“I’m not learning my subjects — I’m learning how to literally survive,” said Marusya Airumian, a 14-year-old eighth grader at Takoma Park Middle School in Silver Spring, Maryland, cleverly splitting the infinitive in order to make her point.
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“We deserve to live without fear of violence,” said Brianna Lee, 17, a junior at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago, raising the question of what she or any of her classmates has done to deserve anything. They live in the United States of America, where most of the people on this planet would gladly give most or all of what they have to live. There are people who have struggled for a lifetime to support themselves, their children, and their communities who may deserve something, but surely none of them expected a life without struggle or suffering. How do adults define themselves if life is an unending downhill stroll?
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Marusya Airumian, of the split infinitive, was also quoted as saying, “Children shouldn’t have to die because people in government are lazy.” As a declarative sentence, that parses (e.g., a child shouldn’t bleed to death because a government doctor wants to finish watching The View), but if that’s Marusya’s understanding of why her favorite piece of gun control legislation hasn’t been enacted, she needs to repeat Government I, and learn also about disagreements, debates, and compromises … and other people’s opinions.
And read Lord of the Flies, and try to understand why children, who aren’t especially good at governing themselves, shouldn’t — until they grow up — have a say in governing a republic whose founding documents were devised to filter and limit the power of the mob to rule the body politic.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/04/25...hing-need-know-letting-kids-push-gun-control/
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“We deserve to live without fear of violence,” said Brianna Lee, 17, a junior at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago, raising the question of what she or any of her classmates has done to deserve anything. They live in the United States of America, where most of the people on this planet would gladly give most or all of what they have to live. There are people who have struggled for a lifetime to support themselves, their children, and their communities who may deserve something, but surely none of them expected a life without struggle or suffering. How do adults define themselves if life is an unending downhill stroll?
[clip]
Marusya Airumian, of the split infinitive, was also quoted as saying, “Children shouldn’t have to die because people in government are lazy.” As a declarative sentence, that parses (e.g., a child shouldn’t bleed to death because a government doctor wants to finish watching The View), but if that’s Marusya’s understanding of why her favorite piece of gun control legislation hasn’t been enacted, she needs to repeat Government I, and learn also about disagreements, debates, and compromises … and other people’s opinions.
And read Lord of the Flies, and try to understand why children, who aren’t especially good at governing themselves, shouldn’t — until they grow up — have a say in governing a republic whose founding documents were devised to filter and limit the power of the mob to rule the body politic.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/04/25...hing-need-know-letting-kids-push-gun-control/