Why My Children Will Not Attend Public School

I want them to get an education, not an indoctrination:

This young man also tried to start another club at the same time he was trying to start the conservative club — a ping-pong club. (Hey, he's a well-rounded kid.) There was no problem with that one. He says he found an adviser easily and the student government agreed to it lickety-split. And now it is such a hit, he said, "We will have to get more tables."

But he had a lot more trouble with politics, especially conservative politics. First he wanted to call it the "Young Republicans Club." Ten teachers turned him down. He finally found one who would consider being an adviser but only if the name was changed to the "Conservative Club." Then he said he had trouble getting the student government to agree to allow the club. They just, somehow, never got around to approving it during the first semester. And even though most clubs, even before they are official, are announced in an assembly, no one would announce the formation of his club. "They told me it wasn't approved yet. But they announced the knitting club before it was official. I think they announced that twice," he said, somewhat bitterly.

After the holiday break, he intends to do some lobbying with a member of the student government who may be able to get his conservative club approved. "I didn't think it was going to be easy. The teachers are very liberal. In elementary school I had a teacher who told the class he didn't think Mayor Giuliani deserved to live! And they all seem to think President Bush is dumb, and make that very clear to the students. You know," he said, "teachers are not open to ideas they don't agree with." That's why he wanted to remain my anonymous source for this story.

Still, what surprised me when I talked to this smart, energetic tenth grader was his interest in politics at all, since he had been taught so little about American history or civics at this elite public school. In fact, when I asked him if he had ever taken a civics course, he really didn't seem to understand what the word meant.

He also told me he had learned American history only in the fifth grade, but really didn't remember too much about it. He's in tenth grade now. "The fifth grade is five years ago, a third of my life ago," he said. He is taking world history, which he said doesn't include much about America. He explained, "We are a young country so there just isn't much about us in the course."

Is he disturbed about that? Kind of. "One of my teachers who knows a lot about Korea complained that there wasn't enough about Korea in world history. I told her not to feel too bad because there isn't much about America and we are all Americans."

This is pathetic.