There's a simple phrase liberal activists like to use when rallying their troops: "no justice, no peace." Can we amend it to include "no God, no politicians?"
I'd like to say I find amusing the current flap over plans by President Obama to follow in the footsteps of...wait for it...George H.W. Bush. On Tuesday, President O is supposed to address students across the nation just like President 41 did nearly two decades ago.
This White House even had lesson plans ready to go; at first, students were asked to write an essay on how they could help the president. Now the geniuses in Washington realize how creepy that sounds, so they're asking our little skulls-full-of-mush to just write how they can realize their own dreams and goals.
Why should this creep all of us out? Because, deep down, we all have good reason to fear what happens when hero worship turns to just plain worship. Check out this video aired in a Utah school district where Hollywood stars giving their "pledge" go a bit over-the top:
Hey, just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me. I've always wondered just how so many people march in lockstep (or goosestep) in the cults of personality that inevitably lead us astray.
Back when H.W. did it folks on the left weren't happy; using the system for politics, they said. Now the folks on the right are squealing with the shoe on the other foot. They're both political pigs.
The irony here is school across the nation won't let God -- anybody's God, even talk of it -- in schools.
Why then do we even entertain the thought of exposing kids to politics?
Showing posts with label Schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Schools. Show all posts
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Monday, December 10, 2007
Do The Clothes Make The Artist?
Tonight's meeting of the Akron School Board may be a rip-snorter with parents up in arms over plans to have their kids follow a city-wide dress code; there's lots to talk about on a bid by some Miller South School for the Performing Arts protest and just how disruptive it will be to mandate the little darlings wear appropriate clothes.
By "appropriate" we mean the standards voiced by the Akron School Board; should Miller South students be permitted to blow off the rules because they're "special"? My colleague Eric Mansfield makes the point in his Have I Got News For You blog as well as during a spirited debate on NewsNight Akron last weekend: these kids have already been singled out as unique and worth getting a pass from the rules that govern everybody else. Parents reason their little performers should be allowed more creativity because, after all, that's why they fought to get them into Miller South in the first place. Anything less, they reason, infringes on their creativity and creates instead an undue burden.
Whoa. According to that scenario we shouldn't have dress standards for other "centers for excellence"; after all, Firestone's theater and international studies kids are certainly "unique" so do they get a pass? Buchtel and Garfield play some serious football, so should those teams get "unique" passes too? What about the kids going to private schools such as St. Vincent-St. Mary and Hoban -- they actually wear uniforms but I'm not seeing a huge drop in collegiate admission scores because the kids saw their creativity limited by the big bad headmaster holding them to reasonable dress code expectations.
Fact of the matter is: how much of a brain drain do public schools have when parents and students worry more about what the kids wear (or what they're allowed to wear) versus what they're learning? Some of the more dress-restrictive schools in Summit County are in fact the highest-performing academically (not to mention Walsh, SVSM, CVCA and Hoban usually kick butt in athletics on a fairly regular basis, too) and I'd hold the creative energies of students pointing to careers in the arts aren't impacted in the least by the dress code.
The point of public education is a standard for all, not the few. Selling the protest under the cloak of "my kid is special" seems to ignore the fact Miller South is, after all, a public school and not an elitist institution standing apart from the rest of the Akron district.
Proud parents have every right to want the best for their children, and the curriculum at Miller South promoting artistic creativity ought to be front and center for protesting parents -- not the worry they might have to use a rest room to change into their dance togs. Athletes and performers in every other Akron school live by their rules and fair is fair.
I can only imagine the response if I'd come home telling Mom and Dad how unhappy I was because I wasn't allowed to wear my favorite clothes and how that would make me a lifetime loser because I didn't get my way at ten years of age; Dad's size tens would be quick to follow.
How do we get to these points where the students run the schools and the parents?
By "appropriate" we mean the standards voiced by the Akron School Board; should Miller South students be permitted to blow off the rules because they're "special"? My colleague Eric Mansfield makes the point in his Have I Got News For You blog as well as during a spirited debate on NewsNight Akron last weekend: these kids have already been singled out as unique and worth getting a pass from the rules that govern everybody else. Parents reason their little performers should be allowed more creativity because, after all, that's why they fought to get them into Miller South in the first place. Anything less, they reason, infringes on their creativity and creates instead an undue burden.
Whoa. According to that scenario we shouldn't have dress standards for other "centers for excellence"; after all, Firestone's theater and international studies kids are certainly "unique" so do they get a pass? Buchtel and Garfield play some serious football, so should those teams get "unique" passes too? What about the kids going to private schools such as St. Vincent-St. Mary and Hoban -- they actually wear uniforms but I'm not seeing a huge drop in collegiate admission scores because the kids saw their creativity limited by the big bad headmaster holding them to reasonable dress code expectations.
Fact of the matter is: how much of a brain drain do public schools have when parents and students worry more about what the kids wear (or what they're allowed to wear) versus what they're learning? Some of the more dress-restrictive schools in Summit County are in fact the highest-performing academically (not to mention Walsh, SVSM, CVCA and Hoban usually kick butt in athletics on a fairly regular basis, too) and I'd hold the creative energies of students pointing to careers in the arts aren't impacted in the least by the dress code.
The point of public education is a standard for all, not the few. Selling the protest under the cloak of "my kid is special" seems to ignore the fact Miller South is, after all, a public school and not an elitist institution standing apart from the rest of the Akron district.
Proud parents have every right to want the best for their children, and the curriculum at Miller South promoting artistic creativity ought to be front and center for protesting parents -- not the worry they might have to use a rest room to change into their dance togs. Athletes and performers in every other Akron school live by their rules and fair is fair.
I can only imagine the response if I'd come home telling Mom and Dad how unhappy I was because I wasn't allowed to wear my favorite clothes and how that would make me a lifetime loser because I didn't get my way at ten years of age; Dad's size tens would be quick to follow.
How do we get to these points where the students run the schools and the parents?
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
The Amazing Mr. Harris
What an amazing experience at the Project GRAD dinner Wednesday evening -- thanks in large measure to a Buchtel alum sharing a most basic story of how his journey really began.
Leon Harris went from Akron kid to Ohio University grad to CNN intern to CNN producer to CNN anchor and now sits in the big chair anchoring for WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. Heck of a ride for a local kid, but his homecoming talk centered on what he emotionally described as the pivotal moment in determining just who he really is.
It came, he told a riveted audience of 325+, while on assignment in Africa -- an assignment he really didn't want. With free time before a flight out of Dakar, Senegal he visited Goree Island (this Wikipedia entry doesn't do justice to the description Harris provided), the final stop for cargo (human and otherwise) bound for the Americas. Unseen hands held on to him, he recounted, forcing an epiphany of the heart and soul. It clearly drives who Leon Harris is today, and where he wants to be.
His message was powerful and clear: the miracles, he called it, of directing his DNA to this very spot and time, miracles we all share in many ways but take for granted. Unseen hands pushing and pulling us to places and roles we can choose to play in leading others.
What gave Leon Harris even more impact was the extended family sharing this First Annual Achieving Dreams Celebration, honoring the teachers such as Erie Island Principal Johnnette Snowden Curry; the parents such as Russel Neal, Jr; the volunteers such as Susan Vogelsang and James Toles and the big names who gave of their time and passion such as Akron Superintendent Sylvester Small, University President Luis Proenza, Council President Marco Sommerville, Judge Brenda Burnham Unruh, Deputy Mayor Billy Soule -- role models in their own rights for making their own dreams reality.
By the way -- best line of the night went to Small, who noted he was always nervous in the spotlight because he felt it wasn't right to be recognized for doing what God intended us to be doing all along.
This wasn't your typical non-profit dinner; I wasn't alone among the crowd perched on the edge of our seats sharing the moments and the motivations to take what we heard to heart. I expected a nice speech from Leon but not the real and deep emotion of his personal testimony on what life can bring us and the ultimate responsibility we hold in helping others make their dreams come true.
Leon Harris gives generously to Project GRAD, helping extend 50 scholarships to 100 and even signing over his usual speaking fee entirely to Buchtel High -- that's $5,000 for those of you keeping score.
Lessons from the heart combined with putting his money where his mouth is: that's a great example for anyone stepping up and taking responsibility for the world around him.
Amazing work, Mr. Harris.
Leon Harris went from Akron kid to Ohio University grad to CNN intern to CNN producer to CNN anchor and now sits in the big chair anchoring for WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. Heck of a ride for a local kid, but his homecoming talk centered on what he emotionally described as the pivotal moment in determining just who he really is.
It came, he told a riveted audience of 325+, while on assignment in Africa -- an assignment he really didn't want. With free time before a flight out of Dakar, Senegal he visited Goree Island (this Wikipedia entry doesn't do justice to the description Harris provided), the final stop for cargo (human and otherwise) bound for the Americas. Unseen hands held on to him, he recounted, forcing an epiphany of the heart and soul. It clearly drives who Leon Harris is today, and where he wants to be.
His message was powerful and clear: the miracles, he called it, of directing his DNA to this very spot and time, miracles we all share in many ways but take for granted. Unseen hands pushing and pulling us to places and roles we can choose to play in leading others.
What gave Leon Harris even more impact was the extended family sharing this First Annual Achieving Dreams Celebration, honoring the teachers such as Erie Island Principal Johnnette Snowden Curry; the parents such as Russel Neal, Jr; the volunteers such as Susan Vogelsang and James Toles and the big names who gave of their time and passion such as Akron Superintendent Sylvester Small, University President Luis Proenza, Council President Marco Sommerville, Judge Brenda Burnham Unruh, Deputy Mayor Billy Soule -- role models in their own rights for making their own dreams reality.
By the way -- best line of the night went to Small, who noted he was always nervous in the spotlight because he felt it wasn't right to be recognized for doing what God intended us to be doing all along.
This wasn't your typical non-profit dinner; I wasn't alone among the crowd perched on the edge of our seats sharing the moments and the motivations to take what we heard to heart. I expected a nice speech from Leon but not the real and deep emotion of his personal testimony on what life can bring us and the ultimate responsibility we hold in helping others make their dreams come true.
Leon Harris gives generously to Project GRAD, helping extend 50 scholarships to 100 and even signing over his usual speaking fee entirely to Buchtel High -- that's $5,000 for those of you keeping score.
Lessons from the heart combined with putting his money where his mouth is: that's a great example for anyone stepping up and taking responsibility for the world around him.
Amazing work, Mr. Harris.
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