Comments on: High-School Autocrats

By: radek

radek — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 00:32:28 +0000

I remember similar studies from previous years. I think they’re all basically in the “let’s get all hysterical about The Youth” category. Except here the angle is that they’re all little fascists, rather than “they can’t find Canada on a map”. You can’t take these things seriously.

By: UMS

UMS — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 20:58:01 +0000

Of course, it takes an enlightened citizen, looking out for the liberties of others, rather than just taking license for himself, to avoid many of the conflicts we see today. Let’s hear it for self-control!

By: Otto

Otto — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 13:26:20 +0000

There would be no need for constitutionally entrenched protections if lots of people didn’t want to restrict liberties.

By: Otto

Otto — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 13:24:17 +0000

There would be no need for constitutionally entrenched protections if lots of people didn’t want to restrict liberties.

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 08:28:52 +0000

The results for school principals are pretty interesting, too.

By: Mill

Mill — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 08:04:44 +0000

Exactly. It’s the “you’ll pry my arguably constitutionally-protected gun and my right to the confederate flag from my cold, dead hands, but I’ll do everything in my power to get the government to ban your arguably constitutionally-protected naked lady art” syndrome. The only difference is that instead of guns, high school students have Eminem and the school newspaper, so the absurdity is thrown into sharper relief.

By: Randolph Fritz

Randolph Fritz — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 05:24:01 +0000

Seems to me there were similar results from studies of the general public, going back to the 1950s or 1960s.

By: Jackmormon

Jackmormon — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 02:49:18 +0000

I dunno, these statistics seem to mirror what I see in my undergrad classes: we want absolute freedom as individuals and consumers, but we think that everyone else should be reined in.

By: Mill

Mill — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 00:26:18 +0000

This survey means absolutely nothing, since as you point out the students (as a statistical mass) clearly don’t have proper political opinions yet, not the kind that encompass society as a whole. They only want freedom of the press for the press that means something to them, like school newspapers and Chingy CDs. In thirty years, they’ll be parents, they’ll have had some interaction with the real world and they’ll realise that real newspapers can be just as important as school ones. Their answers will become the same as those of the current “adults”, and their teenage kids will be knee-jerk patriotic yet wild for the anti-American rhymes of Chingypatapong Shaft-Lee.

By: Sven

Sven — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 23:39:35 +0000

If this survey’s anything like the ones I filled out in high school, there might be a strong correlation between the results and the dirty pictures one can draw by filling in the dots.

By: jet

jet — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 23:03:25 +0000

This study says more about principles and teachers than students. How can so many of our educators believe that musicians should be censored? WTF? Who are these educators who believe in checking with The Man before adding fuck to your song? Just kidding. These types of polls are absolute crap, but fun to play with.

By: Jonathan Dursi

Jonathan Dursi — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 22:33:17 +0000

Nearly everything about highschool, and that age cohort generally in this society, strongly encourages conformity, so I’m not completely shocked by the result—are there any previous studies one could compare this to and see if this is a new phenomenon? Now, if these numbers persist as the kids go through university or the work world, well, then that’s pretty grim.

By: Andrew McManama-Smith

Andrew McManama-Smith — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 22:25:48 +0000

From the cnn article: Federal and state officials, meanwhile, have bemoaned a lack of knowledge of U.S. civics and history among young people. Have you ever seen a high school US history textbook? These students have spent all of their lives being indoctrinated about the absolute good of the US government in all things. It’s no suprise that students in the middle of this love the Government.