It was just a small item in a round-up of the day's news, but like so many such nuggets, it set off a whole train of thoughts:
"Mindy McCarty-Stewart, the principal of Mason High School in Ohio, canceled a student-led event that invited girls to spend a day wearing a Muslim headscarf and issued an apology, adding that the school received numerous messages that forced her to reconsider the event's ability to meet its goal of combating stereotypes."
In that one sentence, Gentle Reader is offered a panoramic view of the trouble with American education, society and politics. What's wrong with letting girls wear a Muslim headscarf to class?
What next -- will boys be told not to wear yarmulkes (those skullcaps Jewish males wear) lest they risk looking like a stereotype?
What is a stereotype, anyway, but a generalization -- and how think without generalizing? And what's a high-school principal doing responding to "messages" telling her to cancel a school event lest she commit, horrors, a stereotype? Behind such messages there is always a threat: Violate the canons of political correctness by admitting that some of us have different customs, even come from different ethnic groups or practice different religions, and you'll be accused of the gravest offense against current socio-political fashion: stereotyping.
You have to wonder: Why trust teachers, sponsors of school clubs, all those we put in charge of our children's extracurricular activities, to make their own decisions if some bureaucrat in the principal's office is going to overrule them at the first hint of political pressure? Aren't we supposed to celebrate and honor our diversity in this country? Isn't that supposed to be one of our strengths? Then why squash any outward sign of it, like a headscarf?
"Mindy McCarty-Stewart, the principal of Mason High School in Ohio, canceled a student-led event that invited girls to spend a day wearing a Muslim headscarf and issued an apology, adding that the school received numerous messages that forced her to reconsider the event's ability to meet its goal of combating stereotypes."
In that one sentence, Gentle Reader is offered a panoramic view of the trouble with American education, society and politics. What's wrong with letting girls wear a Muslim headscarf to class?
What next -- will boys be told not to wear yarmulkes (those skullcaps Jewish males wear) lest they risk looking like a stereotype?
What is a stereotype, anyway, but a generalization -- and how think without generalizing? And what's a high-school principal doing responding to "messages" telling her to cancel a school event lest she commit, horrors, a stereotype? Behind such messages there is always a threat: Violate the canons of political correctness by admitting that some of us have different customs, even come from different ethnic groups or practice different religions, and you'll be accused of the gravest offense against current socio-political fashion: stereotyping.
You have to wonder: Why trust teachers, sponsors of school clubs, all those we put in charge of our children's extracurricular activities, to make their own decisions if some bureaucrat in the principal's office is going to overrule them at the first hint of political pressure? Aren't we supposed to celebrate and honor our diversity in this country? Isn't that supposed to be one of our strengths? Then why squash any outward sign of it, like a headscarf?
