President Bush has his No Child Left Behind policy, and now a California school district is about to adopt a No Child Left Out policy.
WorldNetDaily reports that, if the policy is adopted, children can be “expelled for ’rejecting’ each other, for sharing ’unpleasant stories’ about each other — even if true — or for associating with like-minded peers in groups if others feel ’left out.’
“According to a statement from the Pro-Family Law Center, the Murrieta Valley Unified School District in Riverside County, Calif., is taking up the issue in response to race-related incidents that have taken place within the district in the last year.”
Some children will always feel left out, and nice children always try to make them feel included — it’s up to parents to make sure their children will acquire the social graces that force them to be kind to the most unattractive classmates. And, yes, schools should be able to expel children who attain a certain level of nastiness.
So what’s wrong with the No Child Left Out policy?
Richard D. Ackerman, vice president of legal affairs for the Pro-Family Law Center, has some thoughts on that matter:
“This is a brutal affront to the First Amendment,” Ackerman said. “Students have a right to associate with each other and should not be punished for dividing themselves into groups that allow individuals to better relate to each other.
“For example, Latino students have unique socio-economic circumstances that justify allowing them to privately associate with each other, just as much as Christian students may have things in common that warrant the creation of a private group whose members share common values and attitudes. School districts have no right to interfere with the peaceful activities of any club or social group, even if the mere existence of the group makes certain persons uncomfortable.”
You do not have an unalienable right to never feel uncomfortable — and school is a place to learn this.
I don’t know about The Other Charlotte but This One has always felt that the main drawback of home schooling is that children who aren’t thrown with other children don’t have the opportunity to learn one of life’s most important lessons: Life is Unfair. Yes, expel a kid who is abusive to other kids, but not for going to Christian fellowship meetings, or even for belonging to an in-crowd, as boring and limiting, ultimately, as that might be.
Life is unfair — so is high school.