geralt / Pixabay

Every other year, it seems, some ed “reformers” get on their high horse on social media and start demanding that video cameras should be placed in every classroom and every moment should be videotaped.

I saw the latest flurry of posts about this topic last month.

There are a zillion good reasons why that’s a bad idea, and I wrote about it years ago in what I still think is one of the best – if not the best – piece of writing I’ve ever published: Videotaping teachers the right way (not the Gates way).

Today, some new posts appeared on my BlueSky feed that offer even more reasons why this kind of surveillance is not going to help our students or teachers:

This article and an earlier one about constant surveillance causing the demise of Amazon stores might be food for thought for those few Ed ‘reformers’ pushing for requiring all classrooms to be videotaped

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— Larry Ferlazzo (@larryferlazzo.bsky.social) January 31, 2026 at 7:00 AM

You can’t see the article that was posted, but it’s Houston-area schools are using AI tools to watch for mental health red flags. Experts are worried. from the Houston Chronicle.

Of course, this is unlikely to stop some ed “reformers,” who, often, have never let evidence get in the way of getting a few whacks in at teachers….