THE POLITICIZATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOL:

THE POLITICIZATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOL: It’s the first half of James Lileks’ Bleat today. Nina and I don’t have kids, but I really pity those parents who have to send their kids to public schools and have to deal with the crap that Lileks describes. What an incredible brainwashing they have to come–and it will probably only get worse.

The worst case of brainwashing I can remember from high school was my senior year history professor who taught us that Eleanor Roosevelt was “if not pretty a handsome looking woman…”, FDR single-handedly beat the Depression, and that Harry Truman was one of our smartest presidents.

Can you say…biased?

But that sounds like an episode of Rush Limbaugh compared to what Lileks’ daughter will face when she runs headlong into the Minneapolis School System:

I suspect that the educational establishment regards the insertion of these issues at every available opportunity to be part of their mission; far from wondering what the Million Mom March has to do with a class on establishing sleep schedules, they see these issues as indistinguishable from basic parenting skills. A good parent teaches ABCs; a good parent marches for peace; a good parent realizes the importance of five-point restraint carseats; a good parent subscribes to the MMM position on guns. The personal is the political, after all. And oh-so vice versa.

Still, I bit my tongue. In some peculiar way, I felt as if bringing this matter up in the group would be as inappropriate as the materials themselves. Then, looking through the new handouts, I saw a thick sheaf titled EARTH PLEDGE.