Chuck Norris
As most kids are screaming "School's out for
summer," 18-year-old high-school student
Andrew Lampart is still trying to figure out
why his school's Internet service blocked him
from gathering conservative facts for his side
of the argument on his school debate team.
Andrew told Fox News, "I knew it was
important to get facts for both sides of the
case." But when he tried to do an Internet
search of conservative views, he was
prevented at every turn.
After being blocked from websites supporting
Americans' constitutional right to bear arms
as stated in the Second Amendment, Andrew
soon learned his school's computers
prohibited him from viewing any website or
information that wasn't liberal in nature.
National Rifle Association website -- blocked.
The Republican Party website -- blocked.
National Right to Life website -- blocked. Pro-
traditional marriage websites -- blocked.
Vatican website -- blocked.
But here's what wasn't blocked in his
continued Internet search: pro-gun-control
websites, the Democratic Party website, the
Planned Parenthood website, an LGBT
website and an Islamic website.
Andrew took his grievance up the chain of
command at his Connecticut high school --
first to the principal and then to the
superintendent and then to the school board.
Nearly two months after the incident,
Andrew's only official response has come
through the superintendent, who wrote a
letter about the issue to parents and citizens
in their community because news of the
liberal bent was spreading like wildfire. She
blamed Andrew's conservative education
prohibition on the school's Internet filtering,
which she said is intended to "protect minors
from potentially harmful or inappropriate
content" -- for example, "violence/hate/
racism, cults/the occult, to name a few."
She was puzzled, however, that "many of the
liberal sites accessible to the student fell into
the 'not rated' category, which was unblocked
while many of the conservative sites were in
the 'political/advocacy group' which is
accessible to teachers but not to students."
Mrs. Superintendent, there's no surprise or
mystery here. The problem is not the
software but those programming it. As long
as you have liberal-minded architects across
the spectrum who only want to steer kids in
their own particular secular and progressive
direction, changing Internet filters all day
long isn't going to change the educational
outcome; students will be prohibited from
conservative education. Website accessibility
is no different from choosing textbooks or
instructors in classes; if liberals are in
control, liberalism is the education.
A high school's prohibiting conservative
views isn't shocking to any of us who for
decades have watched the dilapidating state
of public education. It's just one more sign
that public schools are little more than
secular progressive indoctrination camps.
Andrew was exactly right when he said about
his Internet education experience -- or lack
thereof: "This is really borderline
indoctrination. Schools are supposed to be
fair and balanced towards all ways of
thinking. It's supposed to encourage students
to formulate their own opinions. Students
aren't able to do that here at the school,
because they are only being fed one side of
the issue."
Out of the mouth of babes.
True education doesn't fear alternative views
or even falsehoods, though they should be
couched in age-appropriateness and a venue
where options are presented with evidence.
At least, that was the educational belief of our
Founding Fathers and those who followed
them for a few generations.
With Independence Day fast approaching,
consider alone the words of one of the
greatest American minds and educators and
one of the pillars of our republic, Thomas
Jefferson, who vehemently fought for the
broad education of common Americans. As
he founded the University of Virginia, he
wrote this about his philosophy and goal of
education on Dec. 26, 1820: "This institution
of my native state, the Hobby of my old age,
will be based on the illimitable freedom of
the human mind, to explore and to expose
every subject susceptible of (its)
contemplation."
The very next day, he further elaborated
about what "illimitable freedom of the human
mind" should encompass: "This institution
will be based on the illimitable freedom of
the human mind. For here we are not afraid
to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to
tolerate any error so long as reason is left
free to combat it."
Jefferson was exactly right, too. Regardless of
whether our views define truth and reality,
an open education is about presenting every
side of the coin -- no matter how ignorant or
idiotic we believe another's views are or
appear to be. That is why teaching about
"intelligent design" and religion should be an
integral part of every curriculum.
Roughly 30 years ago, Dr. Allan Bloom wrote
these words of warning about a country and
educational system that were mimicking
fascism more than they were freedom, in his
now classic book "The Closing of the
American Mind": "True openness is the
accompaniment of the desire to know, hence
of the awareness of ignorance. To deny the
possibility of knowing good and bad is to
suppress true openness."
There is also no doubt about this: When we
fear alternative views to the extent that we
eliminate them from curricula, we have
reduced education to nothing more than
tyranny and indoctrination.
As Bloom said, "freedom of the mind requires
not only, or not even especially, the absence
of legal constraints but the presence of
alternative thoughts. The most successful
tyranny is not the one that uses force to
assure uniformity but the one that removes
the awareness of other possibilities."
(If you haven't seen the movie "God's Not
Dead," which addresses the very heart of this
academic issue, please see it. If you can't find
it in a local theater, try to find it at a church
in your area that has bought a license to show
it. For more information, go to http://
godsnotdeadthemovie.com.)
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