Here's yet another good article on the insane stupidity of zero-tolerance policies.

Between this, and the recent stories about the abysmal (and I believe deliberately-planned) ignorance of history among students, the state of our public school system is absolutely frightening. I see it as fundamentally conceptually flawed, and beyond any hope of reform.

Yet another reason for disappointment in Bush. I can only hope that the current federal education nonsense is a maneuver to set the stage for reversing things in a second term, but I see little reason to hope.

Regarding history non-education:

I've recently been on the phone with the Alumni Department of my alma mater, Trinity College, informing them that I will be sending them no further contributions (and will spread the word to fellow alumni/-ae), due to their utter lack of required courses in basic American or European history. Even with a core curriculum and interdisciplinary minor, students at Trinity may conceivably (and rather easily, actually) graduate from college as ignorant of American and European history as they were when they graduated high school.

At a time of war, when our enemies are bent on our fiery deaths due to politico-historical grievances, this is no time to keep students in the dark with regard to the historical, cultural, and civilizational roots and motives of our country. Money is really the only tool at our disposal to convince those at the academic helm to clean up their act. To anyone reading these comments: please investigate your school's history curriculum and find out whether students there are being robbed of the ability to make informed judgments about the merits or faults of the side they take in a critical conflict. If you find your school lacking, tell them so by closing your checkbook and encouraging others to do the same.

As I read the story you to which you linked, I could feel my head growing tighter and tighter, and my vision began to grow a little pink at the edges.

From the article:

" Mr. Head backed the district on that decision, saying that society has a legitimate interest in knowing where the guns are. "I know that doctors are doing it, and increasingly parents are doing it — asking if there are guns stored in the home before letting their child play at someone's house," he said."

I suppose I could be somewhat accomodating towards the concerns of a parent, who is perfectly right to be concerned with the welfare of their child.

Doctors are another matter. I forget where I saw it posted, but someone pointed out on a RKBA website that physicians inquiring about firearms ownership are committing an ethical breach, and could rightly be reported to their state medical board for disciplinary action. It probably wouldn't be necessary to take such action immediately; just sweetly informing Dr. Noseypants that a line has been crossed ought to be sufficient, and one can drop the big one if he or she persists.

As regards the school district, while I am not a lawyer, I wonder if there is not an opportunity here for a civil rights lawsuit based on the Second Amendment? There are specific, narrow circumstances under which governmental entities are entitled to inquire about firearms ownership, and only a few such entities are entitled to do so, such as district attorney's offices, police agencies or courts. School districts are not one of these.

I would love to see these parents pool their resources and file a lawsuit.

An addendum to my comment above:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=95001500

Above is a link to an OpinionJournal item listing top-rated colleges and universities identified by a U.S. News & World Report survey as having NO REQUIREMENTS for study in any history or Western civilization. The page contains a link to a related editorial (definitely worth reading).

The page also contains a brief list of top-rated schools with nominal history requirements which can easily be fulfilled with non-history courses.

Once again: if you see your school on this list, please draw tight your purse-strings with much fanfare until lasting amends are made. Thanks so much.

Wow.

The more of this kind of stuff I see, and the more I deal with my kindergartner's public school (which is actually pretty good as such things go), the more convinced I get that it's time to give up on government-run schools. I still believe in public funding of education, but the government can pay for schooling without operating it. Far too often, the main goal of public schools is to avoid catastrophic failure. The result is that you usually get mediocrity at best, and catastrophic failures still happen. So it's time to give up. Sell existing public schools, or make them charter schools, or private schools, or whatever, but let them run themselves. Let the good ones succeed and the bad ones fail. Let the parents decide where to spend their government-funded education vouchers, and let them add their own dollars if they want to. How long would it take for the general level of K-12 education in this country to improve dramatically?