Doomed in Education

I came across this little tidbit and a related story yesterday and well couldn’t resist,

What at first I had mixed feelings over, the suspension of students for not completing an assignment suddenly turned to disgust. This is where it really gets my goat!

"....Lewis said. "And the kind of things that are in the book, adults should not even read.'"

EXCUSE ME?! What the fuck over! Who is he to decide what is appropriate for other adults to read? I agree the book may not be appropriate for junior High Students but to go on and say something stupid like this shows a complete lack of judgment!Since when is reading about someone's experience unsuitable material? Is it because in 1960's America the country as a whole still treated blacks like second class citizens and used terms like colored and nigger to describe them? Or is it because this book is about the Vietnam War that the parents find it so objectionable? This is a historical footnote in American History and to white wash it, no pun intended, is to forget what it was really like. Furthermore, if foul language is a problem for younger children, then maybe the school districts and the NEA should be boycotting the Music Industry and the hip hop singers instead of Wal-Mart. Give me a break!

Apparently, the school district in question is predominately black, and that is meaningful in what sense? Why does it matter if the school district is 90% black...do blacks in this country have the soul right to be offended by anything or everything? If the language offends the parents they should talk to their children about why it’s offensive. This is the problem in my mind with the liberalization of America. In their effort to revise history and clean it up so no one is offended they fail to accurately teach history and provide our children with a frame work for the freedoms they have now and how tenuous they are.

George Santayana was right when he said, "Those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it." We are falling into the same traps now that we fell into in years past because no one is willing to confront the hypocrisy of it all.