Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Blog

Freedom of access.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I can understand why schools need to block some internet web sites, and also understand that it can be an imperfect science. I also understand that libraries don't block the internet and that some of the stuff I've seen patrons viewing on library computers is pretty nasty.

Having said all that...I prefer to go to the library for my free internet than, uh, borrow¹ the WiFi from a nearby school. The school blocks anything remotely associated with web-based email, proxy, Google services, social networking services, and even sites that I regularly use that are of little harm. I know why they do this -- no need for students to be checking email and such during the school day. My question is this: If they're going to be so medieval about filtering the internet, why in the heck do they allow a site like Blogger to be accessed?

Some of my more recent readers may not have been on this blog a few years back when I wrote about finding some high school student's blogs (from the school nearby that I've subbed at) that made fun of teachers and staff, including my mother, likely written at school on school time. Heck, I even made mention in the New York Post via a column by Dawn Eden on students and blogging.

Let me say that I didn't mince words when I wrote about what those kids did. Front and foremost wasn't that they didn't have "freedom of speech" (or, in this case, FreeDumb of Speech) according to their definition. The pitiful arguments that surfaced by kids on various online sites regarding my response to public speech online were easily shredded and revolved mainly around being aghast that they could be held accountable for what they said, and might even face negative consequences in oppositional freedom of speech.

In other words, right back at you, kids.

They were naive enough to think that adults are too dumb to find things on the internet, and had assumed that they had some kind of privacy and right to not get a negative or opposing response back once they hit "publish." Adults sort of helped build the internet, kiddies, I essentially pointed out. It's not your exclusive playground.

After a lengthy correspondence² with the then superintendent in which he seemed more interested in "disciplining" me rather than the students for my aggressiveness in the issue (and the fact that one of the kids' father was a friend on the school board), I finally suggested that, among other things, limiting the students use of journaling or blogging sites such as Blogger during school hours might be easier than trying to rewire the mistakenly construed concept of "freedom of speech" that had sadly taken hold in their heads.

There, as here, I can still access Blogger.

I really care very little, but after constantly hitting the "this site is blocked" message on just about every benign site I use, I find full access to Blogger odd. (Not to mention the fact that they leave their WiFi signal completely open and accessible. I hope the rest of the nearby community is enjoying it as I am.)

¹ For more discussion on the legalities of using an unprotected WiFi signal, read here, here, here, and here.

² I still have the letters. There are numerous grammatical mistakes, and I take special delight in reading them periodically. I'm that petty.

Labels: blogging, education, internet, summer 2008