Like clockwork, several times a year particular kinds of conversation pop up on one or another of the independent school listservs. It begins with a query from someone--one can imagine the incident, the frustrating faculty meeting, or the painful conversation that generated this--asking about some policy or another relating to technology: electronic plagiarism, perhaps, or evil (or more generally, childishly heedless) deeds perpetrated on Facebook. This week it's been headphones.

Early on, one predictable message is added to the interchange. Properly, some wise person reminds the group that it's not about regulating the technology, that the solution lies in addressing behavior, not gadgets. Although Acceptable Use Policies are necessary in our digital schoolhouses, the basis of these must be simple principles of human behavior.

Quite right, quite right.

And yet.

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