This seems incredibly stupid. You can't ban kids from having just one or a few friends, it's one thing to teach them manners etc. But saying you can't have close friends seems just plain stupid if I understand the article correctly and doesn't reflect the life of grown-ups at all.
> Best friends, with their tight bonds and inside jokes, throw a wrench into that open environment, school officials contend.
How? The article doesn't explain why it should. Only because you have close friends doesn't automatically mean that you are hostile towards everyone else.
I am a grown up, I only have a few friends and I think that is perfectly normal. I hate this kind of over protecting, "we know better than you" mentality. Personally I think it's way more important to have a few close friends than a lot of people you are simply loosely connected to.
Even the science is against it the idea:
> And although anti-best-friend policies may help kids in the short-term, research suggests the strong connections found among best friends could be vital for mental health in a world where adolescents are lonelier than ever.
This seems a very extroverted policy since extroverts naturally tend to have a large pool of people they are friends with. Introverts tend to have a few people that they know really well.
> Best friends, with their tight bonds and inside jokes, throw a wrench into that open environment, school officials contend.
How? The article doesn't explain why it should. Only because you have close friends doesn't automatically mean that you are hostile towards everyone else.
I am a grown up, I only have a few friends and I think that is perfectly normal. I hate this kind of over protecting, "we know better than you" mentality. Personally I think it's way more important to have a few close friends than a lot of people you are simply loosely connected to.
Even the science is against it the idea:
> And although anti-best-friend policies may help kids in the short-term, research suggests the strong connections found among best friends could be vital for mental health in a world where adolescents are lonelier than ever.