Maybe it's me; I just don't know. I have never been of the thinking that everything around me must be forced into a political context. I don't think it was "political correctness" that's resulted in geography--and even worse, civics (our duties and responsibilities as a citizen!)--are no longer taught as distinct subjects in countless schools. For that matter, in many school districts, subjects like music and art have been eliminated. I believe fiscal considerations are what bring about these cutbacks.
Where I come from, school budgets had to be voted on, but out of ignorance too many people thought they were voting on the whole school budget, whereas in reality so much is mandated and thus not subject to the vote that only a small percentage is actually decided by vote. One year the "school lunch ladies" focused on these fiscal issues and, as a group, set out to get the school budget defeated.
Here was their campaign: "Sports? Let the parents pay for them." "Textbooks? We don't need 'em. We've got plenty of old ones they can use." "Field trips? Worthless! They can learn in the classroom." "Why should we pay school taxes? We don't have kids in school anymore." And on and on.
The school board, through the superintendent, made it clear from the outset that they would not play games with the budget, that if it were defeated, they would automatically move to an austerity budget, which at that time would save the average residence about $22/year in property taxes.
The school lunch ladies' campaign was successful, the budget was defeated, and the district adopted an austerity budget. What these women, in their ignorance, had failed to consider was that under an austerity budget, there would be no school lunch program--and overnight they were all out of work!
There was a lesson in there; in my thinking, there were actually several lessons in there (none having to do with "political correctness," IMHO)....
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