We All Need A Song

Thousand of high school students have stormed the streets of Dutch cities over the past couple days to protest a law that mandates 1,040 hours of classroom time. Enforcement of this law has apparently led to so-called "useless hours", where schools with a lack of lessons or teachers force the students to stay in the classrooms anyway in order to fulfil their legal obligations.

How angry has this made the students?

Well....

I'm a pampered North American; my worst experience with strikes is having to deal with the inconvenience of not having my trash picked up. Welcome to Europe!

Police doused students with a water cannon at Amsterdam's Museum Square and charged on horseback into the crowd of about 1,000 after students pelted them with rocks, apples and bottles. Police said 15 people were arrested and two officers suffered minor injuries.

Television footage showed students throwing eggs at the entrance to the parliament building in The Hague and at the headquarters of NOS, the national broadcaster, in
Hilversum.

Remember, these are 15- and 16-year-olds. How did they get so organized?

Students spread word to join protests on Friday and Monday using online and mobile phone text messages.

Shoulda known....

Parliament is set to debate the issue on Wednesday, so the ruckus should be over soon.

Hey, it could worse. I could be living in France.

(Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)