Somebody Needs to Save American Education From Itself — and Soon

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In his upcoming book, The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself, Glenn Reynolds looks at one possible solution to the hash that state-run schools have made of the education process and quips, “as a friend pointed out, nobody ever got shot or knocked up at online school.”

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It’s true, gun violence isn’t much of a concern at online schools — by real or imagined firearms. In “Quivering in Place,” Mark Steyn spots a “schoolboy suspended for bringing an imaginary weapon to school:”

A fifth grader in Pennsylvania has been suspended for shooting an imaginary arrow at a classmate. The 10-year-old also faces possible expulsion.

The Rutherford Institute, which is defending Johnny Jones, says he was told he violated the school’s zero tolerance policy on weapons.

Little Johnny had, in fact, zero weapons, but that’s no reason for imaginary educator John Horton not to destroy the l’il tyke’s life:

Principal John Horton contacted Ms. Jones soon thereafter in order to inform her that Johnny’s behavior was a serious offense that could result in expulsion under the school’s weapons policy.

It would be interesting to fire an imaginary arrow at Principal Horton’s crotch and see whether he hops around howling in agony. But, for the students terrorized by this insanity, these stories are not funny: A man who’d do such a thing really shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near children.

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The rise of “political correctness” in the late ’80s was a desperate effort by far left academia to stem the tide of a Reagan dominated decade, which makes the concept of Orwellian thought crime — usually centered around the idea of hurt “feelings” — inevitable. But can’t even brain-dead educators see how awful it looks to dispatch a fifth grader to Room 101?

In the previous post, I quoted Wired magazine founder Louis Rossetto telling Nick Gillespie of Reason, “In its death throes, the megastate is going to make a lot of mess.”

Perhaps the same could said about Big Education, as well.

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Cross-posted from Ed Driscoll’s blog

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