Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site imsvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hao!seismo!umcp-cs!cvl!elsie!imsvax!djw From: djw@imsvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.singles,net.politics,net.kids Subject: Re: Parents' "rights" and responsibilities - reply to Rich Rosen Message-ID: <233@imsvax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 23-Aug-84 09:13:13 EDT Article-I.D.: imsvax.233 Posted: Thu Aug 23 09:13:13 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 25-Aug-84 07:06:22 EDT References: <1287@bmcg.UUCP>, <917@bbncca.ARPA> Organization: IMS Inc, Rockville MD Lines: 42 Paranoid ravings? Not really. It's like the little things in newspapers and magazines which, when isolated, seem meaningless, but, when put together, have a BIG impact... Now, admittedly, my grade-school years are a little past, but not all that much, and, while I wouldn't have come up with all the items on that list off- hand, I can see where they all exist. "Democracy is good" et al: Don't you remember standing up in class and saying the pledge of allegiance every day? Don't you remember the rosy, almost syrupy-sweet descriptions of our forefathers in our history readers? You don't? Well, now, isn't that interesting... "The education system is correct" etc. Let me add to that one, "Free thought is not encouraged, as it is obviously opposed to the system." I could read before I got into first grade. Nothing seems to irk a teacher more than a tiny tot who already knows what (s)he is trying to teach. I have been pun- ished for not keeping up in group reading sessions, when in reality I was two pages ahead of everyone. It wasn't quite that bad in later years, but, if I came up with something sufficiently original to be different from the agenda, the general reaction was, "Go away, kid; you bother me..." Are you saying it wasn't like this everywhere? If not, I may have some law suits to catch up on... "Parents are to blame for all problems": A little stronger than I remember, but it did seem to be the policy. The problems in the above paragraph were sufficient to have me branded as a miscreant: obviously I was dumb, and obvi- ously my parents were the cause because of bad treatment, lack of discipline, and so on. I was promptly taken to a child psychologist, who evaluated my IQ at 142, and came to the conclusion that, if I were allowed by my educators to think, I'd be just fine. That was around second grade; it happened twice more before tenth. In all three cases, the advice fell on deaf ears. Now, maybe I am a paranoid lunatic as well, but the problems I have encountered seem to indicate the potential for others. I mean, I find it hard to believe that I, and the original poster of the "ravings", are the only ones to have run up against these things... Don Whytock ...allegra!umcp-cs!eneevax!imsvax!djw