Once school begins, stupidity rules

Yeah, those Boulder-ites and their equally leftwitty neighbors are at it again. It seems that Halloween parties at one elementary school in Broomfield, CO are right out, so kids won't be wearing their costumes to class, for the holiday. But it's not for traditional religious reasons, this time -- oh, no! It's the religion of the left, again. It's for the protection of the wee tots, and by the most obvious egalitarian method -- they don't want anybody to feel left out, so they're going to make everybody feel left out:

“In my class of 26, if I’ve got one kid in the room that doesn’t celebrate Halloween ... if I have to send one kid home because they feel weird or they feel ostracized, I have failed at my job,” said fourth-grade teacher Jim Tingley.

Hey, teach, I hate to break it to you, but every kid feels weird and ostracized at one time or another. It's one of those things which ultimately forces kids to become independent. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but, isn't the point behind education to make a kid less dependent upon others (that is, to prepare him for adulthood and the real world)?

Why do you send a kid home because he doesn't feel as though he fits in, anyway? Doesn't that just encourage more whining and complaint? It would make more sense to give him an opportunity to find another way to spend his time in the classroom while the rest are showing off costumes and playing games. If, because his religion (or lack of it) prevents him from celebrating with the rest of the kids, let him go to the library, or some other space in school, to work on something he will enjoy. Or, is your school too large, and therefore too small-minded to make accommodations for individuals?

Forcing all the other students to abandon a greatly-enjoyed activity because one kid doesn't find the same pleasure in it seems a bit -- well, more than a bit, it's extremely -- counter-productive. All the other kids will know that the reason they can't have the party is because of a kid like Jubal or Mohan or whatever is the name of the one who can't celebrate. Doesn't that make the "different kid" even more of a pariah? So, where do the other kids' energies go -- into opening their minds and learning about why that Rusli boy or Liliana girl doesn't celebrate Halloween, or into torturing the kid for depriving them of their costume party?

But then, I don't suppose any of the supposed grown-ups who run this school ever read Lord of the Flies.


HT: m' brugly other