Santa's Watching... (and don't get me started on that little elf that sits on the shelf!)

MAYBE this could pass as a silly joke among adults,

(seen this morning on Facebook)

but it is inappropriate as a tool for use with children. 

Why must adults feel compelled to creatively find ways to bully children into compliance?! Yes...I said bully...because it is using one's power to induce choices made out of fear. That is bullying.

I worry about the adults who would use such tactics in their positions of guiding children. Honestly...what on earth are they so afraid will happen if they do not keep children's behavior under their adult control? Truly...what will happen if the children don't walk in a quiet, straight line?! A quiet, straight line?!?!?! What the hell is that??? My friends, colleagues and I NEVER walk in a quiet straight line!!! That would be weird.

I suggest we work on spending substantially less energy on creatively manipulating our children into submissive compliance in mundane tasks and spend substantially more energy on learning who each child is...creatively assessing how PRECISELY to meet each one's individual needs!

Also, how seriously creepy is it to be telling a child "around my neck I wear a little camera through which a strange man you do not know (aka a stranger) is watching everything you do and will use what he sees to decide the worth of your behaviors." SERIOUSLY...the strange man watching idea is horrible enough! And then this strange man is the one to determine how "good" you are?! AND THEN to think that I your teacher (one of the adults you are supposed to most be able to trust in this world) am acting as an assistant/tool to this strange man?! THAT IS SO CREEPY!

For those who'd like to hear more about this (and other) creepy little traditions our culture's adults practice in order to force young children into compliance, listen to my dear friends Dan Hodgins and Amy Ahola in their podcast Shakin' Bones on "Santa's Watching".