Saturday, November 21, 2009

Stop Meeping!


I spent twelve years of my professional life as high school teacher, teacher/chaplain, and teacher/chaplain/administrator. One of the most important things to learn when working with teenagers is what to take seriously and what not to. One should come to realize that the jocular enthusiasms of the student body tend to be transient and silly, rather than harmful. They generally don't last very long, certainly not past a school vacation. There is no point in letting adolescent absurdity turn one into a humorless, scolding martinet.

It appears that the administrators at a high school in Massachusetts are still processing this understanding. The tale, sad is it seems, is told here:

Mass. high school principal bans students from saying 'Meep!'

I'm trying to imagine what it must have been like to be a parent, coming home at the end of the long, busy day, to listen to a "robo-call" informing you that your child and his/her classmates may not issue the sound "Meep" without receiving a substantial, official punishment. If it were me, I'd check the wall calendar to see it were April.

The story gets better when an attorney, seeing this for what it is, decided to send the administrators a one-word e-mail. That tale may be found here. [It includes law enforcement!.]