Big brother is watching

It is very hard to set a standard for how much the authorities can monitor us without jeopardizing our privacy. On one hand we lose some of our privacy. But on the other hand, our safety can be in the balance. Both sides of this question arises good and solid reasons for their cause, but if it was up to me, we would have more cameras in our society.

The strongest argument of them all, in my opinion, is that if you are a law abiding citizen, you will not mind big brother watching. I don’t mind the cameras in the shops I enter and I don't mind them watching me in the streets. The cameras have proven over and over again that they make crime rate, among other things, drop. So go crazy, put em' up everywhere. The only demands I have before this would could be put in reality is that the cameras are monitored by people interested in solving crime or preventing them. Not by companies trying to get to know how and where you and I spend our money so they can advertise in a more personal way. The second is that there are no cameras inside anyone’s home. Some privacy is required and this is where I draw my line. The third and final demand I have is that the information at hand is deleted after a certain amount of time. Other that that, sure, put them up in parks, on free ways, in tunnels and dark street corners I don’t mind, as long as the cameras are there to prevent crime and nothing else.

Since we live in Sweden I would not like to se cameras be put up because of “the fight on terror”, which perhaps could be used as an argument in the US or perhaps in the UK. I don’t think the Swedish population, I know I wouldn't, would accept that as a reason for putting up cameras. But in the name of fighting and preventing crime, I do believe that the bigger part of or society, including me, would accept the cameras. I mean, our picture is already being taking in taxis and on some public transports, at least in our bigger cities. Why not extend this to all public transports. As long as your not there to rob, hurt or kill someone there is no need to worry about the cameras because nobody will ever know what you did anyway. And if you are up to no good, at least we have you on camera and will identify you fast and in-expensive. Every tax payers dream; get the bad guy fast and cheap.

The only upholding argument against governments putting up cameras everywhere is the privacy issue. You will get caught on tape and there is a chance, however small it may be, that the information will end up in the wrong hands. But to be honest, what difference does it make if the government knows where you went for coffee during your lunch break or if you prefer McDonalds to Subway? As it is now your credit card company knows all this already and is more likely to give out this information than the government would ever be, at least here in Sweden.

All in all, we are already being watched more or less 24/7, at least in the bigger cities. So what difference would an extra pair of cameras do to us more than give us a safer place to live? Well I certainly can’t come up with one single argument that can overturn my believes on the issue. If you want to live in a safe society, this is unfortunately the only way to go. What is important in this question is not how many cameras is accepted and where, it is how the information are handled and by who, the rest is not interesting.

Grades in primary school

There is a “new hype” trying to enter the Swedish school system about grades in primary school being a good thing. A hype telling us that our young learners would benefit from getting graded sooner in our schools. I strongly disagree with this. Nothing would take a turn for the better for Sweden’s young learners with grades earlier than what we have now. The youth of today have enough to worry about without getting grades telling them that they are not good enough.

Children of today grow up with stress none of us grown ups can even imagine. They are expected to wear fashion clothes, play with the right toys and watch the right TV programs in a much larger extent than ever before. Children are not allowed to grow up in their on pace anymore. Why add to their burden by grading them during their primary school when there is no use? Let the children be children for as long as they want to; that is something they really would benefit from in the long run.

Once in a while you hear that early grading would help the teachers, but would it really? We already have national tests in all four of our major subjects carried out in the fifth grade, and we are introducing national tests in the third school year now to make it even easier for the teacher. What more would the grades do? My opinion is that every form teacher in primary school knows all about their students’ weak and strong subjects without the grades. The teacher meet their students every day watching them grow from children to youngsters. The result of this idea would only give more work for the teacher. Time teachers could have put on preparing for upcoming classes would be lost to giving out grades; this would mean that teachers would have to stick to the books at hand a lot more giving the young learners a less satisfying school day in the end. We would give our young learners a less intresting school by giving out grades.

A strong argument for using grades in primary school is that it would be easier for parents and children to know where the child's weak and strong sides in school are. But that is nothing short of nonsense. Today we have a terrific system were children, parents and teacher sit down for at least half an hour every semester talking about every student’s progress, and more often if the child is what could be called a “slow learner”. With this, existing system, all parties concerned gets a very clear picture of how the young learner’s progress is progressing and this without a paper telling the child he is failing one, two or more subjects.

Let’s face it; when we look at this idea it is easy to se that it is an idea not worth perusing. Giving out grades in primary school will only leave the teacher with more work but no help for the young learners becoming better students. A “slow learner” will not benefit from bad grades telling him or her she is falling behind. A text précising the problem how ever could help. That way all parties would really know what the young learner needs to practice more on instead of a piece of paper saying fail, fail, fail…