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I think that this story is an interesting example of youthful discourse community's use of language colliding head-on with the strictures of a traditional educational setting:
http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_313233045.html
It's unclear what meaning "meep" has, other than it is a popular thing for kids to say when they are at a loss for something to say, according to various Web sites.
A group on Facebook called Meep has 370 members, for instance, and lists three Danvers High students as members. The category heading is: "Just for Fun — Totally Random," and it involves people just typing the word "meep" in various ways and expressing their fondness for the word.
Entries for the word "meep" in the online Urban Dictionary include "ouch," "uh-oh," a substitution for a swear word, a greeting, an exclamation or "a random expression of happiness used to fill gaps in conversation."
Some Danvers High students said yesterday they were not sure what "meep" means.
"No one really knows," said sophomore Melanie Crane, who said some freshmen used the term, but she has not heard the term used herself.
Does banning kids from using a word that they use when they're at a loss for words seem a little…cruel to anyone else? Of course, this whole thing doesn't challenge at all my view that public schools in the US are basically jails for children.
This is another instance of the headline not being a full-faith representation of the story. The school no more banned the word "meep" than the proverbial movie house banned the word "fire." It's about reining in disruptive — and unlawful — conduct and ensuring that a few immature students do not violate other students' right to an educational climate where learning is possible. Preventing students from hijacking the learning process, whether it involves suppression of hand gestures, a certain color of clothing, disruptive language or other bad-faith conduct, is a common-sense approach to school management that has stood the test of time and numerous Supreme Court challenges. For far too long, schools have erred on the side of giving freedom of expression too wide a berth. I, for one, am happy to see a school stand up to criticism from those who have low expectations for adolescent behavior in school.
High school Principal Thomas Murray said students were using it and other words to disrupt school in a particular part of the building on Cabot Road. The term later became part of a disruption some students were planning online.
"It's really not about the word in particular," Murray said. "The reason for the message (was) a group of students were instructed to refrain from that language and other language in a particular part of the building."
I like this comment I came across on Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/a4961/lawyer_sends_email_saying_meep_to_school/c0fs5l3=
The school should've taken the opposite approach. The most effective way of getting students to stop saying "meep" is is the school faculty started saying it themselves. Use "meep" every morning during announcements. Put "meep" posters all over the lunch room.
"Meep" will instantly become uncool and the kids will move on to the next fad.
Etymology Fan said:
Does banning kids from using a word that they use when they're at a loss for words seem a little…cruel to anyone else? Of course, this whole thing doesn't challenge at all my view that public schools in the US are basically jails for children.
Okay, this may be opening a can of worms...but why do you feel this way about public schools?
My niece grew up in Danvers Massachusetts and attended Danvers High School for two years. She made the following comments on this story:
actually, MOST the student body was doing it, thats why singling out students wasn't working. Also, they were being disruptive intentionally as a form of protest. it was not just kids being naughty, it had a point.
According to my friends in Danvers, a group of students introduced it as a way of protesting recent budget cuts and it caught on quickly with the whole school (of course it would - when having a cause legitimizes and justifies their being disruptive in class =P)
so, in short: it was a clever way for the students who cared about the issue to redirect the delinquent behavior of their peers to further an agenda. ... See More
eventually the administration couldn't take the annoyance anymore and banned the word.
this is why students are so upset - the media has only covered it as a silly new rule, isn't this preposterous etc., when the REAL issue is that the principal has taken away the student body's form of protest.
now, i agree it is a poor choice of protest; it punishes the students who are trying to learn and the teachers who have no authority over budgets cuts as much as the administration, but it DID work to get their point across in a way the school couldn't ignore, better than a petition or sit in could have.
This isn't about bad kids being disruptive, leading to silly rules; this is about the administration trying to silence protests from the student body.
also, for kids in the less popular social groups, especially computer/gamer/anime geeks in that age bracket, 'meep' is an all-purpose word that can be used in almost any sentence; I know my sister uses it constantly and i myself do when i'm around teens. it is a very difficult thing to remove a word from everyday usage when it is that ingrained a ... See Morehabit. imagine telling a valley girl she can longer say the word 'like' on pain of suspension.
it is not a danvers thing, its a slang term in used by a very specific demographic nation-wide, and danvers high school has a looong history of making life hard for this demographic.
for instance, when i was in school there, they instituted a dress code banning clothing associated with 'goth' 'punk' or 'metal' fashion trends. it also targetted 'ghetto' fashion. the majority of students weren't affected by this, as most kids at danvers high school didn't wear these fashions. but those of us with closets full of fishnet shirts, studded belts, and ripped jeans were left with a set of rules outlawing most of our wardrobe.
Okay, this may be opening a can of worms…but why do you feel this way about public schools?
Well, maybe calling public schools "jails for children" is a somewhat extreme way of putting it (then again, the fact that we have the same architects designing schools and prisons makes me wonder), but that's how I felt a lot of the time when I was in the public school system. I did have some good teachers (I'm probably lucky to have English teachers who assigned us to read books that we probably weren't supposed to read), so I don't want to sound completely negative about my public school experience, but I just found it to a stifling environment a lot of the time (Sorry if this is getting a bit off-topic for this board).
dilettante said:
Etymology Fan said:
the fact that we have the same architects designing schools and prisons
Careful! Definitely going OT, but can you back that statement up?
Here's one example I came across:
http://www.childrenandnature.org/news/detail/why_are_schools_designed_like_prisons
I haven't seen it yet, but apparently the new documentary film The War on Kids discusses this phenomenon in more detail (The director of the film mentioned that the same architects who design prisons are also designing schools when he was interviewed on The Colbert Report recently).
I'm struggling to bring this back around to language. Try this: The phrase "the fact that we have the same architects designing schools and prisons" implies that it is very common for this to occur, and perhaps intentional.
The newspaper article (wonder if the NYT knows their article is reproduced in full there?) provides one anecdotal instance.
Judging by reviews of that film, the director has an agenda (against public schools, for homeschooling), and it's hard to accept his claim without evidence.
Perhaps the Internet has made me oversensitive to sweeping generalizations?
Martha Barnette
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