2 posts tagged “education”

As Peter Schrag recounts in California: America's High Stakes Experiment, the California dream has always had its dark side — from the discrimination against the Chinese in the late nineteenth century to the "battering" the Okies took during the Depression to the "push-pull-love-hate relationship with Mexicans." What is distinctive about the present situation, however, is that the dark side of the California dream encompasses population groups that will soon make up the majority of its citizens.

Sharp ethnic and racial divides of this kind don't necessarily undermine an economy. On the contrary, California's success in agriculture was based on cheap immigrant labor. But it's a recipe for social and political unrest — and even riot and rebellion. And it's a betrayal of the American, as well as the California, dream. That's something California's government will need to address, but there's the question of whether it is capable of doing so.

If you haven't read this op-ed in The New Republic, I highly suggest you drop everything to do so right now.

Using a loophole in the district's sex education regulations, school officials tried to prevent a little girl in California from presenting a history — read, factual — report on Harvey Milk.  They argued that Harvey Milk's sexual orientation made the material too sensitive and thus classified it as sex ed.  The girl's parents, the ACLU, and others objected, so the district did finally let her give the presentation during a lunch period — but only to students whose parents had signed a waiver.

Really, San Diego?  What's next?  Signing a waiver so your kid can learn about evolution during recess?