Indoctrinate them young

On September 8, 2009, history will be made. Will you be a part of it?

At 12:00 p.m., Eastern Time (ET), President Barack Obama will deliver a national address to the students of America. (Please note that this is a change from the originally scheduled time.) During this special address, the president will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.

From the suggested student activities:

Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us? What might he say? Do you remember any other historic moments when the president spoke to the nation?

and

What do you think the president wants us to do? Does the speech make you want to do anything? Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us? What would you like to tell the president?

My email to the school:

Principal xxxxxx,

On Tuesday, September 8th, President Obama will be making an address directed at all public school students. Does [our school] intend to include this address in the students' schedule?

I think the kind of hero worship encouraged in the suggested student activities is inappropriate for impressionable young minds.

Sincerely,
princewally

Yes, I am starting out nice. Flies, vinegar and all that.

Update:

I got a response from the principal.

Mr. princewally,

This is not a mandated activity that the district is encouraging. The District's position is that this is not part of our curriculum and we therefore should not be giving time for it. However, some teachers can use portions for social studies connection.

The classroom teacher should be able to give you more information regarding their connection, if there is one.

Thank you,

xxxxxxx, Principal

Now, I'm just waiting on a response from my son's teacher, which should come after school hours.

Bad Sex Ed.

Schools shouldn't be teaching sex. Period. Some people disagree. This, however, should be too extreme for any school administrator.

The authors of the guidance say that for too long, experts have concentrated on the need for "safe sex" and committed relationships while ignoring the principle reason that many people have sex.

Entitled Pleasure, the leaflet has been drawn up by NHS Sheffield, but it also being circulated outside the city.

The leaflet carries the slogan "an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away". It also says: "Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes' physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?"

Encouraging promiscuous behavior is NOT an acceptable function of the school system.


Found via Prof. Joseph Olson.

Cultist Idiocy

...students, staff and community members at Webster Magnet Elementary voted earlier this month to change the school's name to "Barack and Michelle Obama Service Learning Elementary."

What, exactly, has he done to deserve any form of memorial, so far? He campaigned on "I'm not Bush" and has run his office with a policy of "Just like the last guy, only moreso".

If my kids were in that district, they would be open-enrolled into another school. Not just because of the name, but because of the "service learning" nonsense.

Service-learning is an exciting, hands-on approach to education taking place in a wide variety of settings: in schools and universities, and in community-based and faith-based organizations throughout the country. The core concept driving this educational strategy is that by combining service objectives and learning objectives, along with the intent to show measurable change in both the recipient and the provider of the service, the result is a radically-effective transformative method of teaching students.

Translation: We don't know how to teach, so we're going to skip that, and tell your kids that their entire worth is decided by how much they do for others. No accomplishments necessary, just do whatever makes you feel good about yourself.

Desecration

I grab and take as many picture books with me as can fit in my arms. I am a thief. But that all started months ago.

* * * * *

After my first visit to the shattered middle school, I am haunted by what I found in one office: hundreds of file folders containing student psychological examinations complete with social security numbers, addresses, and parent information. I sat and thumbed through them. Many contained detailed histories of physical and sexual abuse, stories of home lives so horrifying I still can't get them out of my head: sibling rape, torture, neglect that defies belief. The detailed reports explained emotional impairments, learning disabilities. There was another box full of IEPs. The dates revealed that many of these students are still in the school system somewhere. I found several of their faces in the 2007 yearbook.

I spend the next few months trying to track down someone who cares. I send e-mails to the school's former principal, offering to go back and collect these records for her or destroy them. She never responds. I call my mom, a retired special education teacher and erstwhile administrator to determine the extent of malfeasance. Then I call the school district's legal department and leave voice mails warning them of the liability of this gross violation of student privacy. I never receive a response. I track down the school psychologist to some address in Troy. Nothing. It turns out a daily newspaper reported abandoned records like these within many of the 33 schools closed in 2007 and the district did nothing. No one is responsible. Someone else was supposed to destroy them. The company that had been paid to secure the school never did its job.

So I did it. I went back in to destroy them so they would no longer be just sitting there on the floor for anyone to find.

Detroit is slowing fading away. There are open fields in the middle of the city and entire neighborhoods are completely abandoned. This is what our economic policy is leading to.

Found via Billy Beck.