Heres the problem with America today, epitomized by the actions of one Washington state school district: Instead of letting kids learn for themselves how to navigate the jungle of the playground, they re removing swing sets from their elementary school playgrounds because theyre too dangerous. Mind you, these are the same kids who will spend most of their lives institutionalized from daycare through college, locked away in unreal environments and generally pampered and shielded from whats happening in the real world. Although they may know more in the end about math and science than previous generations, they will know very little about their own history, their Constitution, or their rights. Increasingly connected to their technologies and consumed with themselves, they will be disconnected from the world around them. Raised in front of television screens and computer video game consoles, they will grow up needing to be entertained and distracted. Growing up in an environment in which their actions are constantly monitored, surveilled and tracked, they will have no sense of privacy or why its important. Indoctrinated in the idea that its the governments job to keep us safe, these young people will have no idea what it means to safeguard their own freedoms. In the same way, having been schooled on the dangers of speech that hurts someones feelings (anti-bullying and hate speech laws that punish kids for joking) and behavior that could be construed as dangerous or threatening (zero tolerance policies that punish kids for nothing more than gargling with Scope and using their fingers as guns in a make-believe game of cops and robbers), they will grow up so politically correct as to be utterly lacking in creativity, spontaneity and individuality--all the qualities we valued in the past. And then we will wonder why America no longer leads the world in ingenuity and entrepreneurship, and why it is no longer the bastion of freedom it once was. -- John W. Whitehead, author of A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 00:21:13 +0000
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