Commentary 27- School Indoctrination

From the blog Shooting From The Right

National Day of Silence: NOT ME!
By Kris | Apr 28, 2008

Last Friday was the “National Day of Silence”, in which hundreds of secondary schools and colleges around the country celebrated homosexuality. That’s right, our school systems have become nothing more than a social platform for the left wing of this country. I know you already knew that, but this is just another prime example. The idea was that people in the schools would take a “vow of silence” to show solidarity with the homosexuals who have to remain silent for fear of persecution. All students were encouraged to participate.

This movement makes the error of equating speaking out against homosexuality with racism and bigotry. So, those who refused to participate in the “Day of Silence” are marked and persecuted for being “homophobic”. Isn’t that kind of against the very principle they claimed to be promoting? It is a typical liberal ploy: You can have free speech, and you can proclaim your message to the masses…as long as you agree with us.

Well, I for one, will not agree. I thought it was great that there were protests all over the country against this lunacy. Of course, it won’t make the news, as that would be against the principles of the liberal media, but it happened. There was an article in the Seattle Times that related what happened in the Mt. Si School District. It turns out that “Day of Silence” was far from silent. Ken Hutcherson, who speaks out against granting homosexuals special rights, organized a protest at the school. He and at least 100 supporters showed up to protest the activities of the Gay Straight Alliance. About 40 students tried to counter demonstrate, by trying to shout down the protesters and beating on drums. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem to fit in with the whole “Day of Silence” motif. Other students blared radios with gay-favorable music and shouted at the group of protesters. Again…where does “silence” come into this?

By reading this article, you will see the difference between two mindsets. Those opposed to the “Day of Silence” proposed some activity outside of school, and school hours. The point is that such indoctrination of the lefts lack of morality is not appropriate for the school system! How can it possibly be appropriate to teach that it is ok to be a homosexual in our schools, but not ok to teach against it? It is not the school’s role to teach morality to my children at all–they are supposed to be instructing our kids in reading, writing and arithmetic.

On the other hand, those involved in this “Day of Silence” show just how much they think a political and social agenda is a part of their teaching responsibility. In fact, according to this article, one complaint from previous years was that teachers participated, thus remaining silent and NOT TEACHING!

Some teachers also chose to remain silent, drawing objections from students who said they were there to learn. Otherwise, last year’s event occurred largely without incident.

Administrators directed teachers to teach this year and said that students should respond if called upon in class.

So, the school sponsors the event, and then tells the teachers and students not to participate. Obviously, they were not as dedicated to the cause as they tried to act. But, also involved in many of the statements is the reflection that disagreement is not acceptable. Funny how the mantra of the liberal is “tolerance”, but only when you agree with them. One student carried a sign saying “I believe in the separation of church and hate.” That indicates that if you don’t agree with them, then you hate.

Judging from this school, all we see is that one whole day of school was lost. The president of the GSA called this a success. We wonder why our students can’t compete with the rest of the world. This is one reason…this totally wasted day is what is classified as “a success” by liberals. And they want to blame President Bush…

Original Referenced Link

My Commentary:

Zemack April 30, 2008 8:35 pm

“The point is that such indoctrination of the lefts lack of morality is not appropriate for the school system!”

I agree whole-heartedly that this “program” represents indoctrination and has no place in the schools. There is also a broader point here, as well. The “teaching” of current events in general has no place in the schools, especially the elementary and middle levels. Political and social issues are way beyond the ability of school age children to grasp, understand, and form opinions on. They simply don’t have the depth of knowledge, life experience, or mental maturity to deal with these issues.

The purpose of primary education should be, but is not, to teach the child to use the cognitive functions of his brain…i.e., to learn how to think. This means, for example, to not only absorb facts but to understand and integrate the factual knowledge he acquires, to understand the proper hierarchy of that knowledge, and to organize it in his brain via writing. Regardless of one’s position on the homosexual or any other issue, no one who really cares about education should support injecting current events into the curriculum of school children too young to be able to develop informed opinions and to be able to back them up with their own reasoned, coherent logic.

The sad fact is, though, that our public schools have become indoctrination camps. They have become the focal point of all kinds of pressure groups seeking to impose some social or political agenda. Therefore, I now advocate full tax credits for education, giving parents full control over the choice of their children’s school, educational content and standards, with the goal of breaking up the government’s public school monopoly. The ultimate solution to our education woes is to abolish the public schools, ending government’s role in running them. Government-run schools are not consistent with the principles of a free society or of individual rights.