she don't need no education

I gotta say TXSharon is just about the weirdest freaking progressive I've ever read. I, and others, have clashed with her before about the HPV vaccine. She certainly defends her opinion with, um, exuberance.

As for Big Orange, I've been noting for years that the place is getting increasingly reactionary.

Now, I’m the last person to object to Shooting Sacred Cows or Departing from Orthodoxy or any of that stuff. But this Recommended Diary from yesterday is a little disappointing.

I’d like to phrase all of this politely, but I'm not sure I know how. The best I think I can do is cross post on Texas Kaos. I doubt this post will be well-received there. TXSharon is nothing if not prickly.

Her diary is based on a post on John Edwards’ blog which claims that a supporter’s son was suspended from a Texas high school for wearing an Edwards T-shirt. I could find very little evidence or explanation of the situation beyond this post.

I do know that I teach at a high school in Texas. The high school I teach at has implemented increasingly draconian dress codes each year. Each year the codes fail, and each year the school board implements an even more draconian policy. In recognition of this situation, I've taken to calling the latest policy the Surge.

But, nevertheless, I do have a job. And my job, like all jobs, has certain requirements. The latest dress code at my school bans all T-shirts. It also bans all shirts with writing on them. TXSharon asks

Do you think this would have happened if the t-shirt said:
God Bless America
or
Long live George Bush?

Well, yeah, it probably would have. If a student wore a John Edwards, or a George Bush, or a John Paul Jones, or a George Orwell shirt to school, I would have to send her or him to the office. Needless to say, it would have nothing to do with the politics of the shirt.

If TXSharon -- who brags about home-schooling her own kids, and makes nasty comments about public education -- wants to lose the only friends she has in Texas public schools because they fail to enforce school policy, she can continue with this quixotic crusade.

Otherwise she should educate herself about the realities in the Texas public schools, and do what all of us teachers have done-- learn to pick her battles.

spacedark