Snoopy Bear
The cuddly school snitch
We spent a delightful day with the family this weekend: daughter, step-daughter, their partners, two grandchildren and us. Pumpkins were involved and, later, beer, so everyone was happy.
Our granddaughter has just started school and she loves it. She greeted us in a fancy dress witch costume and much excitement as she is the current custodian of the school teddy bear. It came home from school with an accompanying scrapbook and homework instructions for the parents: they are to take pictures of their family activities, featuring the bear, and add them to the class scrapbook.
Now, it used to be, not so long ago, that the sharing of images of other people’s children was strictly forbidden, because “safeguarding”. I was not permitted to photograph my own child starring in her primary school Christmas play because other children were on stage. Apparently, that policy has been flipped on its head.
The new parents seem fine with this. I am not. So it is my problem, of course, not theirs.
All four of our next generation are fine young people and I am proud of them. The reality is that they all work, one way or another, in the industry of data capture and trading. This is now normal, so they barely question it. And yes, it is their life and their world and their future. They are better equipped for it than I am.
I am told that I over-react. But when they can’t see the creeping threat, who is to protect the children? I am listening again to this conversation about data mining in the education system, and I will share it with my family.
It is 2025 and most of the time I want to scream, but some days I could weep.
Snoopy Bear
Snoopy Bear has come for tea.
Snoopy Bear will stay with me.
He’s brought his scrapbook home as well
So we can play at “Show and Tell”.
Snoopy Bear lives at my school.
He comes to visit, that’s the rule.
This is how my teachers learn
About us all. This week’s my turn.
My friends had Snoopy round to stay,
They’ve stuck their pictures on display.
Gran says it’s so parents prove
A lifestyle teachers can approve.
Gran says photos that we snap
Are really so that we can map
A chart of our activities
To hand to the authorities.
My Gran said Snoopy is a spy –
She says these things, I don’t know why.
Mummy rolled her eyes and sighed,
Said this is how I’m “socialised”.
It’s just a little harmless fun
For us, she said, like everyone.
There’s nothing dark to see round here,
We’ve nothing to hide, so nothing to fear.
We’ve checked the scrapbook just to test
The way to look like all the rest.
It’s safer if we seem the same,
So that’s the way we’ll play the game.
“I am told that I over-react. But when they can’t see the creeping threat, who is to protect the children?”— Key point!
Of course, Gran is as dead right as the young think Gran is dead wrong. Fact is, to those with eyes and brains that work, it's every bit as creepy as it's been creeping. My latest updated poem is about brainwashing in general, but very much applies to the digital-panopticon drift that has convinced the new generations that privacy is not only NOT an essential human right, but that it's something only kooks and criminals value. After all, “what do you have to hide?” … https://redpillpoems.substack.com/p/the-fruit-of-the-tree
And ya, data mining...
The generation gap is now a chasm, leading to a labyrinth winding its way down to hell. Ageing spelunkers can only look on in horror as their loved ones, flushed with the confidence of youth, descend, with only the torces on their mobile phones to light the way,
I actually think, under different circumstances, the "school bear" is a nice idea, but understand your concerns. Have you checked it for spycams - they're all the rage you know for catching lazy cleaners and horrible child-minders. Wouldn't want those cleaning our homes and minding our kids while we were at the endless office meetings, now, would we?