God Save Our Schools

The mind boggles sometimes at what's going on in the public schools. Here are two articles about some of that.

The first involves, of course, the ACLU and its relentless pursuit of the removal of God from the public square. According to the article, "The ACLU expressed outrage that, when Shane Tycer took the microphone to pray before the ballgame when the regular announcer was late, no school officials tried to stop him." They (the ACLU) have asked the courts to fine the Tangipahoa Parish School Board or throw one or more of them in jail over the incident.

My favorite quote from the article is, "'Public schools should be kept inclusive and secular in keeping with our founders’ ideas for religious liberty for all,' Cook said." Cook is Joe Cook, executive director of ACLU of Louisiana.

The logic of this statement is stunning. According to the ACLU's alternate reality, the Founding Fathers of our country felt so strongly about religious liberty that they wanted public schools (which didn't exist then) to be kept secular. By erasing religion from all public forums, we ensure religious liberty for all. This makes perfect sense, in the same way that "WAR IS PEACE," "FREEDOM IS SLAVERY," "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH," and "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" make sense.

The second story is one that I've heard before. School officials are concerned that the use of red ink by teachers on student assignments is traumatic to children. So they're switching to other colors, especially purple.

The thing that makes this article a little different from previous ones is that this time it was parents who complained about the red ink. "Red writing, they said, was 'stressful.'"
"'The color is everything,' said Foriska, an educator for 31 years." Another teacher, Justin Kazmark, said, "Purple is just a little bit more gentle."

It can only be the public educational system that brings people to conclude that red is stressful and purple is gentle. I have no doubts that twenty years from now, these same educators will be shocked to discover that children find purple to be a traumatic color.

It's not the color, it's what it's used for that brings the emotional association.

God save our schools.