Last night, my daughter, who is 16 and in grade 11, asked me to read her
English essay, which was on the referendum ("write a 500 word editorial
on a current topic from the news that you feel strongly about"). It was
a good essay--she'd been following the debate closely--but she was
concerned that she hadn't followed all of her teacher's instructions. So
I read the sheet of instructions. This is what it said: "Be sure that
you take a stand for or against something. Do not try to represent a
reasoned moderate argument or to present both sides of the issue."
So I'm (almost) speechless. If this is what we teach kids it means to
hold an opinion, then no wonder we're in the mess we're in--racist,
sexist, homophobic . . .
I'm angry and I'm terrified.
Judy Segal
