In our experience, high school has always been about the systematic crushing of individual freedoms as fitting preparation for the soul-killing experiences of Life in the Real World, so we can certainly understand the dehumanizing random locker checks, the arbitrary and homogenizing dress codes, the pointless busywork, and all that stuff; after all, why wait to have your spirit annihilated in the workforce when you can get it out of the way nice and early? But a school in Sydney, Australia may have just gone one big step way too far over the line when it comes to stripping away the basic human rights of its students: it's gone and banned iPod use during class hours. The fiends!

It's true, folks; faithful viewer daihong dished us a Sydney Morning Herald article which reports that the principal of International Grammar School decided to nix 'Pods in the classrooms because playing them too loud can damage one's hearing, because they're a "security risk" (oh, geez, not that ol' saw again-- suppose she banned keyring flash drives, too?), and because "students using iPods could not hear teachers." (News flash: if the kids are listening to iPods in class, they're not trying to hear the teachers, and taking away their 'Pods isn't going to change that.) But the biggest reason, she says, is because iPods "allow students to avoid communication with others and may lead to social isolation or escape from our community."

Well, duh! That's what makes them so great! But Principal Murphy (and you can just picture her grinning in an infuriatingly bubbly fashion when she says this) insists that "it's important for kids to be talking to one another at school, socializing and being part of a community. That's why they come to school, to be connected." My, how... June Cleaver of her. Meanwhile, the students are reportedly a little miffed, since they weren't consulted before the ban (get used to it, kids) and now they can't listen to music during lunch or use it to block out distractions when they need to get actual work done in the typical zoolike high school environment. But oh, no; listening to his or her own music might make someone less of a People Person, and that would be a tragedy of the highest order.

From an academic standpoint, International Grammar School serves as an interesting counterpoint to Duke University, who, as you know, gave free iPods to each and every member of its Class of 2008. (Duke is obviously far less concerned about iPod-related social isolation among its students, possibly because of their ready access to alcoholic beverages.) While International Grammar contends that its students have no legitimate need for iPods in the classroom (what about iSynced iCal appointments and Notes?), Duke is going out of its way to incorporate iPod-integrated teaching methods into as many courses as possible. And based on what little we've heard, the current situation reads something like "Duke students happy, International Grammar ones not so much."

But hey, high school is supposed to suck the dimples off a golf ball. And if having their beloved iPods torn from their grasp without so much as a "please" is teaching these kids to mistrust authority at every step of the journey, well, then that's a skill they can use for the rest of their cubicle-jockey lives. Who says that high school's lessons are no longer relevant?