SB1542: Verschoor's Opus to Ignorance

In the AZ blogs, Arizona Republic editorial writer Bob Schuster says that while he doesn't like Verschoor's bill, he supports the notion that too many liberals "use their podiums as bully pulpits to impose their left-wing orthodoxy on their impressionable captive audience." Sorry Bob, but I don't buy into your or Verschoor's argument. It's as if the teacher is in front of the class with a swaying pocket watch saying "You are going to be Democrats. You are going to be Democrats." Uh huh.

I was a middle and high school student in Ohio during the height of the Vietnam War. We talked about the war in social science class every week when we discussed current events. I don't recall any teacher at any point in time talking about being against the war. They knew we should form our own opinions and often took different sides on an issue just to make sure we knew the world wasn't black and white (or right and left like it is here).

We also lived 12 miles from Kent State, so the smell of teargas in our back yard and the fact that our teachers were prohibited by the National Guard from going to their homes in Kent (I wonder how Arizonans would feel about THAT) lent a slightly different perspective that, still, not a single one of our teachers spoke out against in class. This and other facts were not lost on us students.

As a precursor and effect of that event, we had popular songs on the radio like "War," "Ohio" and others that were allowed to be on the radio that told the story from a young person's perspective, unlike now when such songs would be considered "unpatriotic" regardless of the facts of the message. My, what a long way we've come...

I was in college during the Reagan years studying political science and I don't recall one professor who was a "crazy liberal" who was forcing their views on anyone. So I question whether the blanket assumption so many people make around here make that all college professors are "liberals" who are all "trying to impact elections" is purely anecdotal and has no significant basis in fact.

Can someone explain how a high school teacher can impact an election? Aren’t most high school students too young to vote? Apparently Verschoor thinks kids are going to go home and indoctrinate their parents, which to me indicates greater problems with the parents than the teacher. But passing laws based on hypothetical situations or some obscure example of one teacher says one thing to one class is overreacting--something Thayer Verschoor seems to do a lot.