Alan Shilepsky wrote: > Our country more than any other > I've know of is founded on common adherence to certain principles, not > on ethnic stock.
Yeah, the country was founded on common adherence to Christian principles. And I don't share Christian principles. I'm surprised that you do. I think a free country needs to make room for the opinions and beliefs of all its citizens. And maybe the public schools should reflect that. <snip> > I hope our Minneapolis schools are saying the Pledge every day. I was > the only Jewish kid in all my classrooms, from K to 6, and one big thing > that made me feel I was one with all my classmates (as much as anyone > can be one with another) is that we said the Pledge together--"with > liberty and justice for all!" Too bad if you're an atheist kid who has to decide whether to say the "under god" part, or get themselves excused and stand out from the others like a sore thumb. But kids who don't believe in god deserve to suffer, right? No more relativism for us good Americans! <snip> > I pity an immigrant kid coming into the Minneapolis schools who is > encouraged to see only bad in his new country's past (the indians, the > slaves, the voteless women, rape of the environment, the railroad > barons, etc., ad nausium), and is encouraged to think of whence the > child came as a promised land that epitomized values that will show > America the way. Would someone who works or has children in the Minneapolis schools please comment on whether in fact children are taught predominantly bad things about the U.S.? <snip> > I remember from a 6th Ward debate > seeing the printed signs hanging up in a hi-rise's meeting room, in > three different languages, laying out the rules for democratic > discussion (one person speaks at a time, don't shout, listen to what is > said). I feel like its Orchard Street and Hester Street, all over > again. But isn't English (in yours and Mr. Swift's world) the language of our common, superior monotheistic values? When I was an elementary school kid and we didn't have a lot of ethnic differences to work with, one of our favorite playground pastimes was letting the Protestant kids know that they were going to hell because they went to the wrong church. The Protestant kids of course spent just as much time letting us know we were going to hell because we were Catholic. Some of this is probably unavoidable on the playground, but it's part of the teacher's job to keep it out of the classroom. When Mr. Swift complains about education teaching that "all cultures and behaviors are of equal worth," he seems to mean that teachers should take sides in the argument over who is going to hell. We all know who is going to hell; that's the one universal, cross-cultural truth. It's always always *our* people who are beloved of god or the gods, and always *those other people* who are going to suffer for their misguided beliefs. If that Great Truth gets taught in the public schools, who gets to teach it? The US-born Lutherans, Nigerian immigrant Catholics, or Somali Muslims? Or some of Minneapolis' many neopagan Wiccans? Rosalind Nelson Bancroft _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
