Catholic schools - when "education" is not education

[Poster from Natural Book Craft]

The Huffington Post carried an article about a month ago about a Catholic priest in Blue Springs, Missouri, who "removed books related to President-elect Barack Obama from the Catholic school's library because of his position on abortion."

The priest's name is Ron Elliott. The school is St. John LaLande School.

Evidently, "someone" [that same old "someone"] complained about the content of the books, and he [Elliott] wanted to look them over to see, I suppose, if they contained any dangerous heresy that would put the immortal souls of his kiddos in danger.

The reverend, being a Catolic, is very concerned and very opposed to abortion. He is very pro-life.


So, someone complained. Elliott removed the books. Without reading them!!!

Then he did read them. Concluded they were OK. He's going to put the books back in the library "after the dust kind of settles."


This, hopefully, is not illustrative of all Catholic education. But it's instructive, still. When one believes they hold the "truth" in their hands and that "truth" is of eternal significance, one can justify a variety of unhappy, even dastardly actions.

A most extreme example, would be the Islamist suicide bombers, called by Allah to kill infidels. In that light, Elliott's action seems almost benign. But it isn't benign, for it represents the same approach to education that turns out Islamist suicide bombers.

And that approach to education means that those in your charge must be "protected" from any information which might lead them to question the "truth" that you possess. So, if there are books in the library about President Obama that could possibly lead a student to conclude reasonable people, Christians even, disagree about abortion, one must do everything possible to keep such inflammatory material out of the children's hands.

Education, thus, becomes indoctrination. Indoctrination leads to ignorance and sometimes to fanaticism.

Unfortunately, this is too often exactly what happens in the religious schools of our country, and in the homes where children are being home-schooled. Home-schooling has gained prominence and popularity precisely because it allows parents to indoctrinate their children in their own prejudices and keep them ignorant of any facts which are contrary to those prejudices.

Again, that is not education, that is indoctrination.

Of course, in this, the land of the free, religions have the right to teach their flock whatever they so desire and parents have the right to teach their children whatever religious quackery they believe in.

The problem, of course, is that some of these people will achieve positions of power and authority in our society. We have enough fools in those positions already.


The Huffington Post article is here.

Freedom - GOP Style

[Reince Priebus photo, by Jon Massie, 2004]

The chairman of the Wisconsin Repugnican Party has, according to The Chicago Tribune, "accused the Racine school district of bolstering Obama's campaign by selecting a book that includes excerpts from the Democrat's 1995 autobiography 'Dreams from My Father' and his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention."

Reince Priebus, the GOP fanatic who believes he has the right to censor public school textbooks, said "These are [impressionable] kids. Using taxpayers' dollars to promote one candidate over the other is an abuse of power."


Hmm. Let's see, if Mr. Priebus is correct, then all textbooks that contain mention of or writings by John McCain would have to be excised. Or take it back to the primaries: All textbooks who so much as mention the numerous Republican wannabees or the Clintons or the other Democratic aspirants, would also have to be excised.

Mr. Priebus also forgot to mention how his own Repugnican Party has striven mightily to censor textbook selections in states like Florida, Texas and California. The Repugnicans targeted those states because of their size and because as they go so goes most of the other school districts in the country.

Unfortunately, in Wisconsin, this Priebus moron got his way and the publisher of the book in question, Houghton Mifflin, caved.

Christine Bowman, writing at Buzzflash chastises the moron:

"Whether you like it or not, Mr. Priebus, Barack Obama is a significant figure in American history. Like it or not, Mr. Priebus, the keynote address Obama delivered in 2004 was historic and merits study. Like it or not, Mr. Priebus, your job as Republican party chair for Wisconsin does not call for intimidation of school districts and book publishers.

"As for Houghton Mifflin? Their knee-jerk cave-in is ridiculous.

Bowman also notes, via The Chicago Tribune, that the excerpt under scrutiny is "in an optional chapter in a unit about diversity. In it, he writes about feeling out of place in his Hawaiian classroom because he didn't look like his classmates.

"Publisher Houghton Mifflin Co. has said the excerpt was chosen in 2005, before Obama announced his White House bid..."


Priebus, like so many Repugs, think they have some mandate from god and can reorder the universe to conform to their deranged minds. Pretty soon, if these clowns have their way, we'll have to excise all reference to FDR in our public school textbooks because it was under his administration that the New Deal started and you know how awful that has turned out what with giving help and aid to the poor and needy. Can't have that, can we, Repugs?

And Houghton Miffllin should hang its corporate head in shame!