Teaching Us A Lesson

There's been a lot of talk over the past few years about the indoctrination of our students. There was the dust-up about New Jersey kids singing the praises of Barack Obama. That state's Department of Education ordered a review of the circumstances that lead up to these eight year olds singing such inflammatory rhetoric as replacing Jesus' name in the old song, "Jesus Loves The Little Children," with the president's. "He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight. Barack Hussein Obama." It's hard to say if it was the switch to Obama or the inclusion of Hussein that bothered the folks in the neighborhood of B. Bernice Young Elementary School. The Department of Education just wanted to ensure that students can celebrate Black History Month without "inappropriate partisan politics in the classroom." I wonder if it would be appropriate to mention that Barack Hussein Obama just happened to be the first Black president of the United States. That sounds like history to me. Just don't let me catch kids singing about it.
That was way back in 2009. Things must have lightened up considerably since then, right? Just a few months ago, a fourteen year old student in West Virginia was suspended and then arrested for wearing a pro-NRA T-shirt to Logan Middle School. Noting that the school district's dress code had no specific prohibition on images of guns, the boy's father insisted, "I will go to the ends of the earth, I will call people, I will write letters, I will do everything in the legal realm to make sure this does not happen again." We assume he means the suspension, and not the wearing of the T-shirt.
And now we turn to San Diego, where this past Monday a judge ruled that kids could be taught yoga at their schools. This decision came as a surprise to those parents who had insisted that since yoga has its roots in Indian philosophy and religion that this would be a clear violation of the separation of church and state. Judge John S. Meyer pointed out that kids were taught the lotus position was "sitting criss-cross applesauce." Thirty families chose to opt out of the program, but the ones who kicked up all the fuss just wanted it to stop. Their attorney suggested, "It was the judge's job to call balls and strikes and determine the facts. I think he got some of the facts wrong." Their likely appeal will probably put the district's kama sutra program on hold for the time being.