Posted on 03/01/2007 8:24:13 PM PST by Usually_Disappointed
Some Seattle school children are being told to be skeptical of private property rights. This lesson is being taught by banning Legos.
A ban was initiated at the Hilltop Children's Center in Seattle. According to an article in the winter 2006-07 issue of "Rethinking Schools" magazine, the teachers at the private school wanted their students to learn that private property ownership is evil.
According to the article, the students had been building an elaborate "Legotown," but it was accidentally demolished. The teachers decided its destruction was an opportunity to explore "the inequities of private ownership." According to the teachers, "Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation."
The children were allegedly incorporating into Legotown "their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys." These assumptions "mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society -- a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive."
They claimed as their role shaping the children's "social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity ... from a perspective of social justice."
So they first explored with the children the issue of ownership. Not all of the students shared the teachers' anathema to private property ownership. "If I buy it, I own it," one child is quoted saying. The teachers then explored with the students concepts of fairness, equity, power, and other issues over a period of several months.
At the end of that time, Legos returned to the classroom after the children agreed to several guiding principles framed by the teachers, including that "All structures are public structures" and "All structures will be standard sizes." The teachers quote the children:
"A house is good because it is a community house."
"We should have equal houses. They should be standard sizes."
"It's important to have the same amount of power as other people over your building."
Given some recent history in Washington state with respect to private property protections, perhaps this should not come as a surprise. Municipal officials in Washington have long known how to condemn one person's private property and sell it to another for the "public use" of private economic development. Even prior to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 ruling in Kelo v. City of New London, Connecticut, which sanctioned such a use of eminent domain, Washington state officials acting under their state constitution were already proceeding full speed ahead with such transactions.
Officials in Bremerton, for example, condemned a house where a widow had lived for 55 years so her property could be used for a car lot, according to the Institute for Justice. And Seattle successfully condemned nine properties and turned them over to a private developer for retail shops and hotel parking, IJ reports. Attempts to do the same thing in Vancouver (for mixed use development) and Lakewood (for an amusement park) failed for reasons unrelated to property confiscation issues.
The court's ruling in Kelo, however, whetted municipal condemnation appetites even further. The Institute for Justice reports 272 takings for private use are pending or threatened in the state as of last summer. It's unclear if Legos will be targeted. But given what's being taught in some schools, perhaps it's just a matter of time.
Aaaah, these teachers are sooooo wise! /sarcasm What a bunch of commies. Instead of using this as an opportunity to teach about how to work to prevent land-grabbing, or brainstorm about how to prevent or rectify 'inequities of private ownership' or some such idea, they've decided to teach the children to abolish private ownership althogether! Uncle Joe Stalin must be sooo pleased, from his hotspot in hell...
Hmmm...I guess there isn't much left to do after the kids have mastered the English language, can write a persuasive or narrative paper, and have no problem integrating or solving differential equations. I guess the Evils of Capitalism and Private Ownership are the only thing left...those poor teachers!
Economic theory from folks who have no real concept of politcal and economic theory let alone political and economic reality.
They should lead by example and renounce all of their own property and distribute it equally among the toiling masses.
They left out the most important socialist lesson of all:
"Some animals are more equal than others"
America is doomed unless we reform and rebuild the educational system. We have failed, and continue to, fail in reforming and rebuilding the educational system. Therefore, what can we conclude about the future of America?
How rich does one have to be to send children to this school?
I'm sure they let just any child into this school regardless of ability to pay.
"community property good, private property baaaaad"
Private Ownership rights have been linked to civil liberties all through western civilization, starting with the Magna Carta and beyond. You first owned yourself, then you owned property, then you owned civil liberties.
$1100 a month for preschool? Sounds pretty capitalist to me. I'll bet those kids figure out real quick how communism sucks. lol
LOL!
At $10,000 per child per year, I'd bet there aren't any children from families below the fifth percentile of income distribution.
Crzy teachers -- wonder why something like this didn't happen with Lincoln logs of so other kind of building blocks???
Go figure.....leftist teachers, in my opinion.
Crzy
Crazy
Did they have the kids make Gulags out of the Legos?
I bet private property would suddenly become very important if one of the kids "appropriated" something that "belonged" to a teacher. For "community" use, of course.
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