What Are They Afraid Of?

I don't consent to being recorded by others.  I can't imagine any good that could come from such recordings.  Besides, If I do something I shouldn't, there are 30+ witnesses in a class!

Parents and other visitors are always welcome in my class, in-person or virtual.  I want my administrators to come in and see the work that my students and I do!  I'm confident enough in the work I do that I don't ask them to schedule a time, they're welcome to come in any time.

We in education often encourage parents to monitor their children's internet usage, so how can we turn around and explicitly tell them they shouldn't monitor their children's Zoom classes?  What are the teachers and administrators in Rutherford County, Tennessee, afraid of?

Parents of students who attend Rutherford County Schools (RCS) must agree not to monitor their child’s online classroom sessions.

Officials at all county schools are asking parents to sign forms agreeing not to watch these virtual classes.

The Tennessee Star received a copy of such a form this week.

“RCS strives to present these opportunities in a secure format that protects student privacy to the greatest extent possible, however because these meetings will occur virtually RCS is limited in its ability to fully control certain factors such as non-student observers that may be present in the home of a student participating in the virtual meeting,” according to the form.

“RCS strongly discourages non student observation of online meetings due to the potential of confidential information about a student being revealed.”

The form asks parents for their signature and warns that “violation of this agreement may result in RCS removing my child from the virtual meeting"...

“We are aware of the concern that has been raised about this distance-learning letter that was sent to parents. The intent was not to prevent parents from being involved with their children during distance learning, but it was intended to protect the academic privacy of other students in the classroom who are visible during certain virtual class sessions,” (district spokesman) Evans said.

I call bovine doo-doo on their reasoning.  What "confidential" information is revealed in class that's OK for other students to hear but not ok for adults to hear?  And remember, as for seeing and hearing the students in a Zoom class, we're not talking about some generic stalker-y member of the public watching schoolchildren, we're talking about people in the home watching the class that their child or sibling is enrolled in.  You'd think teachers and administrators would welcome such involvement and concern.

I'll pause for a moment and remind everyone that elementary school teachers and high school teachers see many things differently.  Sometimes when I interact with a "teacher" on the internet, I don't think about that difference.  For example, I recently saw an Instagram post in which a teacher said that she doesn't care if a student is in bed, is wrapped in a blanket, is eating a bowl of cereal, isn't entirely dressed, she's just glad they made it to Zoom class.  I replied that she should have some standards, that having a class of students looking at a peer in bed might be awkward for some (it would be for me!), and that I require students at least to have a shirt on.  It didn't occur to me until later that perhaps she was an elementary teacher, and if that's the case I can see where her "just glad they made it" might be different from my "let's be somewhat mature" belief.

Would the district policy be reasonable if it's an elementary school district?  I still say no, but the point is moot--the district has elementary, middle, and high schools, and the letter went to everyone.

I have to believe there will be enough blowback that they'll retreat on that policy.  It's a bad policy, and looks even worse.