A Stitch in Haste

Prestigious U.K. boarding school expels three students for smoking pot:

--off school grounds

--outside the school term

--with no criminal investigation.

This incident, which is generating some well-deserved outrage in Britain, reflects a new and scary paradigm of the interconnected role of school, parent and state in England. Whereas before schools were considered agents -- and servants -- of the parents, now they are considered, well, parents of the parents:

The Anti-Social Behaviour Act of 2003 gives head teachers the authority to fine parents and issue parenting orders forcing them to attend counselling. Where once schools stood for moral guidance, they are now expected to play a much more interventionist and authoritarian role.

This law is not far removed from the idea that children in fact "belong" to the state (and the schools) and that parents are mere "night watchmen" over them rather than inculcators of their own values.

To equate teachers and parents -- the old "in loco parentis" doctrine, was controversial enough. Now the teacher is the overlord of the parent -- and we know who the overlord of the teacher is. Parental authority, rather than enjoying a (rebuttable) presumption of propriety, becomes strictly residual: "You may raise your children in any manner you see fit...but only from this official list of 'proper' manners.

In the U.S., meanwhile, we have, for example, schools banning cell phones -- in open defiance of parental wishes -- and a gradual decay, abetted by the Supreme Court's repeated disregard of its own precedents, toward unlimited random and suspicionless drug testing of students. So we are, arguably, not far behind Britain in the erosion of parental autonomy.

All the more reason to advocate increased use of vouchers and privatization of primary and secondary schools. He who pays the principal calls the tunes, right?

MEANWHILE: Inactivist has a related post on what a universal, strictly privatized school system might, and might not, look like. Be sure to scroll down to my lengthy comment.

ALSO MEANWHILE: Hit & Run discusses a new study suggesting that the "infallible" hair follicle test for drug use is indeed quite fallible after all.