Friday 21 October 2016

and another thing...

Yes, there's more. Not only are we finding out how skool makes every student, parent, and teacher accountable by requiring them to produce pointless pieces of paper on demand - and thus keep pointless paperwork travelling back and forth across everyone's desk - we are now finding out how much detailed surveillance and monitoring goes on in Shark's world.

And I had no idea how much information I can gather on my Student Shark daily without her participation in that process. Thanks skool, for suggesting that I creep about the internet, stalking my own daughter.

It is downright sinister. What is this assumption skool makes about our relationships? That I can't just ask Shark, and I can't just talk to her? No. I have to use databases and digitised record sheets to find out her movements between 2.00pm and 2.05pm. And if I miss that target window, then I can just check her learning level stage (subdivided into 4 sections).

Frankly, keeping a beady eye on my daughter's hourly movement as regulated by and connected to her learning stage should not, in my opinion, be a normal state of my parenthood. This level of surveillance on a 16-year old kid from twin guns of school and parent is stomach-churningly wrong. It's like we're all living in some horrible database.

Stupidly, I want us all to feel like we're not being watched every minute of the day and our movements reported on. But I'm obviously out of step with the modern world. Maybe they could sell me a Readjustment App for my condition.

People, are you happy with this? Are you all feeling that spying on your own kid is normal?

I had no idea what a weird world you were abusy building while we were making cake and calling it Geology.


2 comments:

Jax Blunt said...

What type of school is this? The sixth form that eldest is at is reassuringly unconnected, except in requesting money. They're fairly good at that.

Grit said...

Hi Jax, the 6th form at school is an odd mix of laid-back and boot-camp: the kids can come and go, and can wear ripped jeans, but if they miss 3 lessons in a six-week block without good reason, they're threatened with being kicked out. ... We parents, on the evening shift, are simultanously encouraged to supervise activities and monitor homeworks via our parent portal ... but i have wondered whether their attention to arbitrary admin and disconnected matters is in any way tied to their eyes on funding criteria, league table, or ofsted assessment ...