It’s the newest fad in “education”! Cropping up all around the country.
Have your students fill out surveys asking them all sorts of questions, some of them extraordinary for their bold intrusiveness–yeah! This’ll help the school “connect with students.” Can you gimme hallelujah?
The attorney general of Missouri, Eric Schmitt, thinks there’s something wrong with these surveys and is launching an investigation of them (https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/eric-schmitt-targets-st-louis-schools-over-intrusive-surveys-37954767)).
A substitute teacher told me the surveys get very personal. Well, the Internet’s full of samples. The one I saw (which I can’t seem to find again) focused in on the student’s family’s drinking and smoking habits. Others are infamous for asking kids “name three things you’re ashamed of”, and the like. And the government gets in on the act with a “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System” (https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/index.htm). Honk if you think that sounds sinister.
This survey stuff was first done years ago, but lately it’s catching on in a big way.
I can imagine my mother’s response: “You want to find out how much I smoke or drink? As if it was any business of yours! Well, ask me! Not my son. And since you ask–” She usually finished these sentences in German, if her children were listening.
People, people! The teachers’ unions, the teachers’ colleges, and the public school officials–these are not your friends. And their company is not wholesome for your children.
