The most obvious problem with government-run schools is that, well, politicians are in charge.
Two Arizona solons have written bills to require high schoolers to pledge their loyalty and allegiance to the Constitution in order to graduate. You’ve probably heard about at least one of these bills, since it affixes a “so help me God” phrase at the end, and that would pose a problem for atheists … and for those pious folks who don’t believe in swearing by the God they believe in.
While most of the media coverage has focused on that tacked-on “so help me God” aspect, both measures seem “tacked on” to me: Tacked on to the end of a high school career. Pretend you are a student. You’ve worked hard, or at least hard enough to graduate. Much of your future employment depends on your diploma. And now some politician is going to require that you recite a loyalty oath to the federal (not state) government?
Sounds like something more appropriate to a Communist dictatorship.
Stranger yet is the bill, proposed but not moved forward, further north:
Coeur d’Alene Sen. John Goedde, chairman of the Idaho Senate’s Education Committee, introduced legislation Tuesday to require every Idaho high school student to read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and pass a test on it to graduate from high school.
Before one hyperventilates, it’s worth noting that the good Sen. Goedde did this to “send a message,” so to speak, to the State Board of Education because of his unhappiness with their recent moves lowering graduation requirements and canceling evaluations of principals.
Well, I guess there’s method to his madness. And besides, there are worse books.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Legislation for Graduation”
Wouldn’t worry. Congress has learned to ignore their oath. High time that high schoolers realize that, under this government, what they say matters little. Nice concept though. What if we had them pledge to the flag and the “federation of republics for which it stands”. Now that might at least get them to thinking a little. Most high schoolers are still barely aware of the impact that the government is about to have on their lives. Hardly seems worth trashing their dreams, when they are so busy envisioning themselves as “finished”.
I like the idea of pledging to the “federation of republics for which it stands”. But, I’m not upset about graduates pledging to the Constitution since that’s not the same as a “loyalty oath to the federal government” — since, as PJ has pointed out so well, our federal government largely ignores the Constitution.
.… An Idaho politician introduced legislation whose passage would require that in order to graduate from high school, every Idaho high school student must read and be tested on his knowledge of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged .…
Good start. And — let us pray and trust — that, in order to matriculate, he must read and be tested on his knowledge of Ms Rand’s every other published word!