> I like how you shared how you learned lesson to not share mischievous activities with people in the same post you then go and share more things you haven't been caught for

American public schools are quite adept at teaching distrust in authority, particularly in bureaucrats. That doesn't mean distrust in everybody.

> American public schools are quite adept at teaching distrust in authority, particularly in bureaucrats.

It's an important lesson to teach kids while they're young! Strange, though, how you never see it on the formal curriculum.

it’s a hidden lesson, only for privileged kids.

How is that a lesson for privileged kids only?

Because in the United States, unprivileged kids often get thrown into what we call the "school-to-prison pipeline" for inconveniencing authority figures.

Unfortunately, they end up learning a different sort of hidden lesson.

I love how student government teaches you how government really works. The election is a popularity contest for a puppet regime with no real power, but you can pat yourself on the back and take price in the democratic process.

This made me think of The Simpsons episode that parodies Evita. Lisa is elected but quickly becomes a tool of the school administration. Season 14 I think

Depending on where you go to school, I think student government actually does have responsibilities with planning events and such, and this gets far more important in college than in k12.

In k12, while it's not really meaningful, It's still an extracurricular activity, and at the same time it shows that you can work with others (theoretically) and that people like you enough to put you there.

Unless you're in an anime. The student council in anime not only has power in the school, but outside political and military power besides.

> it shows that you can work with others

Nope.

> and that people like you enough to put you there.

This. This is all it shows.

> American public schools are quite adept at teaching distrust in authority, particularly in bureaucrats.

I wonder to what extent that property is primarily due to them being schools, or primarily due to them being public, or primarily due to them being American, or is it some combination of the three?

My own impression (having experienced both as a child) is that private schools are less prone to bureaucratic inflexibility than public ones, which is one of the reasons why my wife & I have chosen private schooling for our children. But, not the US, so our experiences may not be directly comparable.

Lol, yup, we encounter the principal-agent problem early.

The American public school system likes to teach that they are an authority that should be trusted.

That must be reverse psychology. /s

I think the example is in the great grand parent comment

> Oh well, 2 week suspension and kicked off the computers for less than a year. A nice conference with FBI, police, my parents, IT and school administration. Fun times.

Something that most would believe as non-malicious and just for the lolz received a (what I personally think is) heavy punishment. So as a kid you learn to just keep that to yourself because you don't know if you'll get a "oh thanks for telling us" or a "you're expelled". Its not explicitly said to distrust but you learn from experience.

I think this is especially prevalent in schools. You'll see things like this even for things that aren't related to computers. When I was a kid, drugs in your locker were your drugs, even though breaking into the lockers was trivial and stashing drugs in other people's lockers was the way business was done.

I wouldn't have told the school of a theft I witnessed even if I knew there were cameras recording the entire thing. You're guilty unless you can prove someone else was more guilty and they're not really concerned about the truth of the matter so they're not trying to help you.

another thing probably learned is statute of limitations!