Don Gwinn's boy, Kane, got to participate in a mock election in elementary school. Just like the way the AFL-CIO wants their future elections to be, there was apparently none of that namby-pamby "secret ballot" nonsense. The outcome was predictable, if depressing...
Kane's class had a mock election yesterday. Kane voted for McCain.
The rest of the day, the other kids taunted him and called him a racist. It was a pretty good preparation for adult political discourse, come to think of it.
This was not done by accident. It is a lesson to tow the line and conform or face the consequences. Public humiliation and no support from the government teachers. Sends a powerfull message.
ReplyDeleteWe had pretty much the same drill in fifth grade 1968 except it was campaign posters. I don't even remember my own but clearly remember another kid's "Pat Paulsen for President" poster.
ReplyDeleteI agree it was no accident.
ReplyDeleteI was speaking to my son yesterday... at 14 he is seeing the same type of thing in school, politics wise.
He asked questions about who was running for what.
Amongst the things I told him, some basic rules for looking at elections.
Chief among them.... when you see one side working to silence the other, it's because they have something to hide. Never, ever, ever vote for them. Never trust them again.
I don't recall doing a mock election with real candidates. No teacher would ever attempt to promote a candidate when I was in school. Jesus, that is awful. Between this and Jay G's Crosman hat controversy... well, it makes me wonder.
ReplyDeleteArgh. At least when my elementary school held mock elections (I think that was probably Reagan / Mondale) they brought in actual voting machines.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall Mondale won. Come to think of it, there's really no guarantee the outcome wasn't fixed. Ah, the joys of adult cynicism tainting every childhood memory.
I voted for Reagan, of course. ;)
I think some of you might have your rose-colored nostalgia glasses on. There was a time when a teacher was found to have the constitutional right to free political speech while on the clock, which was held to mean that you could talk to the students about who should win the election and why you thought so.
ReplyDeleteIt's not like that anymore, legally speaking. Don't kid yourself about the "good old days."
On the upside, we may console ourselves with the fact that George McGovern carried the K-12 vote...
ReplyDeleteMost professions and professional organizations are concerned about the way they are perceived by the public and take at least some degree of care to make sure they are not perceived as rabidly partisan or overtly disrespectful to the beliefs of large segments of society.
ReplyDeleteNot so the teachers, apparently. Admitting a fair number of individual exceptions like the esteemed Mr Gwinn, the profession as a whole seems quite pleased to alienate anyone who is a gun owner, Republican, conservative, capitalist, Christian, or any other non-Lefty persuasion. Nor does the "imparters of knowledge" communtiy seem to harbor much respect for anyone whose accomplishments occur outside the academic arena: an accomplished welder or a successful machine shop owner are regarded as low life, compared to a dropout from the local community college's Master of Angry Womyn's Poetry program currently employed making coffee at Starbuck's.
And from the Missing the Whole Freaking Point department - a public ballot? Where voters are hazed and peer-pressured into supporting the groupthink-approved candidate? What lesson in representative government is this supposed to teach?
I have a three year old son and a daughter due in December. I keep flipping back and forth between private school or home schooling. I certainly haven't seen much to make me want to entrust my kids to the local government-run brain grinder.
I remember being the lone kid out when it was Clinton / Bush in my elementary here in Indiana. I was still right.
ReplyDeleteThe Left's Party Platform demands "Scientific Election Consensus," besides Global Warming Consensus - and a host of other consensui!
ReplyDeleteIf they're going to do it that way, why don't they own up and call it a mockery election? Truth in advertising, and whatnot... teachable moment.
ReplyDeleteguh.
ReplyDeleteThe last straw with the "racist" thing for me was when Trent Lott was pressured to retire over the "birthday" comment. I'm not defending segregation one bit, but the way EVERYONE folded in the face of that "get of town you Evil Racist Lott" without a chance to defend his name was disgusting to see.
That was when I decided the only reasonable action in the face of bogus racism charges was an all out 'who the heck do you think ARE??!' response EVERY time, and to NEVER let it slide.
To do otherwise not only lets unacceptable intimidation carry the day, it also spits on Dr. King's "content of their character" dream.
Yeah, real racism is a terrible evil. And the best way to get more of it is to rely on screaming "racist" to win arguments - or elections.
My daughter's 6th grade class has discussions about who they think will win the election and why. She says that only three of her classmates think that Obama will win.
ReplyDeleteAt that point of the conversation my son (her twin) blurted out that those three kids were stupid. And my daughter immediately reminded him of the trouble his friend got into during school for voicing that same opinion in class. and that he apparently hadn't learned anything from that lesson yet.
So at least in their class the students can express their opinion without being the target of abuse by their fellow students.
But then my children attend a small parochial school in a predominately conservative town. And the children there are not allowed to prey on each other regardless of the topic of discussion.