Out of the mouths of babes, a case for education reform

I was picking up my step daughter from high school and we began talking about some topical issues and I was floored with some of the comments she said she heard from her fellow students.

On the Issue of Gay Marriage.
She told me that there is a kid in one of her classes that is a real homophobe and she tried to talk to him about why. She asked him if she grew up and it turned out she was gay and wanted to get married, why wouldn't she be able to?
His answer: Because Gays don't deserve an EXTRA right.

We both shook our head as she told me that she tried to explain to him that it's not an "Extra" right it's an EQUAL right.

She went on to tell me about how they had debated same sex marriage in class and the student arguing against it had told the class that the bible says that all gay people go to hell.

This was disturbing to me because those crazy "storm cloud a-brewin' support marriage" people are always going off about how they are scared gay marriage will lead to their kids being taught how to be gay in schools, but they aren't the least bit bothered if their kids learn in school that an entire group of people are supposedly damned to hell.

So, she finished with a story about one of her friends who told her that she was a vegetarian. She told my step daughter that being a vegetarian meant that she could eat meat as long as it came from the grocery store, because those weren't animals that have been hunted or killed. It was like she believed the beef just "magical" appeared on the shelves or was made in a lab.

To my Step Daughters credit she knew all of these students were idiots and assured me she was smarter than that.

But seriously, these are high school students, not grade school, they are 15-16 year olds! I just shook my head and asked her "What the heck are they teaching you at that school?"

I went to the same high school and I don't remember the kids being that ignorant. My only other guess is it's more of what they are being taught at home, which is why having a strong and varied education system, not constricted by overly religious or conservative PTA's, is very important. We assume or at least hope that as the older, more close minded generation passes on, we get closer and closer to a more tolerant and enlightened future with our kids at the helm, but not if those same ignorant teachings continue to be passed on to the next generation. Those beliefs need to be called into question in the place your kids spend the majority of their day. School should be the place were they learn NEW ideas and to think for themselves so they easily break away from their parents prejudices. This is why we need a more progressive education system.

Reform early education.

but so true. I worked in the public school system for a bit and I was very dismayed at how they teach, what they do teach and what they don't teach students these days. I was able to bring into class a bit of stuff to possibly open minds but not enough for my satisfaction. I moved on and hopefully can affect change in other ways.

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.