Teaching All The Wrong Lessons

I know and respect many teachers, but “educators,” taken as a group, must be among the stupidest people on earth. Their inability to distinguish between a one-inch plastic toy and an actual weapon is legendary. And who else would think it a good idea to strip search a middle school student in a frenzied search for…Advil?

Please click through and watch this video. (But remember to come back and read the rest of this post!)

Do you know what this reminded me of? Friday Flip-Up Day. When my oldest daughter was in kindergarten, The boys at her elementary school had a “game” they would play to torment the girls, Friday Flip-Up Day. Every Friday, any little girl who was so foolish as to wear a dress would be at the mercy of the boys, who would attempt creep up behind her and flip up the hem of her dress, hoping for a peek at her panties.

Friday Flip-up Day had been going on for years and, while it was officially forbidden, it was forbidden in a wink-and-a-nod, boys-will-be-boys sort of way. Other parents were apparently resigned to it; I first heard about it from another mother who told me, “Whatever you do, don’t let your daughter wear a dress to school on a Friday.”

So naturally, I told my daughter that if anyone ever flipped up the hem of her dress, she was to turn around and smack him in the face as hard as she could. Which is what I would do if some random guy flipped up the hem of my dress; it was a teachable moment.

Then I phoned the school principal to let him know what I’d done. He was indignant!

And doesn’t that attitude illustrate nicely exactly what’s wrong with the situation in this video? Every adult in this boy’s life has failed him. Think about that. Every adult, his parents included. Whether through a failure of resolve, of ability or of empathy, they’ve failed to protect him from apparently relentless bullying. Then when he’s lost all hope that the adults can or will do anything to improve his situation (or that they even know or care) and decides to take matters into his own hands, there they are to hand out some “consequences.” It was another teachable moment but it’s one lesson I hope he fails.

Hispanic Students In California Offended By The Stars And Stripes

Update: How awesome is this:

 

One wonders why people want to come here if the mere sight of Old Glory offends them.

A Stanislaus County school is forcing a student to take an American flag off of his bike.

Snip…

“(The) First Amendment is important,” Superintendent Edward Parraz said. “We want the kids to respect it, understand it, and with that comes a responsiblity.”

Parraz said the campus has recently experienced some racial tension. He said some students got out of hand on Cinco de Mayo.

“Our Hispanic, you know, kids will, you know, bring their Mexican flags and they’ll display it, and then of course the kids would do the American flag situation, and it does cause kind of a racial tension which we don’t really want,” Parraz said. “We want them to appreciate the cultures.”

More from Michelle Malkin.