Too Young for Politics
Wow! Fourth-graders pontificating upon wetlands policy and the culling of predators to save the last breeding pair of Belding’s savannah sparrows.
Good heavens. How did I miss such a momentous topic?
On the other hand, all six letters were from just one class in one school. Let me be blunt. Not one of that gulled bunch of kids has any grasp whatsoever of the issue. But I bet they all think they do.
They don’t have sufficient data to reach any kind of valid conclusion. And they are far too immature to be dealing with social problems over which they have no control, and about which the education system instills guilt if they do not conform.
Notice that not one child seemed even aware that radical environmentalism costs jobs, perhaps the jobs of their parents.
Kids of this age used to be indoctrinated to fear nuclear conflagration. Today, they are threatened with boiling from global warming and burning from the ozone hole.
Worrying about the Belding’s savannah sparrow has nothing whatsoever to do with reading, writing and arithmetic. Perhaps the schools should be put on notice that politics has no place in the classroom.
If there was ever a reason that justified the lower budget for Los Angeles schools, this bunch of letters is it.
WILLIAM O. FELSMAN
Woodland Hills
