A neighbor just told me her grandson's high school teacher is requiring the entire class to write a Congressman and demand gun control laws. There is no leeway in the position to be adopted, the penalty being a failing grade. I'm sorry to report that the fellow will be going along and even asked his grandmother not to complain directly to the school, for fear of retribution. He did say he was reporting the matter to his ROTC commander, so maybe something will come of that. Hey, I count my blessings that ROTC hasn't yet been run off the campus.
I told her the young man could at least write separately to the Congressman explaining the circumstances, so the congressional staff would know how little weight to place on the deluge of letters. This confused her at first; wasn't the teacher in charge of the mailing? Wouldn't she read all the letters and detect the heresy? At last I got across the message that the student could write separately, put it in his own envelope, affix a stamp to it, and put it in the mailbox himself. Good practice in learning how to communicate with his elected representatives. It sounds like she needed a refresher herself. I was very surprised how alien all this advice seemed to her. There is a fatal passivity, though she's quite a red-meat conservative.
6 comments:
"There is a fatal passivity..."
There's a lot of that going around.
He should be writing a letter to the school board and the local newspaper as well. There have to be some who view using the students as a political tool as wrong. One could excuse this as a learning event, save for the insistence the letters had to be pro- gun control.
And who told the teacher to do this? Is this a national,nea directed effort?
Please look at the 2016 review of a self-defense product sold on Amazon and consider the advantages, and problems, of having these available to adults in our classrooms.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RXG0TQ8WO9HDG/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01DBR53FU
Indeed, there really ought to be more exposure given to this sort of thing.
Good point about passivity, too. The activity of citizenship is clearly not being taught, even in a citizenship project. What's being taught is submission to authority, not independent engagement to advocate one's own views.
I related this story to a candidate for Blake Farenthold's U.S. Congress seat this evening, Bech Bruun. He was suitably irritated. This is a rising young star, anointed by the Governor to fill the disgraced Farenthold's position. He's a little big-government for my taste, but a very good guy, quite young, and obviously being groomed for higher office. He's a great favorite with the Texas Governor. He also won my heart by telling the crowd frankly that he supported arming any licensed teacher who wants to carry. He supports vouchers as well. He is the anti-Farenthold, a nice-looking fit young man with a lovely intelligent wife and 3 kids under 7.
I'd be complaining to a Principle, and failing that the school board. I'd make that teacher famous.
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