I have long resisted posting on this subject because my youngest child is still in the Minneapolis school system and I don't want to subject that child to retaliation.
My involvement (for the last 17 years), has been limited to the schools that my children attended and not the whole system. Through the years, they have brought home numerous tales of politics being "thrust" upon them by teachers, guest speakers, and even aides. These have all been very "liberal". Some of you may remember that up until a couple of years ago, I was a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat but it still struck me as being very one-sided. So I felt an obligation to investigate the "other" side to many of these issues so that my children could have more information with which to form an opinion. An unintented result of that research was my gradual shift from the left to the center (and the schools can take a good deal of the credit for that). I was actually astounded to read that there was any "conservative" ideas being introduced, much less extensively since I hadn't encountered it--ever. I won't bore everyone with anecdotal examples as I don't feel like being attacked tonight (off-line, of course). After some further thought though, it occured to me that this dichotomy may be the result of the two-tier system that I strongly believe exists in the Minneapolis Public Schools. Maybe the kids who are tracked into the "top tier" are actually exposed to very different ideas than those who are simply abandoned in the system. As I have stated in previous posts, I strongly regret keeping my children in the Minneapolis schools and if I had to do it over again I would make very different decisions. Catherine Leighton Live in Longfellow/Work North East REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
