Bush goes on ‘trial’ in Morris: Parsippany students confront issues of terrorism and war
PARSIPPANY — President Bush is being tried for “crimes against civilian populations” and “inhumane treatment of prisoners” at Parsippany High School, with students arguing both sides before a five-teacher “international court of justice.” The panel’s verdict could come as soon as Friday.
This is sort of the thing that will understandably produce some strong emotions on both sides of the political fence, but if you honestly think about it, isn’t this sort of thing EXACTLY what we should be teaching our children to do? Putting aside the partisan political arguments for the moment, isn’t education supposed to be about teaching our children to critically examine issues, to consider both sides so that they can in the end make intelligent and informed decisions? Or do you really only care about children marching in ideological lockstep and reacting instead of thinking? (My children will think what I want them to think, damnit….)
In this case, the war in Iraq is clearly something that elicits strong and heartfelt emotions on both side of the political fence. This should make it even more important that students be allowed to participate in this sort of exercise. And if you’re wondering, yes, I would have supported the same sort of exercise when Bill Clinton got his helmet polished by Monica Lewinsky. We should be teaching our children to question and examine authority, not merely obey. Unquestioning obedience is how we ended up with Nazi Germany and six million dead Jews. If we have learned nothing else from history, it should be the potential for disaster resulting from not paying attention and not asking questions. If we don’t allow our children to ask questions and question authority, aren’t we really just raising automatons?
Teacher Joseph Kyle said the “hearing”— he preferred that term to trial — opened on Monday in a senior advanced placement government class. The school’s principal said he signed off in advance on the subject matter.
“I knew it was a sensitive topic. Morris County is a conservative county. Parsippany is a conservative district,” Kyle, 37, a teacher at the high school since 1998, said on Wednesday evening.
There’s nothing wrong with being a Conservative. This being America, we are still (nominally, at least) free to believe as we see fit. Our children should be allowed the same rights, and we should allow them to participate in activities that help them make intelligent and informed decisions. Of course, this being America, there is also no shortage of those who would rather react than think, and have no problem with viewing education as merely an opportunity to indoctrinate our young.
Former county Sheriff John Fox of Parsippany denounced the weeklong hearing — where students debated whether Bush is a war criminal and questioned classmates playing administration officials and the Army general who oversaw Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq — as “terrible”and “disturbing.”
“Those are young, impressionable minds those people have control over. We don’t need those liberal academics doing what they’re doing. I find that offensive,” said Fox, a Republican who graduated from Parsippany High School.
John Fox is the perfect example of why this “hearing” is exactly the sort of thing that our children should be exposed to. What is it about knee-jerk Conservatives that makes them think they have the right to deny children the opportunity to debate important issues? What are people like John Fox so afraid of? Do they fear that once children learn to think, they’ll come to understand the hollow, fear-based ideology that people like Fox espouse? Perhaps they’ll come to see that those who spit out the phrase “liberal academics” like it’s some sort of evil epithet have nothing to offer except fear, ignorance, and reaction.
Democracy only functions when the people under it’s thrall think and participate. People like John Fox are in reality the enemies of democracy. He and his ilk have every right to think as they do. What they do NOT have the right to do is to deny our children the right to debate and think for themselves. This is why they’re called “schools” and not “political education camps”.
Joseph Kyle and the principal who green-lighted his hearing should be applauded for having the courage and creativity to come up with an exercise that forces children to think, take sides, and craft arguments. Only through learning activities like this will children learn to think, consider, and make intelligent and informed decisions. John Fox would rather we return to the days when children learned by rote and thought only as they were taught to. Of course, that kind of thinking certainly explains why George W. Bush is living in the White House, eh?
