Edyoocayshun...or Indoctrination?

The Tribune's Class Act, teen section carried a piece this morning written by a Great Falls High Student. In the piece, she described the yellow rubber LiveStrong bracelets, and then lamented all of the available knock-offs that seemed to lack the good samaritan intentions of Lance Armstrong's original idea:

Foot Locker has created a set of four colored bracelets selling for $3.99 a set. They're called Baller Bands. They have thoughtful sayings such as Pimp, Baller and Player. Spencer's Gifts version of the band, $1.99, bears deep and powerful messages such as Drama Queen and Worship Me. Some companies even have the nerve to customize bracelets saying Live Wrong and Drink Strong.

Ok, good enough. She sounds a little priggish for me, but she's got a point, I guess. But then, read the next paragraph:

If these aren't over the top enough for you, you can consider the conservative values bracelet available online. It depicts a cross, a traditional family, a fetus, a flag and a gun.

What started as a reminder of struggle and personal triumph has now morphed into an exploitation of our pride in mental dysfunction and narrow-minded political views.

So, let me get this straight. We can agree that encouraging admiration for pimps and alcoholism is bad. But if you really want to go "over the top," you should wear bracelets with traditional families and patriotism. Does this young woman have any idea how twisted that is?

And as far as her reference to "narrow-minded politics," can she not see that by equating those with differing political views to mental dysfunction it is she who is demonstrating a narrow-minded outlook?

Where does a teenager get these ideas? One doesn't need to wonder for long. It's being taught in our schools. Consider this piece about the political correctness police reviewing all our textbooks. We've come so far that it is more important, I guess, indoctrinate kids on the multicultural agenda than to teach them science:

Thus, a chapter on climate in a fifth-grade science textbook in the Discovery Works series, published by Houghton Mifflin (2000), opens with a Native American explanation for the changing seasons: "Crow moon is the name given to spring because that is when the crows return. April is the month of Sprouting Grass Moon." Students meander through three pages of Algonquin lore before they learn that climate is affected by the rotation and tilt of Earth--not by the return of the crows.

Houghton Mifflin spokesman Collin Earnst says such tales are included in order to "connect science to culture." He might more precisely have said to connect science to certain preferred, non-Western, or primitive cultures. Were a connection drawn to, say, a Bible story, the outcry would be heard around the world.

And this stuff isn't isolated. Here's a piece from the same site (and yes, it's a "right-wing website") about indoctrinating kids in political beliefs such as multiculturalism. Or you can read Diane Ravitch's book, "The Language Police," and learn how special interest PC Police are monitoring textbooks in virtually every state.

Virtually all citizens pay the taxes that keep these schools open. Why are they being spoon fed political beliefs of just a few?

Is it any surprise that high school kids equate god and country to pimps and alcoholism? Heck, one of our Catholic schools has a teacher that runs around attacking conservatives as "Repubies," and implying that Jesus was gay. I can only imagine what they're saying in their classrooms when they think no one's listening.