Reply #3: I won't argue with that. [View All]

I will tell you that charter schools, merit pay, and other tools of privatization aren't going to give you a more progressive system.

I will also tell you that the bullies on the block tend to be the religious from fundamental backgrounds.

School systems generally go out of their way to avoid doing battle with the religious right. They are persistent, and they never back down and go away. When they lose, they jump right back into the fray. That's how they influence us; threat of never-ending expensive lawsuits.

I know that one of my 8th graders is exempt from reading a novel that is part of district-adopted curriculum because "my parents say it is against our religion." The parents didn't even have to call before my principal backed him up. Why?

The book encourages readers to question what the children in the book are taught. Many families in our community see that as teaching their children to question family values. According to my principal, anyway.

The book? Newberry Award winner "The Giver" by Lois Lowry.

The anti-intellectual culture that discourages questioning, investigating, proving, and demands passive learners that listen and repeat is the primary reason more and better thinking doesn't occur in school.