?

Log in

No account? Create an account

Previous Entry | Next Entry

The Right to "Meep!"

  • Dec. 29th, 2009 at 8:46 AM
Dread Pirate
birdhousefrog
The following youtube video needs some introduction...or none, depending on your perspective. Recently Walter Jon Williams blogged this article: http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_313233045.html?keyword=secondarystory. Go take a look. The unapproved use of the word "meep" may well result in your suspension. While I understand that such a thing could escalate beyond an administration's ability to control it, the promised punishment seems extreme, imo. Back in the day, the random use of "meep" would have been something we did in the halls of my own high school. It would be a branding of who was in the know and who wasn't. And had the administration forbidden it, we would have continued to "meep" anyway, risking suspension. Well, the art room crowd would have. The college-bound might have hesitated, those folks worried about getting into the right school. My Chorale director probably would have included the following in one of our concerts, as a pre-meditated, fully authorized, thumb your nose, use of "meep."



Frog Out

Comments

( 10 comments — Leave a comment )
ann_leckie
Dec. 29th, 2009 02:40 pm (UTC)
The reaction seems so extreme that I'm convinced there's something in the situation we're not being told, actually. Like those kids who are suspended for "hugging" a classmate turn out to be holy terrors and that was a last straw situation, or, you know, that sort of thing. I wouldn't be surprised if something like that was going on here.
| Reply | Thread
birdhousefrog
Dec. 29th, 2009 03:22 pm (UTC)
One would hope that there is something else going on that justifies such a reaction, yes. But if the kids began 'meeping' in the cafeteria, would you expect the administration to react in this way? My impression was that some of it was done in an assembly, which is inappropriate. I acknowledge the need to maintain order and discipline in a school. But the rebel in me who was in high school in the mid-70's sees this as something different, an expression of generational differences.

Oz
| Reply | Parent | Thread
ann_leckie
Dec. 29th, 2009 03:28 pm (UTC)
I am trying to imagine kids meeping in the high school cafeteria and what the reaction would be. Probably nothing as long as they got to their classes when the bell rang.

Maybe our district is just a good one--well, actually, it pretty much is--but that's part of my reaction. Why I wonder if there isn't already a history there--if the kids who were promoting or participating the meep-fest already have a rap sheet, so to speak, that maybe has worse stuff on it and this was one step beyond the administration's patience.

I do believe incompetent school administrators exist, mind you--it's just that so often there's been something else behind a news story, everyone is shocked about how horrible someone is and then you hear the full thing. My personal platonic ideal for this is the McDonalds coffee suit, the entire story of which makes the whole incident take on a very different cast. But we never got those full details in the newspaper, you had to dig to find them. So I'm generally suspicious about automatic outrage stories like that.
| Reply | Parent | Thread
birdhousefrog
Dec. 29th, 2009 03:35 pm (UTC)
I agree. Miss E is also in a good school district, though I can see different administrators reacting differently to such a thing...not that an elementary school is likely to harbor a sudden 'meeping' revolution.

The principal's reaction does sound, as you say, as if this was the last straw. OTOH, one never knows in Mass exactly what the full story is. Is it a witch hunt? Or is it an attempt to squelch something more sinister? Does 'meeping' really mask something darker? I'm not on Facebook, so I can't go look to see what the 'meep' community seems to be about.

Oz
| Reply | Parent | Thread
(Deleted comment)
birdhousefrog
Dec. 29th, 2009 06:52 pm (UTC)
Mr. Maggs was the best. The music room was as much a haven as the art room and art room corridor. Both were in the same corner of the school, near the auditorium and cafeteria. Both were magnets to misfits and artists. I wrote a great deal of my first (very bad) fantasy novel in that part of the school, especially when skipping classes.
| Reply | Parent | Thread
kelly_yoyo
Dec. 29th, 2009 07:08 pm (UTC)
Oh, I agree. Sounds like a great guy!
| Reply | Parent | Thread
shaolingrrl
Dec. 29th, 2009 06:01 pm (UTC)
I'd like to know precisely what behavior the "planned disruption" consisted of.
| Reply | Thread
birdhousefrog
Dec. 29th, 2009 06:54 pm (UTC)
Indeed, so would I. Nice of you to drop in, haven't 'seen' you in a while. I guess the Beaker vid drew you in!
| Reply | Parent | Thread
shaolingrrl
Dec. 29th, 2009 08:36 pm (UTC)
Oh, I read way more than I post. If I ever have anything to say, somebody has usually gotten there first and said it much better than I ever could.

But Beaker is my alter-ego. :-) Plus I'm in my second week of a holiday work shut-down, so I have a little more time to keep up with the flist.
| Reply | Thread
(Anonymous)
Feb. 28th, 2010 04:46 pm (UTC)
youtube video of muppets (Dec. 29)
I was just playing around with your blog, and clicked onto to the youtube video of the muppets. I is hilarious, and I thank you for giving me a chuckle.
Shirley
| Reply | Thread
( 10 comments — Leave a comment )