On Culture in the Classroom

The Need for a Separation of Culture & State

Like there is a Separation of Church & State, we desperately need a Separation of Culture & State.

Your house, your culture. Your kids, your culture. The classroom is the melting pot or salad bowl. No one can tell you how to raise your kids, and no one can tell you how to style your hair.

When I was younger, the threat came from the Right, in the form of religious activists wanting to impose their culture on classroom. Today, that threat remains, but a new threat emerges from the Left, in the form of ego-driven activists wanting to force discussion of social issues for even very young children, or wanting to remove access to certain interests and behaviors from people who do not belong to niche cultural groups.

It's usually political, as detailed above, but at times can be apolitical: coming from administrators (also with ego-issues) trying to arbitrarily assert their command on a school populace.

I have a lot of experience being harassed by school administrators and (here's that word again) egotistical teachers, and a lot of experience defeating them by knowing my rights (aka being a clever little brat and by having my mom not care to have her time wasted by their silly complaints about what person's face was on my shirts that week).

Cliffside Park High School (Photo by Jim Henderson, Creative Commons)

The Schools have the following responsibilities aside from education in fundamental concepts of reading, math, science, etc... A: to preserve childhood, not expedite its end, and B: to provide a rules-set for students that encourages comradery across cultures, religious backgrounds, and skin colors. It does not have the responsibility of establishing culture or forcing kids to have specific opinions their teachers read off a piece of paper.

I know the public school system gets a lot wrong.

It must get this right.

If Big Education wants to have a positive effect on American culture: it will stay out of it.