When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the bands that connect them to maturity, logic, common sense, fiscal and social responsibility, physical and mental fitness, good spelling, and, perhaps, hygiene, they should be sent to public school.
I hope our historical purists will forgive me for butchering the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence. But you’ll soon see why.
We go now to Gorham, Maine, where Fox News reports that Sara Hampton, a social studies teacher in a public high school, gave students an assignment to write their own “Declaration of Independence.” Also covered in the course was “institutionalized racism,” “evidence systemic racism.” and queries about the students’ internalized prejudices and unconscious biases. The syllabus also exhorted students to answer questions such as why most Americans (including women) are sexist and why they (the students) act defensively when confronted with their unconscious biases. That’s a bit much to ask of someone who is, at best, in the middle of puberty. However, guilt can be an effective tool for indoctrination. Oops. Did I say that out loud?
Rest assured that students were able to find a way to cope with their new-found guilt. I mean, other than throwing Molotov cocktails at statues, police stations, conservatives, and falafel stands.
Now is your chance to officially declare yourself independent from something… anything! Think of something that is problematic for you in your life. Free yourself from whatever is causing you stress, making you unhappy, something with which you struggle or is difficult for you to deal with. (sic)
And so, students were encouraged to write their own Declaration of Independence from topics that included but were likely not limited to the following:
- Parents
- Government
- Racism
- Sexism
- Homophobia
- Inequality
- Any form of control or authority
- Any person
Well, we can all see where this is headed. Your average high school student does not possess the self-awareness to liberate themselves from Instagram or TikTok, let alone the list of “offensive” entities enumerated above. That kind of liberation leads one to sleeping four to a mattress in a chaz/chop zone and selling one’s blood for weed and red and green faceprint while battling ringworm and scabies. And let’s not forget revising one’s list of pronouns for the umpteenth time. That’s one helluva life you’ve made for yourself, Junior. And no, I don’t have any spare change.
Besides, how does one declare one’s independence from racism, sexism, and homophobia? I’m sure there is a flowchart, a self-assessment, or a Venn diagram designed to help one do just that.
Is it just me, or are leftwing public school teachers just pretty much phoning it in at this point? Are lesson plans just some kind of progressive Mad-Libs where teachers fill in the blanks with appropriate buzzwords? If you follow the news with any regularity, you know that in between bouts of gagging, you have seen an increasing number of stories of teachers sexually molesting students. More and more of those stories involve women teachers. Whatever fantasies the commenters may have aside, these sorry episodes are examples of teachers using vulnerable children to fulfill their base sexual desires. In the case of the story above, which is congruent with so many similar situations around the nation, you have a teacher trying to fulfill her base political aspirations through her students. These are living out their political fantasies through their young charges. And this may be why history is no longer taught in schools. Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot — all of them knew that they needed to indoctrinate the youth, and the rest of the nation would fall. This may explain why, so far, the school has had no comment.