Oy vey. So this kid wrote a paper saying he wanted to be a warrior like his grandfather who fought in World War II. And got in trouble for it.
Your tax dollars at work.
Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy.
Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy.
Oy vey. So this kid wrote a paper saying he wanted to be a warrior like his grandfather who fought in World War II. And got in trouble for it.
Your tax dollars at work.
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I’ll be appropriately disgusted as soon as there’s some evidence that this actually happened. It sounds awfully ULish.
The child in question was disgraced by his teacher in front of his class for writing an essay lauding his grandfather’s heroism for the USA in World War II.
If that teacher taught school in our local district, or in any school district in Dane County, Wisconsin, I wouldn’t rest until I had mobilized the parents to hound the local school board sufficiently to fire him. And if it had been one of my children he had abused, the bastard would have had cause to remember my family for a long damned time.
To think that hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and not a few women, died or were severely wounded to protect that man’s freedom.
Sometimes, Dean, running across stuff like that, it puts a taste in my mouth that makes me feel vile.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
I
I too am skeptical. I just ran every search available to mere mortals and came up with nothing. I also have no recollection of this back in May and it strikes me as something that would have been heavily blogged if not picked up by major media.
I’m the poster of this story.
I didn’t believe it either until I saw the essay. I thought I’d scan it, then I decided that the scans might distract from the story. If you think this is going to turn into a myth, let me know and I’ll post them.
The school in question is Carrcroft Elementary in Wilmington DE. My son goes there, and is friends with the kid in question.
If you don’t think I’m legit, visit my non-profit corporation at http://www.itpaa.org. I asked Dean to post this because he gets way more traffic than The Razor – and it’s not appropriate material for the ITPAA
I think it would be smart to post scans of the essay, and if you were able to say you spoke to the child’s parents.
If you do that, you’ll lend more credibility to the story–and you’ll be committing your very own act of journalism. Very exciting. :-)
I’ll link it if you do it.
UL = urban legend
At this point, I am inclined to believe the story as factual. Here is Carrcroft Elementary School’s site. Carol Norman is indeed the principal, and the school is located in Wilmington, DE. There are 4 second grade classrooms, each with its own teacher. The list of faculty is here.
Scott, After reading your comments here and on your own site I’m inclined to believe you. I may have been a little quick on the trigger.
That said, I think he more corroboration (sp?) you can come up with the better. We’re all a little jaded and without questioning you personally, I’ll only say that the word of some guy with a weblog isn’t going to be enough for many people.
You could have something important here and it would be a shame to see it fade away. Go nuts, if it’s real it’ll get picked up and the puppy blender or someone similar will run with it.
The story, however, is sadly very believable…and it was the mention of the gun which probably set the teacher off more than anything else…evil guns! Bad guns!
The craziest part was when the teacher berated the student for telling the parent. God forbid that parents have any idea what’s being done to their children in school!
“Do second graders play with GI Joes any more?”
Well, the Minnesota Twins bought themselves some abuse from the usual gang of peacenik idiots when they decided to give away G.I. Joe figures to kids under twelve at one of their recent games. They got a lot of public support and went ahead with the giveaway, though I recall reading that they removed the toy guns from the figures (but kept the grenades on its belt
I spoke to one of my contacts at the Philly Inquirer. She said that the biggest problem with the story is that it is old. Secondly, that it is hard to prove and lastly, that it is not that compelling.
I have enough fights on my hands (visit http://www.itpaa.org to see my dance-card) without adding this one to my list. She gave me contact info that I will pass along to the mother. It
Obviously, I’m with Arnold Harris and Mark Noonan on this. This is outrageous. Stick to your guns, both figuratively and literally.
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