School daze
Cal Thomas
townhall.com
School daze
The beginning of another school
year affords opportunities for
politicians to complain that not
enough money is being spent on
education and for others to observe the
disappointing results from the record
amounts of money that have already been
spent on our public schools. Occasionally,
one sees evidence of how young minds
are being manipulated in these institutions
to accept a certain point of view about
politics and the world.
One such example is found in a publication
called, "Editorial Cartoons by Kids-2001,"
published by News Currents of Madison,
Wis., which describes itself as "a weekly
current events discussion program (with
print and Internet components)...(covering)
important and interesting news and feature
stories for students in a radically
old-fashioned way..."
They have the radical part right, although
by that they mean, "we rely on the skill of
teachers and the curiosity of motivated
kids."
Looking at the editorial cartoons drawn by
children from kindergarten to high school
reveals an ideology that's mostly liberal.
Jake Zingler, a fourth grader in
Albuquerque, N.M., won second place in
the contest for his cartoon of three pigs --
labeled "rich," "GOP Congress" and "big
business" -- eating at a trough. A sign over
the trough reads, "Bush Tax Cut."
Keenan Fernandez, a sixth grader from
Albany, N.Y., has a man standing in front
of George W. Bush. The man says, "I think, therefore I am."
In the next panel, President Bush evaporates. The point
seems to be that Bush doesn't think, therefore he isn't.
Natasha Bax, a Los Angeles fifth grader, has drawn two
restroom doors. One has a male symbol and is labeled
(Attorney General) "John Ashcroft's Office." The other has a
female symbol and is labeled "Out of Order."
It doesn't get any better in junior high. Breanne Sullivan, a
seventh grader from Wilmington, Del., has drawn figures
representing President Bush and Vice President Dick
Cheney. They stand on a "yellow brick road." The cartoon is
titled, "The Wizard of Oz Party" and is subtitled, "1 doesn't
have a brain. 1 doesn't have a heart."
Amelia Quist, of Watertown, Wis., depicts President Bush
violating church-state separation by destroying the
Constitution. Several entries take the Democrats' view that
Bush stole the election, and that Republicans are polluters
and don't care about the poor. Will Hubbard, a 12th grader in
North Palm Beach, Fla., has drawn a cartoon featuring a
chess board. The king is topped with a dollar sign and the
queen with a cross. The rooks are the GOP elephant
symbol, the bishops are Cheney and Ashcroft, and the pawn
is President Bush. Hubbard won first place in the "senior
level" competition.
Mike Luckovich, editorial cartoonist for the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, praises the work: "The kids are not only
aware of what's going on in the country and the world, they
also have the intelligence to comment on issues in a cogent
and often funny way," he states on the back of the
publication.
It is good that children are thinking about their world, but that
they mostly reflect a single point of view is the stuff of
nations that indoctrinate children.
Woodrow Wilson, one of our most idealistic presidents, said,
"The great melting-pot of America, the place where we are
all made Americans of, is the public school, where men of
every race, and of every origin, and of every station of life
send their children, or ought to send their children, and
where, being mixed together, they are all infused with the
American spirit and developed into the American man and the
American woman."
Not anymore.
If these editorial cartoons accurately depict what's going into
and coming out of young American minds, public education,
which increasingly fails the nation in too many categories, is
succeeding in churning out more young people made in the
liberal image. This imposition of liberalism is being
accomplished with the tax dollars of many people who do not
share a liberal point of view. No wonder liberals oppose
freedom of school choice for parents. |
