Have any of your high school kids been given a survey lately?

[woodsprite]

My daughter was given one today as she went in the library, so it wasn't a set part of one of her classes. They do surveys all the time for various different classes, but this one was more than that. I called the school office to see who sponsored it, but the main office said they didn't know anything about it. Since it was the Library, they put me through to the Librarian. She wasn't there after school today, but her assistant was. She said I'd have to call back to talk to the Librarian about the survey since she didn't know anything about it.

My daughter couldn't remember a lot of the questions (she said there were easily 25-30), but some were:

- Do you feel that the general public approves of President Obama?
- Do you feel that politicians' private lives should be made public?
- Do you agree with President Obama's decision to start decreasing troops in the Middle East next month?
- Do you think that celebrities private lives should be made public?
- Do you feel concerned about finding a job when you graduate?
- Check off which branch(es) of the armed services you would like to receive information from.

I think that last line says it all, but some of the other questions are leading. They were all yes/no questions except where they asked for your age, birthdate, name, address, etc. She said there was no indication that 'school' was noted anywhere, and they didn't ask that. I told her it could have been coded in the bars on the edge of the paper. I taught her well - she didn't fill out any personal information. I did stress that she should have only answered a single question and turned it in - the most harmless one on there was about the celebrities. I schooled her on the finer points of wording - like the "does the general public approve of Pres. Obama". She asnwered 'no' to that. I told her that's what they wanted her to do. If you're liberal, some don't approve because he's not liberal enough. If you're repub, it's because he's a Dem or Muslim, or Kenyan, or Black. Either way, the "no's" add up and skew their results.

She said there were misspellings and bad dates (off by 2 yrs). I told her maybe that's a give-away as to who sponsored it ;) It was the "morans".

I'll let you guys know what the official answer is from the school. If it was solely the Librarian, I hope her pet tarantula escapes and bites her on her butt.

[jody]

1. Interesting OP. I'm curious, does the school have a policy on administering surveys? n/t

[woodsprite]

2. That's what I'm aiming to find out. Next stop is an email to the principal.

The other surveys I mentioned were ones that were for class projects. I know each of my kids schools hands out a survey to kids and parents that last week of school. It comes from the district and is labeled as such with a cover letter. You can view the compiled results broken down by school the following year on the district site. So it's not that surveys aren't heard of, but it's the political nature of this one that has me questioning who sponsored it.

[jody]

3. Give 'em hell woodsprite!

:thumbsup:

[SocialistLez]

4. Nope...I don't have kids BUT

I remember some survey I took in high school asking about high risk behaviors.
Do we smoke?
Do we drink?
Are we straight, gay or bi?
Do we drink alcohol?
How many sexual partners have you had?
Have you ever been raped?

[pinboy3niner]

5. Of course, this is absolutely wrong

It looks like another case of an employee (the librarian?) putting his/her partisanship aheaed of their job responsibilities. You did well to catch this, and I hope you raise holy hell about it. This is not the way we should be teaching our kids.