Elite School Will Offer a Day Off for Students Distressed by Election | Hacker News Reader

Elite School Will Offer a Day Off for Students Distressed by Election

nytimes.com

22 pointsSanjayMehta16 comments

With stuff like this I always think of the anecdote I had watching people playing on a playground.

There was a small step getting out of the playground, and one kid fell over running out. Looked over at his mum, who in turn looked panicked, and the kid burst out crying.

Another kid did the same thing, looked at his mum, who looked up at the kid, then went back to making lunch. The kid got up, shrugged and carried on back to his family.

I fully realise anecdotes are useless for setting policy, but still useful for conveying meaning.

At some point, telling people there is a problem, makes it a problem. At least in Australia, none of my relatives at school are even aware of issues associated with elections...let alone needing a day off. Unless I suppose we start telling them there is an issue?

When my kid would fall down and then look at us, we would say “dust it off, dust it off, keep going.”

Specifically because we had seen the behaviour you describe.

I’m no child psychologist but I’m sure there’s a reason for kids responding appropriately to their parents’ behaviour. Fascinating.

There are lots of scientific evidence that children do indeed mirror their parents bevahiour and attitude (or from a role model).

Essentially, be the kind of person you want your kids to be.

With stuff like this I always think of the anecdote I had watching my neighbors young children finding a loaded gun in the night stand.

One kid found the gun, looked over at his mom, who in turn looked panicked and rushed over to stop him and secure the gun and no one was harmed.

Another kid found a gun, looked over at his mom who didn't react, and then he shot his brother, and the family watched in horror as the child bled to death.

I fully realize anecdotes are useless for setting policy, but still useful for conveying meaning.

At some point, ignoring a problem doesn't mean it's not a problem.

It's great that you're in a position of safety, security and privilege to be able to regard politics as an insignificant side-show. Other people might have tremendous impacts to their life, safety, prosperity hanging in the balance.

Histrionic liar spends their time perving on the neighbor's children. Checks out.

Here's a crazy idea - move election day to a day when almost everyone is off work or school, problem solved.

Easier to make that day a federal holiday, politically, because IMO asking two parties to choose one date is going to be very hard.

With that said, in most states, a workplace, school, university, etc. is legally required to make accommodations for someone to go vote[1], including New York. Even in those states that don't, it would be a shxtstorm of media, etc. if someone was actually prevented. This on top of numerous organizations that provide transportation for someone to go vote.

Possibly even easier: Expand the number of polling places. Double it. Triple it! Imagine if every American only had to walk two blocks to vote. But that would require greater funding from congress which, like choosing a date, seems to be very, very difficult.

1. States that don't:Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, and North Carolina.

It's one potential day off at one school, seems pretty trivial. Though I guess if anywhere I read is gonna care about it it's gonna be here.

I remember a political stunt by an organization that created an advertisement, comparing the lunch for students at Sidwell Friends, an elite Washington, DC school popular with President's on down, and the nearest public school. One sounded like a 4 start restaurant, the other sounded like, well, prison.

I recount this because I don't think most people truly grasp how different life is for kids in some elite K-12 programs. The children of the elite have at least as much privilege, if not more in some cases, than their elite parents.

Days ahead to consider your civics & what they mean to you might be a solid idea?

The consensus, that students would only be distressed if adults model distress for them, seems to me to be missing the point. The presidential election is much more consequential for their future than most other things that would upset a K-12 student enough to miss a day of school. This likely applies to gubernatorial elections as well.

Shielding kids from the truth does them no favors. I understand why civics classes usually focus on events so far in the past that most adults have the same beliefs about which side was in the right--but kids have a finely honed sense for things that won't really affect them; and Millard Fillmore killing off the Whig party triggers that sense; whether we're about to elect someone with no respect for the institutions of our government does not.

I disagree. One thing that large education-focused institutions have found over and over again is that a person’s family is much more consequential to their lives than even their schools or the government at large.

One of the most important functions of a school is not just to provide students with education, but with a proper perspective.

Look up birth lottery. Luck has much more influence over our lives than people are willing to admit

My parents were very supportive of me emotionally and I turned out a lot more resilient than many my peers, especially the ones told to "suck it up". The takeaway from the anecdote about children getting hurt on playgrounds isn't to just ignore them, you need to support them if they are actually hurt. My reading is that they aren't forcing kids to stay home and parents can choose to have kids stay home, I don't see an issue with letting parents decide.

It's hard to see where on the line this is between "supportive" and "coddling" without knowing the kids, for example one of my best friends is a woman married to a trans woman and is worried about needing to move states if a conservative wins. She absolutely has a good reason to be upset if conservatives win nationally and in our state as she's worried she won't be allowed to keep her marriage or her wife will have trouble accessing healthcare (it's already hard for her to find doctors who are accepting)

Edit: to be clear I dealt most things on my own growing up but reliable support helped me (and other people in general) learn healthy coping mechanisms and resilience. Who cares if the school lets parents decide for their own kids what they need, kids are different (and they are still kids)?

I wonder if this news alone makes the "distress-causing" outcome more likely.

Of course. Children follow adults' lead on these things, just as toddlers look at their parents before they "know" to start crying after falling down. As Jerry Seinfeld says in the article, this is adults condoning, facilitating, and encouraging children's mental distress and mental illness.

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