Massachusetts Middle School Cancels Field Trip to see Miracle On 34th Street Because of Objectionable Content

This is utterly ridiculous but so too is blaming the "left" for the ridiculous actions of a parent and the spineless response of the school's administration. I lean left and I am religious, and I am not alone.

I agree with Danielle. I'm someone most would label "left". I'm not religious in the traditional sense, but I try to be respectful of other people's beliefs. I enjoyed Miracle on 34th St. as a kid, and can't imagine what anyone would find objectionable. That said, there are Christian conservatives who boycott Harry Potter movies and books. I think we need to get past the easy ideological attacks and start looking more closely at the social psychology behind these types of over-reactions. We'll never reach any solutions by forcing each other into narrow boxes with neat labels to facilitate an argument rather than a conversation.

Well said Francis. I don't find Miracle on 34th objectional either, but I do believe that there would be better places to take middle schoolers on a field trip. That being said, the arts are extremely important and cancelling the field trip all together seems silly. A field trip to Planned Parenthood seems like a great idea and I don't see an issue with an adolescent obtaining birth control without the consent of a parent. Sex education seems a bit unecessary for kindergarten but I don't see a real harm in it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that school is for learning about all types of subjects: the arts, physical education, the sciences (including sex education), math, and so on and to remove any aspect of learning from schools seems counter productive (and that absolutely includes recess!).

This quote: "I think we need to get past the easy ideological attacks and start looking more closely at the social psychology behind these types of over-reactions. We'll never reach any solutions by forcing each other into narrow boxes with neat labels to facilitate an argument rather than a conversation." When are you liberals going to get it? If you cannot see the absurdity of canceling trips to see a movie about Santa Claus while you support marching children into the dungeons of Planned Parenthood - then you are the problem! Time and time again we see this kind of nonsense, and when we rise in outrage, some nitwit brings up Harry Potter! Christian parents object to a book - liberals in position of power ban them. It's the micro and macro of it all that infuriates me. And why should we be worried? Because modern Liberalism has nothing to do with freedom. Nothing. I suspect some liberal parent whined about the play because it might be construed as religious, and one call to the ACLU means a cash strapped school district is blackmailed into canceling the trip so that it won't have to spend precious dollars defending itself. That's how the left gets what it wants these days - lawyers and judges. Why? Because modern Liberalism has nothing to do with freedom. What is it about the sexualization of our children that gets the left so excited? Aaron's eager to pull condoms over cucumbers for kindergartners, and Francis wants us to converse some more before we stand up in red eyed outrage against this kind of political correctness! It is no wonder people are desperate to get out of the public school system! When are we going to get back to preparing children for their future? When are we going to rebel against the programming of our children by leftists who are more interested in banning religion, breaking down the family and undermining pride in our country? When will we ever get back to thinking of the children first?

Both Francis and I were unoppossed to the field trip. I also said that cancelling a field trip that would expose children to the arts was counter productive to the mission of education and educators. I said that sexual education for kindegarteners was unecessary. However, if making them aware and exposed to safe sex practices earlier on (kindegarten is still a bit too much I think) will help them internalize safe sex as a norm and cause them to act on that norm later on in life; then, I am all for it. And I wouldn't call Planned Parenthood a dungeon. In fact, I'm pretty in favor of anywhere that's willing to give out free condoms. Hustling up a cure for being poor is enough work as it is without complicating things with having to hustle up a cure for an STI (my obligatory music reference). I have no idea where you're drawing your assertions from because it definitely was not from Francis' or my own comments.

Wow, Evrviglnt, what an interesting and twisted little world you live in. You might want to check the papers to see who is actually running most levels of American government. It's not the Left. If you'd like to join the rest of us in the real world, you'll discover that it is Mr. Bush who has systematically gone about dismantling the checks and balances that our government was founded on. He's also tried to restrict the right to habeus corpus and he's bribed the telecommunications industry into turning over volumes of data on our conversations. That's a whole lot of abused freedoms coming from the Right's favorite son. And please don't mischaracterize my words. My intention was to encourage people to use this space to engage in actual political conversations not rhetorical bullying. If you'd like to partake in that, may I suggest you go to your usual trough of mass media punditry.

Evrviglnt, outstanding posts and way to make liberals see themselves for who they really are. They like to dance the Texas Two-Step when called out on the topics you mention. They will say they aren't opposed to things and are in favor of other things, but the proof is in the pudding. See how the people they vote for actually vote on these issues. It's pretty cut and dried to me! Again, great post and comment!

My bad I gave credit for the post to the wrong person (see teach me to trust a liberal - Francis gave credit to Evrviglnt, and it was really mpinkeyes). However, I will take full responsibillity for not checking my own work prior to submitting. Great post mpinkeyes!!!!!

Check the papers to see who is actually running most levels of government? Why don't you pick up a book and do the same? Government is full of careerists who rely of big government Democrats to secure them their jobs - its the fastest growing union membership sector! Grrr. Typical leftist hysteria - Francis is upset terrorists aren't protected by the Constitution and worried that George Bush is listening in on his conversations. It's OK when the Clintons do it, but when we're trying to listening in on calls from terrorist countries coming into America, Francis is outraged. I know we on the right had some conspiracists during the Clinton terms, but were we ever this jaundiced? Talk about a twisted world - its probably a short leap to suggest you think President Bush had something to do with bringing down the Twin Towers too? Look at the left today - their time is spent pointing out political enemies as fascists and Nazis. When your that extreme, why would anyone believe you when you say the president's administration is digging through your trash? That's not reality - it's sick.