Restrictions

[Andrew C]

Superuser2 has shifted the thrust of the debate slightly in the last couple of posts. If theye are supervised (by someone competent* to do so, and that isn't ALL teachers) then yes, I'm all infavour of students doing almost anything. I'll send them up ladders, lift steeldeck rig, focus and op the boards. What gives me the hebeegeebees is unfettered access to the kit.

 

 

 

*We are replacing speakers because the kids were being "supervised" by a drama teacher who couldn't hear the distortion, or know what it meant.

[superuser2]

Ah. Then we are in agreement.

 

At first I didn't really understand the danger of damaging speakers throughout the course of normal operation. At that point I didn't realize why "unfettered access" would be unreasonable.

 

Supervised access is perfectly reasonable; I was arguing against not allowing kids to use the system at all.

 

I still think that as supervised experience is gained and kids become trusted, than maybe more freedom is warranted. If said kids had heard that distortion while supervised by someone who said "turn it down" and than afterward explained what it was and why it could damage the system, I would think it reasonable to trust that kid to recognize and react to it later on. Although this I won't really argue for quite as much and I think it really depends on the kid.

[steve h]

I still think that as supervised experience is gained and kids become trusted, than maybe more freedom is warranted. If said kids had heard that distortion while supervised by someone who said "turn it down" and than afterward explained what it was and why it could damage the system, I would think it reasonable to trust that kid to recognize and react to it later on. Although this I won't really argue for quite as much and I think it really depends on the kid.

 

My emphasis there. Mainly because we are talking about schools here, and the last thing a school can be seen to do is treat students differently. All must live by the same rule and if one can do it then so must another!

 

Steve

[alibarber]

I've found this thread to be quite interesting. I've just left school and moved on to university.

In my experience, it depends massively on the teacher/technician overseeing the projects. At several points (when I was 16) I was given the key to the building and left to get on with setting up & running a show by myself. Any problems that I encountered I dealt with myself using what I knew, and if I didn't know what to do and there was no one to ask (or more commonly, they didn't know either!), the time old saying of 'google is your friend' always worked. At this time though it was mainly sixth formers who did things, and I think we were definitely more independent, and responsible in the sense that if we ended up cutting/burning/electrocuting ourselves then we wouldn't blame anyone but ourselves.

 

Before I left though, there were very few sixth formers doing things, and with more younger kids (11-14yr olds) and things were a lot more supervised, which is suppose is fair enough - but I did enjoy having a lot of freedom to do all the things on the list (and more!), and learned an incredible amount from it. Having said that, the way of doing something you discover isn't always the best, so it's also invaluable to have a professional about to show you the proper way of doing things.

 

I have to disagree with all students being treated the same though, as a lot of people have different levels of experience and qualifications, although the overall aim of all school technical crews should be to get everyone to the highest level of knowledge and experience that they want to get to. (Imo)

[Adam L F]

I've put in a vote for "do some/all of the above with supervision". Of course we're all able to do it, but in an educational establishment H&S always comes first. On my Production Arts course, we've all been instructed on how to use everything, and how to do most things, but must be supervised while doing it.

 

-Adam

[superuser2]

My emphasis there. Mainly because we are talking about schools here, and the last thing a school can be seen to do is treat students differently. All must live by the same rule and if one can do it then so must another!

 

My school takes pride in the fact that it meets the needs of the above and beyond as well as the struggling with differentiated classes and assignments. It also doesn't take people on field trips when they have a serious enough offense on their discipline record.

 

Freedom with school equipment is a privilege and there's nothing wrong with that. Although it might require formal documentation as to what will and won't get you that privilege, I doubt a parent has grounds to complain that because their child consistently acted out in class they don't get to go to the waterpark at the end of 7th grade :-). They very well might, but an objective eye really wouldn't see it as unreasonable.