Monday, June 16, 2008
Unjustifiable
Certain officials in southern California have taken scare tactics to a new level. In an effort to impress the gravity of drunk driving upon El Camino High School students, highway patrol officers told them that some of their friends were killed in car accidents over the weekend. The result of this "news" was understandably upsetting. Many students became hysterical, causing a few teachers to quickly reassure them that their classmates were actually alive and it had all been a hoax. Students then went from being depressed to pissed.
I'm not sure what was going through the heads of those who planned this. Frankly, it seems incredibly stupid. Like. Really really stupid. Did they really think that once people found out their friends were alive they'd say "Oh! Wow, drunk driving is awful"? Because I'm pretty sure that the lesson many students learned was "Oh! Wow, grown ups can be moronic and I can't always trust them to tell the truth." Additionally, a boy-who-cried-wolf situation could arise; if highway patrol officers come to classrooms again to say students died over the weekend, people won't know whether it's another hoax or the truth.
Perhaps a more appropriate way to do this would be to have students write their best friend's hypothetical eulogy after they hypothetically died in a hypothetical drunk driving accident. The emotional response wouldn't be as intense, but there wouldn't be any trickery involved either.
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I'm not sure what was going through the heads of those who planned this. Frankly, it seems incredibly stupid. Like. Really really stupid. Did they really think that once people found out their friends were alive they'd say "Oh! Wow, drunk driving is awful"? Because I'm pretty sure that the lesson many students learned was "Oh! Wow, grown ups can be moronic and I can't always trust them to tell the truth." Additionally, a boy-who-cried-wolf situation could arise; if highway patrol officers come to classrooms again to say students died over the weekend, people won't know whether it's another hoax or the truth.
Perhaps a more appropriate way to do this would be to have students write their best friend's hypothetical eulogy after they hypothetically died in a hypothetical drunk driving accident. The emotional response wouldn't be as intense, but there wouldn't be any trickery involved either.
Posted by Ellen Parkhurst @ 10:04 AM 
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