The New Theater of the Absurd

It's hard to believe, I know, but it's absolutely true. Every morning, millions of American families send their children off to spend the day in -- an insane asylum! And not only that, it is also a sheltered workshop for a bunch of brain-dead, but nonetheless very dangerous, idiots. Now, the fact that these places style themselves "public schools" does nothing to lessen the offense. Not a day goes by when some new enormity does not appear on the pages of any major newspaper or on the Internet, and Wednesday was no exception. The incident in question can be found on CNN here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/12/skittles.suspension.ap/index.html?eref=time_us

The nature of the offense? Allow me to quote: "Michael Sheridan was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors student dinner and suspended for a day after buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate." Well, there's a career criminal in the making for you! I'll bet he winds up in "the chair". But wait, there's more! The reason the Skittles were scuttled was that trafficking in such things violates a "districtwide school wellness policy". Gee, too bad that "wellness policy" doesn't include mental health on the part of the administrators.

Now, here's the point. This incident is not at all atypical, and is not the most egregious by far of recent incidents I can recall. (It's less inane, for instance, than suspending a grade-school student for pointing his finger at someone and saying "Bang, bang." But -- the school would say -- I mean, heck, that finger might have been a WMD! How was the teacher to know? Maybe the kid is an android with a deadly atomic ray gun disguised as his hand!) To say that there is no rationale for idiocy of this sort is to understate the case. These rules were instituted, and are being interpreted and enforced by people who are, for all intents and purposes, insane. That is, they have completely lost touch with reality, and have zero perspective, and no insight. And yet they are allowed to have custody and work their will on the vast majority of American children, five days a week. I'll say it again -- the Russians and Chinese see this, and they just laugh until they could burst.