@cak: That’s the system, I believe, in my kids’ school. They certainly get to go when they need to, and “wander” the halls alone to get there. The kids from this school tend to go on to get into fancy colleges, and then to be leaders in the community.
The point is that if you bring kids up with autonomy, they expect autonomy. If you bring kids up to think they have little control over their bodies, that’s what they end up doing when they grow up. The role we play early in life has a significant effect on the role we play later in life, I believe. There is probably evidence to support this.
You might think something as innocuous as going to the bathroom doesn’t mean much. However, it’s just the tip of the ice berg. It is symbolic of many other things in the culture of the school, and of the people attending the school. These are things most people aren’t aware of.
Of course it’s problematic for some teachers. There are teachers in Philadelphia who think their whole job is to corral their kids and get them to sit in their seats for ten minutes at a time. It takes a special teacher to know how to deal with this without destroying the child’s sense of power.
I don’t know. Check out the laboratory school in D.C. The Montessori schools. There are many schools that don’t use the assembly line model for education.
When I grew up, there were no hall passes. As a senior, I didn’t even have to be on campus if I didn’t have a class. We were free to take classes at local universities if we wanted. I don’t know if they still can be this permissive, but it worked for my cohort.
Good luck with your pain killer, by the way. I hope it works.