Monthly Archives: October 2009

More Marks Against Public Schools

In an extension of yesterday’s post (and again, thanks to Instapundit), here’s another example of politicians and school bureaucrats hiding behind “the rules”.

A 17-year-old Eagle Scout in upstate New York has been barred from stepping foot on school grounds for 20 days — for keeping a 2-inch pocketknife locked in a survival kit in his car.

Read the whole thing, of course, but there’s no misleading gotcha in the article, like he was a gang member or something. In fact, he already had finished 10 weeks of basic training, is an Eagle Scout, and was applying to West Point. And these… bureaucrats could very well affect his chances of going to his school of choice. Like I alluded to yesterday, the issue here is the amount of power someone like this vice-principal has over this kid’s life. Every time you give up liberty is needs to be a damn good reason. Keeping pocket knives out of school isn’t one of those reasons, in my opinion. It doesn’t even come close.

Why Public Schools Get a Bad Rap

Well, perhaps it’s stories like this one, out of the NY Times:

NEWARK, Del. — Finding character witnesses when you are 6 years old is not easy. But there was Zachary Christie last week at a school disciplinary committee hearing with his karate instructor and his mother’s fiancé by his side to vouch for him.

Zachary’s offense? Taking a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school. He was so excited about recently joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it at lunch. School officials concluded that he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary was suspended and now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.

“It just seems unfair,” Zachary said, pausing as he practiced writing lower-case letters with his mother, who is home-schooling him while the family tries to overturn his punishment.

Seems unfair? Maybe to a six year old, but to me, it seems utterly without intelligence or common sense, and a policy for those to hide behind without a back bone. This is the type of story that makes people pull their kids out of public school, and instead put them through either private schools, parochial schools, or just sacrifices to home school.

School shootings? I know! Let’s suspend a 6 year old from school for brining a spork to class. CYA at it’s most bureaucratic worst.

This isn’t an isolated issue standing all by itself that can be “fixed” by passing a new law or writing more regulations. This is a small symptom of a deep cancer in our society. A sickness of too much government interference in the lives of citizens, and not enough responsibility taken by those citizens.

Thanks to Instapundit for the find.

Remember: It’s “Climate Change” Now

Why the name change? Oh, you remember when it was called, “Global Warming”, right? Well, now the carbon haters get to see, “Told you so!” no matter which way the mercury moves. Oh no! The climate is a-changin’!

Anyway, forgive me if I’m a bit touchy on the subject. Read Burt Rutan’s monumental take down of environmentalist fear-monger’s dream fund raising idea. The presentation takes a while to get through, but it’s worth it.

For those with shorter attention spans, these are both pretty telling stories from today:

Scientist: Carbon Dioxide Doesn’t Cause Global Warming

Over the Summer, a Spread of Thicker Arctic Ice

My favorite part of the NY Times blog piece about the Arctic ice is the quick explanation that hey, this doesn’t mean the end’s not coming if we don’t do something (an open Arctic Sea!). Of course.