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What's the Difference Between Prison and School?
In Prison you can get higher education
The early American educationists believed the more schools
there were the fewer prisons we would need.
Ironically, they appear to have hit on something.
Today it's not educators who are pushing for ever
increasing years in schools, but law enforcement
officers fearful of teenagers wandering the streets.
At the end of this piece is a contract that
was rejected in the final version of this Kansas bill.
The contract indicates that it's not until age 16
that children receive any education.
From: Kaleb Axon
To: sepschool@sepschool.org
Before I share with you the newest height of absurdity, I should provide
a little background info.
Last year the state of Kansas increased its compulsory attendance age to
18 (i.e., all persons must attend school until their 18th birthday).
This new law contains a provision which allows parents to give their
children written permission to quit school after their 16th birthday.
The anti-family crowd, apparently forgetting that until this year
compulsory attendance always ended at 16, has raised a huge stink about
parents being allowed to conspire with their children to circumvent the
compulsory school law. Believe it or not, this is _not_ the absurdity
about which I am writing.
Some Kansas lawmakers have apparently recognized this new law and
subsequent political action for what it really is: an attempt to
incarcerate all persons under the age of 18 under the false pretense
that doing so will somehow reduce the crime rate. HB 2092, introduced
in the House but killed in committee, would have repealed the new
compulsory attendance law (unfortunately, it would have left the old one
in effect).
The Kansas Senate had its own version of the same bill. Originally they
were the same. However, the anti-family crowd in the Senate got hold of
this bill, changed the age back to 18, and added language such that
families who wish to release a child from high school before his 18th
birthday must attend a counseling session and sign a statement
acknowledging (in effect) that the child's entire life is going to come
crashing down around him because of the terribly wrong decision he is
making. I will refer to the Senate version as the "perverted bill."
Interestingly enough, several organizations within the educational
establishment supported the original bill returning the compulsory
attendance age to 16. The decision to proceed differently appears to
have been made by the Legislature based on testimony by law enforcement
officers and against the advice of government school educators. THIS IS
PROOF THAT THE COMPULSORY SCHOOL LAW HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH EDUCATION.
The Senate version of this bill, perverted though it may be, passed both
houses and was signed by Republican Governor Bill Graves. The final
text is available at:
http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/enrollbill/38.html
The greatest absurdity, fortunately, did not make it into the final
text. In its original form, the perverted bill would have required the
parents and child to sign the following statement, bringing the art of
absurdity to new heights:
=== begin quote ===
Disclaimer for being a High School Drop-Out
The undersigned accept full responsibility for the child being a High
School Drop-Out. The undersigned furthermore release the administrators,
faculty and staff of the school from all liability with regard to any
and all incidents that may transpire because of the child being a High
School Drop-Out.
Administrators, faculty and staff of the school cannot guarantee the
success of any child who drops out of school. Therefore, each parent and
each person acting as parent of a child is strongly discouraged from
signing this disclaimer and allowing the child to leave school.
By signing this disclaimer I acknowledge that a child who is a High
School Drop-Out will not have the necessary skills to survive in the
21st Century. These skills include:
Reading
Writing
Arithmetic/Mathematics
Listening
Speaking
Thinking Skills
Decision making
Problem solving
Seeing things in the mind's eye
Knowing how to learn
Using computing to process information
Responsibility
Self-esteem
Sociability
Self-management
Being a team member
Being able to work with cultural diversity
Leadership
Evaluating information
Interpreting information
_______________________________________________
(Parent or Person Acting as Parent Signature)
____________ (Child Signature) ____________ (Date)
=== End Quote ===
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