Mum's the Word

Parents usually hope that their kids can go to school and come home better educated about the world around them. Generally that belief holds true and it is of particular importance when we are undergoing historic changes in our country. I can recall being in college when the first O.J. Simpson trial concluded and a 'not guilty' verdict was returned. I don't think I had seen the nation quite as polarized along racial lines as I did at that time. The whole arguement (whether you believed him to be guilty or not) was over whether or not a black man could receive bias-free judgement in a court of law in this country and the answer came back with a resounding yes.

I remember being on campus a short while after the verdict was read and the topic was on everyone's minds. You couldn't help but go somewhere and hear about it. I'm sure that even in schools (like high schools and such) were probably discussing it as well. It was hard not to; it was garnering such media coverage that you couldn't help but not avoid it. And I think the main benefit of that was that it provided many educators with the opportunity to examine the laws with students to understand why the verdict may have come out the way it did or to discuss the points of the law that were brought into focus at the time. And this is of major importance to young people today isn't it? I mean we all need to understand how the laws of our land govern our lives if we are to live here don't we?

Well the election last week was yet another example of how educators can use the election to discuss their topics in schools. That is of course if school officials don't forbid the subject of the election from being brought up at all. It seems that students at Puckett Attendance Center (a school in Puckett, Mississippi) have been told that they cannot discuss President-elect Barack Obama in the halls or in class unless they are in history class. No specific reasons have been cited but this all seems a bit... strange. Now while it's true that John McCain won the state with approximately 56% of the vote (to Obama's 43%) but is that reason enough to forbid students from talking about the results?

I am hesitant to lay the blame for this... action... as I don't live in the area and I haven't ever been to that part of Mississippi but I can't help but wonder what must have motivated the decision on the part of school officials there to stifle the talk of students. In a way this reminds me of the case against Harry Potter. Now I'm not saying American politics is like a wizarding academy in England (but it can be) but I'm saying in regards to how many parents and teachers tried to get the Harry Potter books banned from schools. The simple reason being that they considered them sacreligious which was bad. But I think they were missing the point. I think they were missing the fact that finally, after a very long time, many students were interested in reading again. Isn't that a good thing when you have such low literacy rates?

Now that you have an event inspiring talk among students about world leaders rather than what Lindsey Lohan did or who Brittney Spears is dating, don't you think educators in schools should encourage the talk instead of shutting it down? Maybe they aren't happy with the election results or maybe the talk of the students was distracting to the point that they couldn't teach them anything else but whatever the reason, the sudden silence by the school district and the teachers is a bit mysterious to be sure. I certainly hope that they have some decent reason for it rather than what I fear the truth may be. If racial prejudice ends up being the reason then I can't help but feel sad that for every step our nation takes forward, we're still taking steps in the opposite direction too.