I was heavily involved in "democratic" Sudbury schools for some years. Each school community would go through a process of making their own rules, which would be added to a rule book which could be referenced. The rules grew and grew. Children began to be irritated, as they would violate rules which were no longer relevant, be dragged in…
I was heavily involved in "democratic" Sudbury schools for some years. Each school community would go through a process of making their own rules, which would be added to a rule book which could be referenced. The rules grew and grew. Children began to be irritated, as they would violate rules which were no longer relevant, be dragged into Judicial Committee and have to stop their inspiring self-directed lives to answer to stupid rules someone once made and forgotten until someone held it up again to be followed. So tedious! We went to A Sudbury conference, many schools gathered, and discovered this is a common problem. Well, the solution was to throw out the rules books and start over. But.... The better solution was to throw out the rules books and then utilize the Agile Learning process. Rules were reduced to minimal principles much alike to the Golden Rule: do unto others... When something new was needed, like, no playing in the romper room because it is being used for an art project, they were considered to be temporary working plans. They would persist until either: everyone was doing OK and the plan need not be spoken to be followed; the plan was not working or irrelevant and changed; the plan was not wanted and dropped.
When I was a teen, I got in trouble with the police for being in the school parking lot after dark, trespassing on "private" property at the public school. My friend was taken into custody. Incensed, I skipped school the next day to visit the police chief. He proceeded to give me an education in how a police officer can find a reason to stop a car, if desired. From there he can find a reason to search. From there he can find a reason to arrest. I don't know why he told me this, but it sure made an impression.
As an adult, I lived in a large city with a large homeless population. One of the tools used to try to get rid of them was to charge them for a variety of offenses that regular people are never charged with. The homeless would often not have money to pay the fines, and alao be fearful or inept at the beaurocratic process of legal self-defense. So, many kept on, only to end up with a warrant for their arrest for things like parking violations and jaywalking. As I thought that was wrong on principle, I got involved. Turns out even that many of the charges were made with the officer knowing full well the person had not committed the alleged crime. They would ticket and charge because either it would simply be dropped without repercussions if the accused could rarely show up in court, or it would hold because many victims didn't want, weren't able, or know how to defend themselves.
I think there are a lot of "nice" well - behaved people who've never yet had things go against them who truly do not realize that it could all go bottoms up were they to be in target.
That's very true. My husband was once pulled over for having a dirty license plate. I kid you not. He was driving an old car through nicer area of town so they pulled him over thinking he was up to no good.
Yes, something draws attention to you, like an older car in a nicer neighborhood. Or, any of us questioning the cvd shot and the lockdowns, etc... I also used to think that if I just sincerely kept on respectfully and politely that I would naturally expect to proceed without trouble, but, it is increasingly easy to walk on the wrong side without realizing it or simply thinking it the humane and moral thing to do.
I was heavily involved in "democratic" Sudbury schools for some years. Each school community would go through a process of making their own rules, which would be added to a rule book which could be referenced. The rules grew and grew. Children began to be irritated, as they would violate rules which were no longer relevant, be dragged into Judicial Committee and have to stop their inspiring self-directed lives to answer to stupid rules someone once made and forgotten until someone held it up again to be followed. So tedious! We went to A Sudbury conference, many schools gathered, and discovered this is a common problem. Well, the solution was to throw out the rules books and start over. But.... The better solution was to throw out the rules books and then utilize the Agile Learning process. Rules were reduced to minimal principles much alike to the Golden Rule: do unto others... When something new was needed, like, no playing in the romper room because it is being used for an art project, they were considered to be temporary working plans. They would persist until either: everyone was doing OK and the plan need not be spoken to be followed; the plan was not working or irrelevant and changed; the plan was not wanted and dropped.
When I was a teen, I got in trouble with the police for being in the school parking lot after dark, trespassing on "private" property at the public school. My friend was taken into custody. Incensed, I skipped school the next day to visit the police chief. He proceeded to give me an education in how a police officer can find a reason to stop a car, if desired. From there he can find a reason to search. From there he can find a reason to arrest. I don't know why he told me this, but it sure made an impression.
As an adult, I lived in a large city with a large homeless population. One of the tools used to try to get rid of them was to charge them for a variety of offenses that regular people are never charged with. The homeless would often not have money to pay the fines, and alao be fearful or inept at the beaurocratic process of legal self-defense. So, many kept on, only to end up with a warrant for their arrest for things like parking violations and jaywalking. As I thought that was wrong on principle, I got involved. Turns out even that many of the charges were made with the officer knowing full well the person had not committed the alleged crime. They would ticket and charge because either it would simply be dropped without repercussions if the accused could rarely show up in court, or it would hold because many victims didn't want, weren't able, or know how to defend themselves.
Intersting. We also had a police officer tell us that there are so many laws that they could come up with a reason pull over any car and any time.
I think there are a lot of "nice" well - behaved people who've never yet had things go against them who truly do not realize that it could all go bottoms up were they to be in target.
That's very true. My husband was once pulled over for having a dirty license plate. I kid you not. He was driving an old car through nicer area of town so they pulled him over thinking he was up to no good.
Yes, something draws attention to you, like an older car in a nicer neighborhood. Or, any of us questioning the cvd shot and the lockdowns, etc... I also used to think that if I just sincerely kept on respectfully and politely that I would naturally expect to proceed without trouble, but, it is increasingly easy to walk on the wrong side without realizing it or simply thinking it the humane and moral thing to do.
Shades of the Schumer comment on the “six ways from Sunday” that the “intelligence” people can use to get back at you 😕
Exactly.