Reprised Because of DOPA - So As Parents and Educators We Monitor and Teach Ethical, Appropriate, Safe Use
I am reprising this post since the vote about Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) is happening soon. See David Warlick’s blog to get contact info to contact representatives about their vote.
Paper and pencils can be used to draw inappropriate, hate filled, pictures messages and ideas - and you could poke someone’s eye out. They could even be used to lure your child into a dangerous situation. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut off access to keep our children safe? No, because they are everywhere and too valuable in so many ways – so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.
Over 200,000 children are injured using playground equipment each year – some are killed. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut access to playground equipment to keep our children safe? No, because they’re eventually going to find play equipment and playing is too valuable an experience – so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.
50,000 people die or are injured in swimming accidents each year. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut access to swimming to keep our children safe? No, because pools and lakes and ponds are everywhere and it would be dangerous if they fell in and it is too valuable and healthy a skill – so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.
30,000 people are killed and thousands more injured in auto crashes each year. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut access to cars and driving to keep our children safe? No, cars are everywhere and driving is too valuable – so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.
Phones are used for criminal activities, even luring kids away from home. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut off access to phones to keep our children safe? No, phones are everywhere and they are too valuable – so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.
There are some churches and religions out there that don’t have the same beliefs as yours - and some even preach ideas that you would consider blasphemous and hateful. Should we (and could we if we tried?) cut off access to religion to keep our children safe? No, religion is everywhere and it is too valuable – so as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use.
There are applications of technology that can expose your child to inappropriate, hate filled, pictures, messages and ideas. Technology and the internet are everywhere. Do we cut off access? (and could we if we tried?) Or are these applications too educationally valuable? – As parents and educators it would be better if we monitored and taught ethical, appropriate, safe use.
Otherwise who will teach them about these things and where will they learn about them?
Learning is messy!
July 27th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Wow!
What a powerfully frightening pseudo-reality “Reprised” challenges me to ponder.
I just tried to imagine…
No paper~ no pencils?? With what will we draw? With what will we spit through straws at lunch?
No more slides to go down backwards? No swings to twist-n-spin til we barf and do underducks for our best friends? No teeter totters to bail off of, for the thrill of seeing the kid up-top catapulted to the moon?
No more swimming holes to belly flop into? No diving boards to cartwheel off of? No more “going off the deep end” and holding your nose??
No cars, jeeps, pickups, busses, John Deer Tractors, hummers, paddle boats, skateboards, scooters… no tricycles? No more $3.00 a gallon for gas?? (HEY! What a great idea!!)
No cell phones? No voice mail, text messages, or downloading ringtones??No more telemarketers?????? (hmmmm….)
No GPS’s? Blackberries? Laptops?
No more Jesus Loves Me this I Know? No more little gold or orange Gideon bibles? No more first communions, no Sunday School, no batismal fonts? (these DO contain water- you know!)
No more Game Cubes, X-boxes, PS2’s, PSP’s, laptops, notebooks, flash-drives, no more bloogging?? No more mySpace???? (But where will the children hang out?)
Pinch me~ I must be dreaming…
I wholeheartledly believe that you hit the nail right on the head when you said…
“as parents and educators we monitor and teach ethical, appropriate, safe use” and to that, I’d like to say a great big AMEN and add…
“of our BRAINS” at the end.
Old-fashioned use-your-head-type thinking is certainly worth the effort!
Having just dug my dusty old thinking cap out from underneath the bed…
I catch myself wondering if they have any frozen brain-cells in the government’s brain-cell bank that we could send overnight express to the folks who thought up DOPA??
Inquiring minds wanna know…
I think.
July 27th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
[...] Read many more compelling examples at Reprised Because of DOPA. [...]
July 28th, 2006 at 2:17 am
[...] For more on this, check out current blog posts indexed by Technorati for “DOPA.” David Warlick and Brian Crosby, Will Richardson, and many others are writing about this– we need to extend this conversation outside the edublogosphere. If you know of a good political action site related to this and speaking out on DOPA, please comment and link it here. [...]
July 28th, 2006 at 5:31 am
Great post, thanks.
DOPA passed by a shameful 410-15 margin. I urge you to write your representative after the fact and explain why his/her vote was wrong.
Andy Carvin has a DOPA news aggregator at.http://www.andycarvin.com/dopa.html
August 2nd, 2006 at 8:45 pm
The report is very sensational. Whilst I appreciate that great numbers of children are likely tp pick-up injuries whilst engaging in physical play activity, it is fair to say outdoor play equipment has got a lot safer.
With safety first a number of accidents, scrapes, bumps and bruises can be avoided.
See my information on Climbing Frame safety: http://www.climbingframesuk.com/content/safteyFeatures.cfm
August 30th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Online predators: Overblown threat?…
Much conversation has occurred in the educational blogging community about DOPA. One of the arguments against DOPA that hasn’t popped up that much is the fact that the perceived problem may be largely overblown. While it’s obviously important to keep…
March 5th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Wow! Thank you! I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog?