A school district in Tennessee slides down.
They aren't banning all flags from the property -- they'll presumably still fly an American flag on the flagpole -- but they are banning flag displays by students on their personal vehicles. That strikes me as the strangest assertion of authority: the school would seem to be on much stronger grounds in banning flag displays elsewhere than the parking lot used to enter and leave the school, on personal property of students who are entering or leaving.
I have often wondered, since I was a teenager in high school myself, how we think we can raise American citizens devoted to upholding their basic rights at any cost while educating them in an environment in which they are regularly asked to surrender those rights to the state.
8 comments:
The intent is not to educate them on their rights as citizens but to indoctrinate them about the supremacy of the state.
Interesting that the story says this started as a desire to ban the Confederate flag. The legalistic mind in action: "We can't ban just one flag! We have to ban them all!"
(Please note that this is not an evaluation of the propriety of banning the Confederate battle flag.)
I suppose that's a nod to 'content neutrality' -- we aren't banning this flag or that flag, we're banning all self-expression. :)
We can't raise functional American citizens like this.
That's a feature, not a bug.
William sends.
Well, it's always been this way in schools, at least since the 1950's. Controversies over the length of dresses, (I seem to remember Cass talking about that), the pledge of allegiance, black armbands, etc etc etc...
I suppose that's a nod to 'content neutrality'
Is that what they call cowardice now?
Keep your head down, CYA. That's what they teach 'em now.
If your going to oppose me, at least stand up and own what you're standing up for.
It's a sad sight, parents keeping their kids in schools like this.
Girls were certainly sent home to change out of short dresses - but dresses that were less short, not to burqas. People got detention occasionally for armbands or not saying the pledge, but usually it was scolding. It was not forbidden in the same sense.
This is different.
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