No social networking . . .

A middle school principal in New Jersey recently sent an e-mail to parents asking them to ban social networking sites for their children. The e-mail is at the end of the newspaper story found here.

"Please do the following: sit down with your child (and they are just children still) and tell them that they are not allowed to be a member of any social networking site. Today!

"Let them know that you will at some point every week be checking their text messages online! You have the ability to do this through your cell phone provider.

I found reference to the article at The Thinking Stick where Jeff Utecht disagrees with the principal’s decision. He contrasts this principal’s request with the decision in Oregon to connect all public school children to Google Apps. Utecht shares the following.

So basically I take two things away from this video:

1. Parents are the problem and need to be told by the school how to raise their children.
2. That because “2% of kids are going to say something” we want you to ban all social-networking sites.

I find myself struggling with where I stand on this continuum of no monitoring to no use. I do not endorse the requested ban, but do believe that parents should and need to have some understanding of how their children are using these sites. For me, it reinforces the need for schools to play an essential role in educating young people about safe and appropriate use of these tools.