NOT THE SHARPEST KNIVES IN THE DRAWER: School Wanted Kids To “Understand” The Taliban
Some 8th-graders at Swanson Middle School in Arlington, VA, who were participating in a mock U.N. Security Council debate were asked to research and present the Taliban view on the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, until parents complained, reports The Washington Post:
An e-mail sent to parents of from Principal Chrystal Forrester and two teachers said the assignment was "clearly a bad choice for a debate topic."
"Recognizing the pain that has touched many of our families and neighbors due to the terrorist attacks on the United States and acknowledging the sensitive nature of the conflict in Afghanistan involving many of our dedicated members of the U.S. armed forces, we have eliminated this topic as part of the U.N. unit of study effective immediately," the e-mail said. …
Chris Wilson, parent of an eighth-grader at Swanson, said he was pleased with the decision. His daughter was one of the students asked to represent the Taliban's views and pose solutions to the conflict in Afghanistan, where the Islamic fundamentalist group is trying to reassert its authority and oust U.S. troops. …
He found it morally questionable to ask students to represent the Taliban's views about the United States and was uncomfortable about the idea of his 14-year-old daughter trolling the Web for pro-Taliban sites and information.
Here are some other topics that would be valuable for students to research and debate: Why hasn’t the U.N. been able to stop genocide in Darfur or Rwanda?; Why has the U.N. been ineffective in preventing rogue nations, such as North Korea and Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons?; and What steps is the U.N. taking to punish its peacekeepers who are accused of child rape during peacekeeping missions in the Congo, Haiti, Sudan, to cite a few examples, and how will the organization prevent such human rights abuses from occurring again?
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