Take seven-year-old Josh Welch of Maryland. Josh was suspended because a teacher says he bit a pastry into the shape of a gun and waved it around. Josh learned a valuable lesson about the amount of trust and respect he should have for government actors.
In Pennsylvania, five-year-old Madison Guarna was suspended for "terroristic threats" when she told friends she was going to shoot them with a Hello Kitty toy that makes soap bubbles. Madison learned an important lesson about how government actors will use citizens' fear and uncertainty to convince them to surrender rights and to increase the government actors' power.
In South Carolina, six-year-old Naomi McKinney was expelled from school — and threatened with criminal trespass charges if she returned — when she brought a clear plastic toy gun to school. Naomi learned an important lesson that government actors like broad rules that give them substantial power over citizens, and dislike requests that they exercise judgment, proportion, or what non-governmental actors might call reason.
In Philadelphia, fifth grader Melody Valentin arrived at school and realized that in her pocket she had a paper gun her grandfather had made for her. She tried to throw it away, but another student saw her and informed on her to the principal. School officials scolded her publicly and threatened her with arrest and searched her. Melody learned a valuable lesson about how state actors will maintain power by turning citizens against each other and making citizens extensions of their own control.
Finally, in Lodi, California, school officials propose to teach children many messages at once through an "anti-bullying" initiative forbidding students from "posting crude or disparaging remarks via electronic media."
What am our children learning?
What am our children learning?
According to Ken at Popehat, all the wrong lessons:
What am our children learning?
I try not to talk about politics too much, because everyone knows I'm a right-wing conservative asshole. I personally do consider myself much alike Bushmaster, Kansasgator, and Mocgator on the GC THFSG forums. I remember one time I had told Vertigo to forget about trying to find a middle ground with me on the issues (as she tries to make peace with G8rbill), because I consider myself to the right of him.
There was once a person named rock
Who most here would gladly coldcock
Not afraid to look dumb
To the pub he would come
And whatever he said was a crock
Who most here would gladly coldcock
Not afraid to look dumb
To the pub he would come
And whatever he said was a crock
What am our children learning?
What they're learning is that, where educators go, the bad apples have spoiled the whole bunch, and now everything is held together out of terror of liability, because using your own God-given common sense puts your ass on the line.
I am routinely told to avoid contacts that one might think are compassionate, but are too risky to venture. Like giving a college a ride to the subway station when I see her walking down the street in a cloudburst. Like inviting a class -- not a single student, but a whole senior seminar of 12 to 15 students -- over to my place to watch a movie and have nonalcoholic refreshment. Like counseling a student who has broken down in tears and confided in me that she's being beaten. I am subject to policy in these moments, and policy is created by the litigious climate.
So when some teacher, principal, or superintendent makes some insane call, right: you think, what the fuck? The fuck is that "best judgment" is dangerous business. Half the time, the insane call comes from a bad apple. The other half, it comes from someone whose habit of covering their ass in byzantine positions is now a hard habit to break.
I am routinely told to avoid contacts that one might think are compassionate, but are too risky to venture. Like giving a college a ride to the subway station when I see her walking down the street in a cloudburst. Like inviting a class -- not a single student, but a whole senior seminar of 12 to 15 students -- over to my place to watch a movie and have nonalcoholic refreshment. Like counseling a student who has broken down in tears and confided in me that she's being beaten. I am subject to policy in these moments, and policy is created by the litigious climate.
So when some teacher, principal, or superintendent makes some insane call, right: you think, what the fuck? The fuck is that "best judgment" is dangerous business. Half the time, the insane call comes from a bad apple. The other half, it comes from someone whose habit of covering their ass in byzantine positions is now a hard habit to break.