Should public schools teach to the controversy, or the lowest common denominator?
Lowest wins out again tonight when Harford County Schools Superintendent Jacqueline Haas tells her board she?s pulling the “The Chocolate War” novel as required freshman reading in the “living in a contemporary world” class.
“The controversy that has occurred … has left it unusable at this time,” Haas said on the schools? Web site. “While the superintendent would want to make the decision … on the merits of the book, the divergent views of this work make it difficult to continue its use at this time.”
This, despite a review committee?s unanimous decision to keep the book after studying it since Haas temporarily pulled it in September.
“The educational value of the novel outweighs any concerns about language and graphic scenes,” the committee reported.
So much for professional educators deciding what students will learn. Maybe that is a function best left up to hysterical single-issue parents.
Obviously, taxpayers have the ultimate say in what is taught. But We the People decided a long time ago it?s best to hire professionals and give them a lot of free rein to teach.
Let them pick the few books out of millions that can prepare young people for what generally is known as the real world. Bad stuff is out there, and ignorance is the worst defense against it.
Any parent who wants a peek into the world their children have access to should just Google the word “gruesome” and click the images tab. If you have trouble figuring it out, your kids can help you.
Haas?s desire to avoid controversy is understandable, but unacceptable. All knowledge is controversial. Eventually American public education will devolve into the lowest common denominator of learning.
Then we will fall even further behind the rest of the world.
