<div align="center"><table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#111111" bgcolor="#C9C0A7" width="414" height="66"><tr><td background="http://somd.com/news/inmyopinion/little_back.gif" width="56"><img src="http://somd.com/news/inmyopinion/trr.gif" width="56" height="56"></td><td width="358"><font face="Impact" color="#000000" size="6">In My Opinion</font><font face="Arial" color="#000000" size="3"><i><br><b> by Trevor Bothwell</b></i></td></tr></table></div>

Well, we’re barely two months into the new school year, and our public schools haven’t wasted any time demonstrating for taxpayers how much they’re already shortchanging our children.

What does a cool ten grand per student get you nowadays in a public school? If you happen to have a kid at Poplar Tree Elementary School in Chantilly, Va., there’s a good chance it will help to buy her a lesson in the virtues of communism.

Teachers at Poplar Tree in Fairfax County have been known to collect students’ personal school supplies at the beginning of the year and put them into a “community box,” from which they dispense the supplies for the remainder of the year to all students as their needs arise. Sound familiar? It should. Poplar Tree is hardly the only school where this absurd practice has taken place.

One of the most exciting times of the year for kids who actually like going to school used to be picking out all those brand new supplies at the end of summer vacation. But what’s the point when your teachers don’t even let you keep the pencils, crayons, and notebooks you’ve purchased for yourself? One of the first lessons students are apt to learn in today’s public schools is that it’s just fine for someone else to pilfer their belongings, so long as it takes place under the guise of “compassion,” “equality,” and “sharing.” So much for your kid learning the value and importance of private property rights.

Of course, this really shouldn’t be too surprising. For years now public schools have championed the merits of “cooperative learning,” where students are grouped into mini-communes of four or five. The idea here is to encourage cooperation between peers, where the brighter students in the group are expected to facilitate the learning of those less academically adroit.

Aside from the sheer foolishness of expecting any individual student to be responsible for the learning of anyone but himself, “cooperative” methods of learning discourage independent thinking in addition to encouraging misbehavior and cheating. Indeed, these instructional methods are invented by the very same teachers who believe grading papers with red ink is “pretty frightening” for kids, at least according to <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2004/08/23/harshness_of_red_marks_has_students_seeing_purple/">Sharon Carlson</a>, a health and physical education teacher at JFK Middle School in Northampton, Mass.

Looking for some high school hijinks? <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60604-2004Sep29.html">The Washington Post</a> has reported that a geometry teacher at Oxon Hill High School in Prince George’s County, Md., has been removed from instructional duty for administering a math test containing word problems referencing drugs and weapons. A sample from the “joke” exam: "Jose has 2 ounces of cocaine. If he sells an 8 ball to Antonio for $320 and 2 grams to Juan for $85 per gram, what is the street value of the rest of his hold?" The Post also stated that the unnamed teacher even asked students to write their “gang name” on the test.

Thankfully, the school district had the presence of mind to reassign this teacher. But what are we to make of a district that hasn’t summoned the moral fiber to fire a teacher who deems it appropriate to inflame racial stereotypes at a school with an 85% black population? Don’t be surprised when the “Bloods” and “Crips” start to displace the “Bluebirds” and “Robins” reading groups of yesteryear.

Perhaps most outrageous, Shiba Pillai-Diaz , a middle school teacher at Crossroads South Middle School in Monmouth Junction, N.J., was recently ordered out of her school by her principal for hanging a photo of President and Mrs. Bush on a bulletin board next to other U.S. presidents. According to <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_100304_middleschoolteacher.html">WABC news</a>, “Pillai-Diaz ultimately removed the entire bulletin board and [said] School Principal Jim Warfel told her she disrupted the school with her ‘inflammatory politics’” before being shown the door.

Each of these illustrations really demonstrates all you need to know about the mentality proliferated in today’s public schools. Administrators and teachers are so consumed by left-liberal notions of absolute “equality” that they find nothing wrong with confiscating your kid’s property -- unless it means preventing students from disrupting lectures. The New York Times has written that public schools have practically given up on attempting to enforce rules prohibiting students from having cell phones in class. (The jury’s still out on whether or not schools will continue to try to prevent kids from having oral sex in stairwells.)

Moreover, government schools are so committed to “non-judgmentalism” that they can barely bring themselves to reprimand unprofessional teachers -- unless, of course, those teachers are guilty of recognizing the one man responsible for dumping billions of dollars into public school coffers. Figure that one out.

In short, whereas a demagogue like Jim Warfel purports to proclaim fairness in the classroom by preventing teachers from displaying a poster of a Republican president unless his Democrat challenger accompanies it, he merely reveals the agenda of the liberal education populace -- the only “inflammatory politics” allowed in public schools these days are those that appeal to the left.

It goes without saying that there are many good public schools in this country. The problem is, there are far too many bad ones. Again, we’re only two months into the school year. Stay tuned for more lunacy.

<p>
<center><a href="http://www.therightreport.com/articles/InMyOpinion/myopinion_home.htm"><b>In My Opinion Archives</b></a></center>

Trevor Bothwell is editor of <a href="http://www.therightreport.com">The Right Report</a>. Trevor can be contacted at <a href="mailto:bothwell@therightreport.com"> bothwell@therightreport.com</a>. </font>

Had the "redistribution" of school supplies happen to our boys in good old Calvert County.

Personally, I think there will be a backlash against schools who participate in the redistribution of students personal supplies. Its likely that next year, some parents will only provide there kids with the bare minimum, cheapest supplies they can get. One of the biggest downsides of communist practices is that it motivates people to do only the minimum acceptable.

>>Perhaps most outrageous, Shiba Pillai-Diaz , a middle school teacher at Crossroads South Middle School in Monmouth Junction, N.J., was recently ordered out of her school by her principal for hanging a photo of President and Mrs. Bush on a bulletin board next to other U.S. presidents.<<

I think that if you look more into this case that you will find this statement is not completely accurate. From what I've read, this teacher engaged in far more then just hanging the presidents picture on the wall. She used classroom time to preach her political views to students and berated any who disagreed with her, leading to complaints by parents and confrontation between the teacher and parents at a parent/teacher event. There is a thread in news and current events on it that you might want to look at.


http://forums.somd.com/showthread.php?t=33791

There is always more to the story then what is posted. GOP'ers are always trying to put a political spin on everything.

GOP'ers are always trying to put a political spin on everything.
Both parties do that, Urban. The Big Two don't really believe in anything except pepetuating their own power. They see all governmental and social issues into biblical clashes of good versus evil. Each one paints itself as the noble knights fighting to keep the Visigoth hordes from seizing Washington. I've been dreading the election this year, because we'll probably see a repeat of Florida 2000.

Had the "redistribution" of school supplies happen to our boys in good old Calvert County.

:yeahthat: And when my sons came home and told me about it, I called the teacher. :cussing:

The little demons (whose parents supposedly couldn't afford school supplies) always seemed to be wearing Nike shoes and FUBU garments. :rolleyes:

Both parties do that, Urban. The Big Two don't really believe in anything except pepetuating their own power. They see all governmental and social issues into biblical clashes of good versus evil. Each one paints itself as the noble knights fighting to keep the Visigoth hordes from seizing Washington. I've been dreading the election this year, because we'll probably see a repeat of Florida 2000.

Duh........Frankly it disgusts me. I think McCain would be a more noble/modest candidate for President.

Duh........Frankly it disgusts me. I think McCain would be a more noble/modest candidate for President.
I agree with you about McCain. But when you said the GOPs spin everything, it sounded like you were saying the Democrats do not. That's what drives me up the wall--this notion that "the other guys" do all the bad things while one's own party is all sweetness and light.

There is always more to the story then what is posted. GOP'ers are always trying to put a political spin on everything.
Yeah, you're right UrbanPancake, I put a whole lot of "spin" on the subject by reporting it as it directly appeared in the news story.

And yes, after writing the piece I noticed that the school district has issued its side of the story, a testament to which will appear in my next piece.

Don't get twisted too tightly - we all know how effectively public schools combat the liberalism that's shoved down our kids' throats every year.

Trevor

I agree with you about McCain. But when you said the GOPs spin everything, it sounded like you were saying the Democrats do not. That's what drives me up the wall--this notion that "the other guys" do all the bad things while one's own party is all sweetness and light.

No, the Democrats do too. It's just that Bush has done nothing but campaign political spins. He repeats the same lines over and over. Does he have a platform that doesn't revolve around flipflops and waffling?

I've heard something similar before. It was stated like, "The U.S. is the only country in the world that doesn't teach it's youth, it's own economical system." Our children are taught about socialism & communism, but not 'free enterprise.' It's ashame. And then we wonder why our children are coming out of schools looking for the government to provide them with health care.

No, the Democrats do too.
Well, I wish you had have mentioned that the first time. Too many partisans pick on the other party for things their own party has done, which makes them look like hypocrites. Think of it like a debate--to win a debate, you have to avoid anything that would give your opponent an "Aha! Caught ya!" moment. As I've said before, I think democracy would be better off if political parties didn't exist.

I agree. Everyone should be independents!!!!!

I guess I'll go against the flow here and say I agree with the idea of sharing supplies. There was a time when schools provided everything we needed, now Mom and Dad have to provide it. There are lots of reasons why parents do not provide their kids with their own supplies, most of the time it's because they can't afford it. There are also unfeeling parents who don't care. While I have some sympathy for the first, and detest the later, what's important is their kids. I don't want to see any kid missing out on participating in their class because they don't have crayons.

There were times when my kids were in school and I couldn't afford to be constantly replacing school supplies, and I really felt bad when I would see my kids coloring with little nubs of crayons. Thanks to supply sharing, they were able to overcome those shortages, and that's why I always double or tripple the amount of supplies I give my kids at the start of the year. I hope that the extra supplies will be able to make up for someone else's shortfalls.