This story literally made me upset. I aggree that it was never about what they were doing but who they were. Curtis Acosta made an excellent point when He stated that " Their actions demonstrated to the students that lack of evidence, and ideological agenda, and political motivation supersedes students academic growth, identity, hope and belief in a whole world.
My perception of this story makes me reflect back to a previous article that speaks to the topic of what school was intended for; The article Against schools by John Taylor Gatto. He stated that Mass schooling of Compulsory nature really got it's teeth into the United states between 1905 and 1915, though it was conceived of much earlier and pushed for through out most of the 19th century. The reason given for the enormous upheaval of family life and cultural traditions was, roughly speaking, three fold:
1) to make good people
2) to make good citizens
3) to make each person his or her personal best
But the truth was:
"that the aim of public education was not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence..nothing could be farther from the truth. The aim...is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. that is the aim of the united states...and that is the aim every where else" he was quoting H.L. Mencken, who wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924.
The fact that the superintendents and those in charge were able to do this without explanation is sickening. Yet so very typical.
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