Cubanned

The issue over the unauthorized school trip to Cuba that we commented on yesterday, is now the subject of two editorials, in the New York Post as well as the NY Sun. In what has become shockingly predictable the Times has lockjaw on the subject, which is probably a good thing since we can't expect that the paper would have anything sensible to say on the subject.

The larger point here, at least for us, is that the motivation behind the trip is not educational in the traditional sense. If it were, it would not be done under the aegis of someone who apparently believes in the revolutionary myths that are symbolized by the posters that adorn the classroom walls of teacher Nat Turner. In particular, the Che Guevera poster is especially noxious, given this killer's violent history and philosophy.

Which brings us to the larger issue here, the transformation of public classrooms into tendentious hotbeds of politically-inspired propaganda. It is one thing for college classrooms to be transformed, bad enough that is; it is quite another for ideologically hot-wired information to be passed of as education in public secondary schools to impressionable young people by teachers who lack the requisite knowledge or judgement.

Turner's teaching should now be fully scrutinized and if he is using a high school classroom as a political bully pulpit he should be warned to desist. If he persists then he should be fired. Perhaps he'd like to see first hand how idyllic that island paradise is with a one way ticket to Cuba. We have no doubt it would really be educational.