NationStates Jolt Archive

Yeah, debating important social issues might harm our kids because they might have to think about the fact that there are things out there that mommy and daddy think are icky.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/09/30/student.debate.ap/index.html

FORT MILL, South Carolina (AP) -- Administrators at Fort Mill High School decided to remove gay marriage, abortion and stem cell research from the agenda of a planned student debate out of concern that they might clash with a state law on sex education.

Two of the three topics originally were on a list of eight approved by Principal David Damm for use in a student-run debate scheduled for October 19. The debate is intended to mirror the debates between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry.

A debate announcement said issues such as education, taxes, jobs, the war in Iraq and faith-based initiatives would be discussed, but "because of South Carolina laws, we cannot discuss such controversial issues as stem cell research, abortion or homosexual marriages."

Both Damm and Superintendent Thomas Dowling said the restriction referred to the state's health education act, which prohibits health class discussion on abortion and homosexual sex.

Dowling said the administration was concerned that if these topics were supposed to be excluded in a classroom setting, "quite possibly, it's an exclusion that would carry over" to a student debate.

Dale Stuckey, chief counsel for the state Education Department, said he has not seen stem cell research mentioned in the statute.

"There is nothing in state law that prohibits in general discussion of any topic," Stuckey said.

Moral of the story, don't live in the southern united states.

Moral of the story, don't live in the southern united states.
Amen.

Free your minds kids; think for yourself!

Moral of the story, don't live in the southern united states.
I didn't need that story to tell me this.

when will the South rise again? what can i do to help them on their way? i have already started stock-piling grain liquor and nachos for their goodbye party, so let's get a move on!

Free your minds kids; think for yourself!
Schools don’t teach you how to think here in the states. They just try to cram in as much stuff as possible. So actually there is little room for any thinking.

The south's a good place. It just has some archaic ideas. Besides, I'm not seen as a nut for shouting at an idiot. I would be seen as a nut for shouting at real snow and cold weather. (Anywhere off the east coast is too close to California for me. The Governator and those who elected him scare me.)

1) Those things aren't banned from the classroom in Arkansas.

2) This reminds me of trying to ban evolution discussions from Biology classes. It's a real life issue...why shouldn't kids know about it?

Maybe the banned issues might have been too divisive, or taken up too much time? It looks like there is a pretty full agenda there and one of the rules of arguments states:
Debates having anything to do with abortion will expand to take not only the time alloted to them, but also the time alloted to other topics, the time alloted to eating, the time alloted to wasting time on the internet, and a signifigant portion of the refridgerator.
Further, abortion related debates can get very disturbing, as the below law states:
Any and all ddebates concerning abortion shall, at sometime, include a fat woman either screamign or crying.
It is all true, I tell you!
The Second Law was tested once, on the MIR space station, thousands of miles from any and all fat people, and the air molecules coallesced into the form of a screaming fat woman with an alien intellegence.
This would have been humanities first contact, but then Will Smith showed up and vaporised the alien before it could reveal that the first moon landing was really fake, and so are Britney Spears, ahem, joy pillows.

1) Those things aren't banned from the classroom in Arkansas.

2) This reminds me of trying to ban evolution discussions from Biology classes. It's a real life issue...why shouldn't kids know about it?

Good point. If we truly expect our children to learn to think about issues, as we should if we intend for this democracy to survive, then they should be free to discuss/debate any subject which strikes their interest. The only qualifier I might add here is that the school and its teachers need to insure that students understand proper research techniques and logic ( particularly as it relates to inductive and deductive reasoning and when each can be reasonably applied ).

But we must protect their innocent minds! Won't someone PLEASE think of the children??!!

But we must protect their innocent minds! Won't someone PLEASE think of the children??!!
in the words of that immortal bard, George Carlin,

"They say, 'think of the children!' You know what I say? F**k the children. They're getting entirely too much attention."

Moral of the story, don't live in the southern united states.

Funny story, I live in a southern state, and I had classes with structured debates on issues like these - in a public school no less!. The point is that we keep letting idiots with no idea how to teach into adminstrative positions in public schools (and not only in the south).

Schools don’t teach you how to think here in the states. They just try to cram in as much stuff as possible. So actually there is little room for any thinking.

Awww somebodies brain keeps getting full? :p

Funny story, I live in a southern state, and I had classes with structured debates on issues like these - in a public school no less!. The point is that we keep letting idiots with no idea how to teach into adminstrative positions in public schools (and not only in the south).
Yeah, so I'm stereotyping in an attempt at humor. The mid-west isn't really all that much better, nor is the East. New moral - Go West, Young Man!

This story just goes to show how political correctness isn't just a 'liberal' disease.

It seems taboo subjects exist in the conservative arm as well; and this has its own horrible effects on society.

IMHO both wings of PC seperate people from reality and prevent them from asking necessary questions.

This is just a mess. :headbang:

Funny story, I live in a southern state, and I had classes with structured debates on issues like these - in a public school no less!. The point is that we keep letting idiots with no idea how to teach into adminstrative positions in public schools (and not only in the south).

Here, here!

schools don't want kids to debate things that have anything else to do with what they need to learn so that they can be another robot in making the economy stronger

schools don't want kids to debate things that have anything else to do with what they need to learn so that they can be another robot in making the economy stronger
as well the schools should; it's a very good way to weed out the junk, because only kids who are worthless to begin with will go along with it and actually become robots.