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So the debate is: what's wrong with high-schools? Is it the kids? is it the (lack of) discipline? is it because of social reasons? I went to public schools in

by plesn 17y ago

So the debate is: what's wrong with high-schools? Is it the kids? is it the (lack of) discipline? is it because of social reasons? I went to public schools in different ditricts in France, and it changes a lot... It's not surprising that a school in a more urban and "bourgeois" place has more emphasis on scolar success which makes it a little easier for geeky types, but there certainly are other kinds of bullying (sometimes more on social aspects). Of course kids at this age are very "mimetic": they want to be in the mass and do like popular ones, they suffer to be different. But they are building their personnalities: maybe they not only need better models, but also better structures to make them more mature. We're hearing about current "let-it go" public schools or about old-style strict schools, but what about making schools really more participatively democratic places to live in (I'm thinking of taking some good points from experiences like SummerHill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerhill_School http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerhill_School]: I wonder what good/bad lessons we can get from that)? I'm just thinking of this two simplistic things as I read people saying things like "lookily i was in a private school...", but school is the manufacture of future society: we should care!

gommm 17y ago
As a kid in France I found that starting high-school the bullying mostly stopped with most bullies going over to the technical high school... (and it never was as bad as what I've heard from american friends) Now I'm not so sure if the particular district the school was in (the middle school was a small countryside middle school whereas the high school was in a bigger town.) had any influence... How out of curiosity where did you study? Thanks for the link on Summerhill very interesting idea... I 'm always interested in education experiments, I thinks there is a lot of research to be done on how to best educate kids and make sure they don't suffer from moral damage from bullying (although as someone said in another thread I'm also grateful for some of the bullying I've received it made me much more resistant to what people think about me)
akkartik 17y ago
Of course we should care! http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html
Quarrelsome 17y ago
I think the problem is due to age-segregation of years, we shouldn't do that. It encourages Lord of the Flies-esqe social structures.
- reduxredacted 17y ago
  That's a very good point. The kids I meet from homeschool co-ops learn in groups with age ranges. There are twenty or so kids per co-op, yet bullying is virtually non-existant. The other thing that happens is the ten year olds talk to the older children and adults as though they are peers. They don't connect age with wisdom or authority.

by plesn 17y ago

gommm 17y ago

As a kid in France I found that starting high-school the bullying mostly stopped with most bullies going over to the technical high school... (and it never was as bad as what I've heard from american friends) Now I'm not so sure if the particular district the school was in (the middle school was a small countryside middle school whereas the high school was in a bigger town.) had any influence... How out of curiosity where did you study? Thanks for the link on Summerhill very interesting idea... I 'm always interested in education experiments, I thinks there is a lot of research to be done on how to best educate kids and make sure they don't suffer from moral damage from bullying (although as someone said in another thread I'm also grateful for some of the bullying I've received it made me much more resistant to what people think about me)

akkartik 17y ago

Of course we should care! http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html

Quarrelsome 17y ago

I think the problem is due to age-segregation of years, we shouldn't do that. It encourages Lord of the Flies-esqe social structures.

reduxredacted 17y ago
That's a very good point. The kids I meet from homeschool co-ops learn in groups with age ranges. There are twenty or so kids per co-op, yet bullying is virtually non-existant. The other thing that happens is the ten year olds talk to the older children and adults as though they are peers. They don't connect age with wisdom or authority.