Panopticism

4 Pages 901 Words

Panopticism


How many times while in school did you feel like you were in a prision? Is that the first thought that comes to ones mind while sitting in classes? Probably not, but it isn’t suprising is it? The idea that schools are like prisions is the idea that Michel Foucault tries to get readers to understand in his essay Panopticism. Schools and prisions alike have their “experts in normailty” as well as “key sites of survaillence and control”, which make the two so similair.
The bell rings and all the students report to their first class. How do they know where to go and when to go their? Schools run on and with a schedule. Every student is given a schedule and on their schedule it states where to be and when. The school time is kept by a bell, classes starting and ending with a bell. The same is true with prisions; the prisoners are told to be somewhere at a certain time they are there with the sounding of the bell. The process of the schedule is organized allowing follow-ups to be made. Attendance is taken, if a student isn’t present at time of attendance they are repremanded.
In schools there are many people who govern over the school in order for everything to move smoothly, the “experts in normailty”. The governing body starts off at the bottom, teachers are the”syndics”. If the student is still having problems the teacher can now report the student to the vice-principal the “indentant” and the last resort is the dreaded principal in other words the “magistrate”. In other words the student “reports from the syndics to the indendants, from the intendants to the magistrated or mayor.” All teachers and administrators have their own roles and have their own positions in making the school run smoothly. The one postion separate is the security guard. They are the ones walking the hallways, patrolling the parking lots they are in place to keep the peace in school. They don’t follow the “h...