Why I cry for tomorrow's youth

In Novi, Michigan, a mother is so upset that her child is asked to write an essay on whether she'd rather be a slave or a factory worker during the Industrial Revolution that she storms into the school to confront the principal and then calls a press conference.

Parent Appalled Over Essay Asking 8th Graders If They’d Rather Be Slaves Or Factory Workers

NOVI (WWJ) – A Detroit-area mother is fuming over an essay question that asked middle school students if they would rather be slaves or factory workers.
Tina James, whose 13-year-old daughter attends Novi Middle School, told WWJ’s Vickie Thomas that she almost couldn’t believe an 8th grade American History assignment that asked students: “Which would you rather be: A slave or a factory worker during the Industrial Revolution?”
“The first thing I though was how can you even compare the two,” James said. “As far as I’m concerned, they are diametrically opposing circumstances.

So if there's no comparison, you'd think that Tina James--or her daughter, since it was the daughter's assignment--could simply articulate that belief as the basis for her essay. She could use the essay as a vehicle for honing and advancing her opinion and perhaps it might sway others to her point of view if it was persuasively written. In short, it was a great opportunity to practice debate skills and advocacy writing. But no, that can't be allowed, because somewhere out there, a mother is "offended". So, with her deck of race cards in her pocket, she rushes into the school to demand that THE QUESTION NOT EVEN BE ASKED. Students cannot even discuss the concept, according to Tina James, and by God, if the school even dares to have a discussion on race, there will be consequences, especially if the discussion suggests that others may have had it hard too and that just perhaps blacks in America were not the most aggrieved victims that ever lived. This sort of discussion must be censored and banned, and if anyone even dares think such things, well Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will be having a fist-fight outside that school tomorrow to see which one will do the press conference and file the lawsuit.

In my day, we were exposed to diverse viewpoints specifically to learn to rationalize and to articulate opposing views. By so doing, we learned to think for ourselves and speak up if we disagreed, and we learned how to convince others with compelling arguments instead of threats. But Tina James blasted into that school and demanded an end to any such thing, and to their disgrace, the school knuckled under and changed the course curriculum. Heck, why debate and sway opinion when you can just scream "racism" and threaten to sue?

Somewhere out there, great orators such as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan are turning over in their graves, and you can almost hear the kids in that school getting dumber thanks to Tina James.