newly ancient

When you see a flag of the United States, what do you think of? Patriotism? Freedom? Liberty? However, these values are increasingly being tossed aside in the name of security and safety. For adults, it is evident in the patriot act. However, the situation is far worse in our public schools. Students are required to login under a personal account so that all activity can be tracked and placed in a log file. If students do login under a general “workstation” account, they are liable to be punished. Additionally, the school had installed filters which ban numerous popular, useful websites including Gmail. Students are given limited, tracked access to computers. I believe that the public school system is a representation of our country as a whole. In school, we learn far more than the lessons. We learn how the lessons are taught. School is a person’s first impression of society. In school, we learn numerous moral lessons which will stay with us throughout our life. That is why school’s have been the chosen battleground for numerous debates throughout history including racial integration and sexism. School teaches people what to expect of society. Currently, the lesson we are being taught in school is that someone is always watching you. Like in George Orwell’s 1984, all of our records are tracked without choice or compromise. We learn to place absolute trust in the authorities and never question them. We learn that everything we do is being watched and tracked. We learn to beware change and distrust anything innovative. Is this the lesson society wants to teach?