A teacher at Hampton Middle School in Georgia has been alleged to have given students an assignment to write letters to congress calling for more gun control (see details here, here and here). You can’t make this stuff up…
A couple of very serious concerns here. For instance, this teacher is propagating their own view, for their own benefit, without consideration of other viewpoints. Students had no option to write a letter supporting gun ownership and the second amendment; their only option was to write a letter for more gun control. This was not an assignment to benefit students – it was an assignment to further the political beliefs of the teacher, at the future expense of the students.
I am also concerned that these are 12 year old seventh graders being manipulated by their teacher – kids who barely understand the operation of a checkbook, let alone our government. How about we teach them the 2nd amendment first, so that they understand the significance of the right they are being asked to waive? The 2nd amendment wasn’t a rider to an omnibus spending bill; it was a carefully crafted description of a right that the framers of our country wanted to preserve – a right also called out in the vast majority of state constitutions. The reasoning behind these calls for a right to bear arms must be understood before a meaningful offer to waive these rights can be made.
In addition, this teacher is effectively setting the example that all must conform to the beliefs and opinions expected of them – which must correspond to those of the people in power or authority – and I find this very troubling. What are they (the teachers) afraid of – that some might disagree? Isn’t this the goal of schooling – to give young people the critical thinking tools they need to act on their own? Or is school simply an indoctrination, as some have suggested, meant only to produce the next generation of drones? This “indoctrination” claim becomes more unsettling when we realize that teachers who lean democrat outnumber those who lean republican by a 2:1 margin – hardly representative of the U.S. population. Can someone please explain to me why diversity of religion/race/ethnicity is important, but diversity of opinion is not?
Stop using our children in your political games. Teach them instead to be the critical thinkers we (and they!) will need in the coming years.