Sitting at a school computer earlier today, I found my attempts to do the research assignment we were carrying out in the lesson thwarted once again by DDR – that stands for dynamic document filter. The automated internet censorship board of Leeds Learning Network. It stops us researching "violence" in media, the legality of "prostitution" in law and "sexual" harassment in business studies.
The most ironic thing about it – it can be turned off. It will be disabled at the schools request. This would seem to fit in nicely with the recently formed school council. An internal exercise in democracy that allows for pupils to put their views forward and raise the issues important to them. I don’t think so.
In reality the school council is one of two things. It is either a good idea with an execution that is simply beyond bad and backed up my traditional Temple Moor competence. Or it is nothing more than a PR operation designed to show outsiders how innovated the school is when in fact it is nothing more than a debate group with a set agenda coming from the powers that be.
Never once have I had one of the issues successfully raised. Not that I would know if I had. The meetings are closed to all but the select few who were assigned to it, nobody else can even sit at the sidelines and watch. As for outflow, the group seems to be somewhat of a black hole of information, leaving no trace of the decisions that were made.
I cannot say with certainly which of the possible thoughts the school council was a product of. But either way it is lacking the infrastructure and motivation needed for success. Our own democracy takes criticism at the best of time. So what good will a mere attempt at the system do?
Parliament struggle to get through all the legislation and issues that need to be debated. So how can the council debate everything in a 30 minute meeting every few months? MP’s take up the issues of their constituents. Yet why would the counsel representatives when there is no elections of wish to stay in power? How will they even know the views of the students when there are no channels set-up to provide them with this information?
I saw another example of the incompetency of the council recently. A few A4 posters appeared about "lunch survey week." But there was no information on them. No information passed down through our forms or through our representatives. Just a poster with half a dozen words on it. What is the point?
To be frank, the school council is a joke. It is badly organised, badly run and exists to do nothing more than to make us feel like our voices are heard when really we have never suffered such an oppressive attitude. It is a PR exercise for the school to make it look like it is listening when our issues are never heard. It is an actual fact for us – a complete waste of time.
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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 3rd, 2005 at 10:31 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.