their earlier decisions. That is the point of experimentation. To learn. Online posts unfortunately do not disappear. So an 18 year old has to answer for his dumb 16 year old self. This is awful and makes me sad. A wise primary school teacher told me that over his decades of experience he learned that many kids experiment with things that make them feel strong and powerful. He observed that they often had little to no understanding of what they were doing until they were guided. So a child using racist language may not be a racist, as much as he is trying on the power of a racist. It is the power that thrills him. These are children. They can learn. The "racist" ones are exactly the ones that we should reach and teach.
    • akhilcacharya 6y ago
      Exactly. With these consequences they can be taught.
• testfoobar 6y ago
  Consequences should be calibrated and at least for children their records expunged where sensible. Online posts that are never expunged and can be screenshotted and shared do not lead to calibrated consequences.
  • faitswulff 6y ago
    Maybe these kids can do something extra to atone and make a case for themselves in their next application. Until then this particular consequence seems well calibrated.