Does anyone ever reminisce on the past? When I reminisce, it is about Cool Math Games, my favorite website that was cruelly put down like a family to its elderly dog. The harsh death penalty on this fun gaming website seems harsh. This caused me to think about other essential websites stripped away from us by the school, such as streameast.io, CBS sports.com, and epic games.com. To fully understand why such fun and entertaining websites were blocked, I took it upon myself to interview the students and teachers suffering from the school’s regime of internet tyranny. To avoid bias, I interviewed some elites working with the school, such as Librarian Ms. Whitt and Technology Specialist Mr. McIntosh.
The results I found from the students were as lopsided as possible. Every student I interviewed opposed the website blocking and named a couple of suggestions for websites they wanted back. “Cool Math games, Hulu, Netflix, twitch, and chess.com” were suggested by junior Vaughn Iyoha. A pack of freshmen agreed and stated that “the game ones” should be unblocked.
In addition, pedagogical student Boris Voronov said, “YouTube videos necessary for the classroom and personal exploration shouldn’t be restricted and should be freed up for students.” However, the dichotomous Voronov also said, “Private schools have the right to block any website they want.” Voronov does present a Thomas Hobbes-like lens. He claims that while students agree to sovereign authority, it is due to respect for said authority and in exchange for online protection. Philosophical Expert Devin Best said, “The very foundation of societal order rests on a pragmatic, albeit somewhat cynical, agreement—a social contract.”
I also asked about school authority. School censorship expert Tom DeBlasio said, “Government censorship, my dear, is but the velvet glove that conceals the iron fist of control, ever seeking to stifle the free flow of thought, lest the masses awaken to their intellectual emancipation.”
After talking to the ordinary people, I took it upon myself to interview the school’s elites. School Librarian Megan Whitt said, “There have been a few too many times where I have had to ask the tech department to unblock something.” This shocking quote unveils the fact that even teachers do not agree to the terms of the blocking. She also suggested that Reddit and Etsy should be unblocked because of their usefulness.
After a long journey, I took my talents to the tech mountain, a place of power looking over the students of the Commons. McIntosh said, “There are policies set in place by the school, so we follow the school’s handbook. And implement policies based on filters.” This proves that those in charge of technology are not to blame for the blockings but instead the school itself. He also dramatically said, “Mr. Twyford needs to unblock sites for coding, but we need to steer on the side of caution.” Technology experts are pawns of the system, following orders from the guidebook.
While protection is necessary, college is a territoryless place with no boundaries. Unsafe websites should be blocked, yet silly games and YouTube videos should be released into public hands.
