Pushing on the playground and stealing lunch money may lead to a life of crime outside of the classroom. A new study suggests classroom bullies could, in fact, turn into career criminals.
A government report leaked in Great Britain recommends nursery schools start targeting kids — as young as three-years-old — as potential criminals. The study warned that kids who were not under control by that age were four times as likely to be convicted of a violent offense when they grow up. Prime Minister Tony Blair requested the report to identify ways to cut crime by 2008.
MSNBC-TV Host Tucker Carlson is creeped out by the report. Find out why in the transcript below.
TUCKER CARLSON, 'THE SITUATION' HOST: The government of Great Britain is apparently asking kindergarten and nursery school teachers to act as shrinks and cops, and determine which kids, needless to say, are acting up, are going to grow up to become rapists or armed robbers. They're totally unqualified to do that, and it's just wrong to classify kids that way.
MAX KELLERMAN, PANELIST: You're going to get kicked out of the Republican Party with talk like that, Tucker. Really what they‘re — it's separate but equal. No, what's going on here — I essentially agree with you. I'm going to play devil's advocate, though, because there is a good case to be made.
CARLSON: There is no case to be made. But try it. Try it out on me.
KELLERMAN: Here's the case: If, in fact, there is a high correlation between certain behavior at the age of 3 and criminal activity later in life, who are you really helping by trying to find these kids? Yes, society at large, there is a cost benefit from prevention of crime, but really it's the kid who's going to turn out to be a criminal. You're not discriminating against that kid. You are assisting that kid. Because a life of crime is no life, Tucker.
CARLSON: We're from the government. We're here to help you.
Now, there are two problems with this. One, you have to believe, you are required as a human to believe that all 3-year-olds are capable of change. No matter how horrible a 3-year-old may be, no matter how many times he throws his juice box against the refrigerator, you got to believe in your soul this kid can grow up to be a decent person, despite all the evidence. Two, you definitely don't want government classifying children as winners or losers. That's what they do in North Korea. It's bureaucracy gone completely insane. And three, this is another manifestation of the hostility many on the left feel toward male aggression in children. If kids, little boys are boisterous, ooh, that's wrong. It's criminal.
KELLERMAN: What?
CARLSON: Yes, it‘s true.
KELLERMAN: All right, I deserved that for the Republican shot I took at you before. Look, I know it's a slippery, Orwellian slope. But you know what you do, on the slipper slope? You dig in your heels.
You like that? You dig in your heels if it's a slippery slope. And you say, “We‘re not going to single these kids out to hurt them. We're going to single them out to help them.” It's like Head Start. It's like any other program where you try to identify things early.
CARLSON: It's like Head Start. On that high note — you may have defended the indefensible, but nobody does it better than you do.
KELLERMAN: Thank you very much.