Comments on: The Judge Aged 10 And Other Classroom Bullies

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:59:12 +0000

Got it.

Was brining up the pun also a pun?

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:07:30 +0000

No, Bob. I doubt there are tons of those anyway, and lawyers could try to argue about those. I was just brining up the pun and the fact that the real legal courts lean in that direction as well, in case anyone else missed the pun…and it became an entire new discussion. That’s all.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:53:57 +0000

Does that mean you’re not going to post the true legal statistics?

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:46:21 +0000

I’m going to assume that is a pun and let my smile remain. Otherwise, the true legal statistics of the real legal courts would have to come up and those are usually ugly…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:16:42 +0000

I bet black kids are convicted more

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:36:36 +0000

I was just wanted to point out that it can be a range of kids that participate (I won’t go through the tedious ways people can be selected, plus people can just apply themselves). Also, prior defendants can come back and serve on the jury.

It’s imperfect in some ways , but it does have its perks, as you can keep it off your record (you have to be a first time offender to be involved). The real legal system is imperfect as well, and this is voluntary. (well, ours was, I don’t know about this one)

Also, I suppose it is better to focus on making amends if needed and actually trying to deal with the problem, than merely punishing the kids. The punishments aren’t usually that harsh either, it usually was a letter of apology, not getting into trouble again with a period of time, and helping out with a food drive or something (community service, and I had to do that anyway for other clubs, so it isn’t too terrible of a punishment-yes, I sadly was a tad whiter than white back then, I’m afraid). And really they normally didn’t get any of the more annoying community service things, like having to pick up trash (lovely, I assure you).

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:29:47 +0000

That’s like vehicular use in India. Might is right. I’m bigger than you, suffer!

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:36:15 +0000

lol, name tags were used. And no, Andrew, I don’t think they got beaten up later; probably because the smart quarterback, etc. (that is a massive stereotype isn’t it? But it’s true) participated as well, you have to remember, in America, it isn’t only complete dorky kids that do these things, as such activities are (sadly) picked up for the uni application, sounds bad I know…Anyway, I can’t speak of this set-up as I’m sure it is different; but I’m still no sure it is a great idea, however limited (as you are still messing about with someone’s life). Just my opinion though, I’m sure it has its supporters.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:31:01 +0000

They will just get double beaten up later

By: Anorak

Anorak — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:37:00 +0000

Do they get a badge?

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:17:10 +0000

Good learning experience in that the “peers” went from both lawyers, to judge, and jury. And you had to go through steps, advised by adults, to get into such positions. And from different schools and what not.

It was a bit like Boys’/Girl’s State but for law and you had an impact on someone’s life (limited though).

I still don’t agree with it…

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:11:48 +0000

We had this when I was younger, it generally didn’t tackle any serious issues and was mostly confined to community service work. And yes, it was 15-18.

I still don’t agree that it should be in the hands of kids, although it does provide a good learning experience and as I said, it was limited to community service work for x amount of hours in our little set-up.