Indoctrination - My daughter came

Indoctrination - My daughter came home from school yesterday and told me that her class had been given a presentation by a number of Hamline University students that had recently been involved in anti-war protests in Washington.

According to my daughter, the students went to great lengths to repeat the standard A.N.S.W.E.R. mantra to the kids; the Iraqis have no weapons of mass destruction; the war is wrong; the President is doing this to finish his father's job, ad nauseum.

My daughter, bless her spunky little heart, claims to have pushed back. She's definitely my little girl - her classroom teacher is a rather avowed far-lefty (Nader, Wellstone, yadda yadda) who earlier in the school year amused the students with derogatory George Bush jokes, until my daughter pushed back.

School can be a terrible place - kids can be so awful. But apparently if you or your parents flout the beliefs of some teachers, the kids are the least of your problems:

Members of the Maine National Guard, called up to prepare for an attack on Iraq, have asserted that their children are being harassed at school by teachers who oppose the war. Top Stories

Guard members say their children are "coming home upset, depressed, crying," said Maj. Peter Rogers, a spokesman for the Maine National Guard. "This was based on some incidents that were happening in school, both in the classroom and on the playground."

In an e-mail sent to the parents of one child who had complained of harassment at school, National Guard officials said they had "over 30 complaints that name schools and individual principals, teachers and guidance counselors."

Kids may not know any better. But teachers?

Mr. [J. Duke Albanese, state commissioner of education] told the Bangor Daily News that only one complaint involved classroom remarks, after the child of a Guard member became upset during a discussion of Iraq when a teaching assistant "took up the anti-war" argument.

We don't know the details - but if it's true, how much gall does it take to attack something a kid's parent is doing, to his/her face?

I plan on asking my daughter's teacher if she plans on bringing in any of St. Paul's Kurdish population to talk about what a harmless fella Hussein is.

Posted by Mitch at February 27, 2003 08:31 AM