On Friday, BizPacReview posted an article about a recent school assignment given to 5th graders in Plainview, New York.
The article reports:
Conservative commentator Dave Rubin shared a stunning 5th-grade school assignment he said a friend sent to him — the revelation being the latest example of the absurdity going on in public schools today.
“An unknown enemy has launched a nuclear strike on Long Island,” the assignment states.
Students are told they have 20 minutes to get to a local fallout shelter and when they arrive there will be ten other people waiting to get in. The student is then instructed to pick 6 survivors to join them in the shelter.
The choices include a 16-year-old pregnant girl, a police officer with multiple charges of brutality, a 38-year-old retired prostitute, a 75-year-old priest, a 35-year-old sterile female doctor, a lawyer husband and his alcoholic wife, a 31-year-old homosexual architect, a 50-year-old musician once addicted to coke, and a 28-year-old drifter with no apparent skills.
…Turns out, 5th-grade health teacher Mandy Bieder was “removed from the classroom” this week at Howard B. Mattlin Middle School, located in Plainville, N.Y., after giving the questionnaire to her students, according to News 12 Long Island.
Not only is the assignment inappropriate, but the descriptions of the people are inappropriate. The assignment is encouraging the children to judge people according to their sex life, their now irrelevant past, and other inappropriate things. Also note the specifics that are mentioned–the police officer is charged with brutality, the lawyer has an alcoholic wife, and the architect is homosexual. How is it appropriate for a 5th grader to be asked to judge the worth of people based on that information? I would also note that if the child is supposed to figure out what is best to continue the human race, this is not the best group of options. What are we teaching our children about the value of life? Do different lives have different values? Isn’t that how Hitler started? Why not have them read Animal Farm and see how that philosophy ends?