The depressingly common practice of using children as political mouthpieces has reached a new low:



Freshman Republican lawmaker Mike Stone [a member of North Carolina’s state legislature] says his daughter was “used against” him when a public school teacher instructed her and her classmates to contact elected officials in opposition to budget cuts.

The result: a hand-written note imploring Stone to “put the buget (sic) higher dad” so that her school wouldn’t have to forgo field trips, be unprepared for end-of-grade tests, and lay off teachers.


Well, I can think of one teacher who should be laid off pronto (though, no doubt, there would be tenure issues). I don’ think wisdom falls from the mouths of babes-my goodness, they can’t even spell! And I hate to see teachers and activists using children this way. 


Schools seem to have become hotbeds of both indoctrination and exploitation (I can’t find the really bad video of school children singing to President Obama but this will give you an idea). I don’t mind children sharing the political ideas of their parents, no matter what those ideas, because I don’t pay that much attention to what children say. They are children.


But I’ve got a message for adults who exploit children in this way: Grow up.