This being election season there are many civics lessons at hand.
Here’s one from the morning paper: Parent seeks removal of civics textbook at Brewer High (Bangor Daily News, 11/3/09)
Here’s how today’s class will work. First read the article. Next, after you’ve read the whole article — you have, haven’t you? — tell me if the parent is being treated with respect. By the superintendent? By the newspaper?
The parent may not be able to spell very well, for which sin he is embarrassed and humiliated by the reporter. It’s a way of telling us the readers, that this person, and his complaint, are off-base, and hardly worthy of our attention. I believe the phrase is “beneath contempt”.
The Superintendent, no doubt a smart and educated professional, and one who can spell (or at least use spell-check) says “I don’t understand what the problem is.” He really doesn’t want to understand.
Here’s the problem: the parent, who does seem capable of close reading, a far deeper skill than spelling, but less valued in this new world, has encountered what’s likely to be a vague and wishy-washy, not to say liberal, civics text. He’s questioning it.
He doesn’t stand a chance.
Do you think a student in high school would stand a better chance, when confronting the conventional wisdom?
(By the way, the Preamble of the Constitution, our Constitution, spells the word defense as “defence.” Thought you’d like to know.)