In last week’s column I wrote that if Illinois’ governor succeeds
with his preschool scheme, the kiddies would be sent “off for a fun
filled day of government indoctrination on the state’s dime.” A teacher who disagrees kindly took the time to tell me why I’m wrong
about that.
For one thing, she said, most teachers aren’t inclined
to peddle a single political view. Despite the liberal positions
taken by the National Education Association and the American Federation
of Teachers, many teachers are not activists. There are, she
asserted, even some who don’t vote a straight (if you’ll pardon that
unPC term) Democrat ticket at elections.
Setting political views aside,
there’s barely enough time for educators to teach the minimum skills
children need to make it in life according to my correspondent. There are already so many demands on teachers that even if they wanted
to proselytize, there aren’t sufficient minutes in the school day
to do so.
I thought of that this weekend as I spent some quality time
with my favorite five-year-old. She’s in kindergarten and when
I asked her what she was learning, she was eager to share her knowledge.
“In
1963, Dr. Martin Luther King gave a speech in front of a quarter million
people in Washington, D. C,” she stated. “He said:
‘I have a
dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content
of their character.’ Dr. King was a great American.”
Incredible. They’re teaching quotations from King’s speech in kindergarten. I doubt that the teacher had talked about King calling the United
States “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and comparing
our troops in Vietnam to Nazis.
Then the little girl went
on to tell me of another great American she learned about in school. “Rosa Parks was coming home from work and was tired and got on a bus
that said black people had to sit in the back. But she wouldn’t
give her seat in the front to a white man because she believed in
equal justice for everyone.”
Again, I doubt that the teacher told the
class more of the story. For example, the famous picture of
Rosa Parks on a bus with who appears to be a sullen segregationist
was actually a staged photograph of Rosa Parks and a sympathetic reporter
playing the role of sullen segregationist.
Now my favorite five-year-old
is, of course, precocious. I wouldn’t be surprised if not all the
children in her class could recite the stories of Martin and Rosa
with such exactitude. Still, they’d all been taught the material.
I
thought I’d see what else they’re learning in kindergarten these days. I asked her if she’d heard of George Washington. She knew he
was a president. Which one? “The first?” she asked haltingly.
I
questioned if she knew John Adams. She didn’t, but it’s to be
expected since that truly great American has been given short shrift
for two hundred years by almost everyone.
She did know two things about
Abe Lincoln: He was the sixteenth president and he ended slavery.
Then
I asked her about Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence. With so much emphasis placed on freedom and justice, surely he would
have been mentioned. Nope.
Next I thought I’d try another Tom,
Thomas Edison, the man who lit up the world. My opinion is that
he’s had more impact on more of our lives than King, Rosa Parks and
most American presidents. No, they haven’t gotten to him yet
in class.
I am not opposed to children learning about Martin Luther
King or Rosa Parks or anyone else who’s important to our history. I think, though, that there should be some balance and people other
than liberal icons should be included. If giving five-year-olds
only PC examples of great Americans isn’t indoctrination, it comes
mighty close.
Could we have a little diversity, please? After all, we’re often counseled that diversity is our great strength
so why not give it a try?
A couple of months ago, the school had a
“holiday program.” Facetiously, I asked the young lady if “Adeste
Fidelis” had been a musical selection. No, she answered somberly,
it hadn’t, but the children did sing, “Winter is here, so Kwanzaa
is near.”
This appears in the February 23, 2006 Oak Lawn Reporter.
Mike Bates is the author of Right Angles and Other Obstinate Truths.
