No Valentine's Day Allowed In That School

Valentine's Day can be an innocent and fun day for kids. Like every holiday in the U.S. it can bring forth excitement, fun, food treats but...in one elementary school  the politically correct police appear to stop it all. The little students at a Massachusetts elementary school have been banned from bringing Valentine’s Day candy or cards, over cultural equality/immigration issues and federal guidelines that regulate candy in schools. Huh?  How stupid is that?  In this country it's always been a tradition in every school for the small humans to hand out to their friends cute Valentine's Day cards, and to attach to them chocolates, or candy like,  those little boxes of Sweetheart candy that say "Hug Me" or "Be Mine" etc.

But political correctness says that candy is evil and expressions of affection towards friends at school is also evil since "not all the children may get them".  Talk about over-protecting kids! The message the school sent home to the parents is hard to justify. "We have many different nationalities, cultures and languages spoken,” Principal Carol Keenan told the parents “Because of that we don’t honor specific holidays.” So Keenan thinks  if everyone is not included, an activity is bad. Does she live in the real world? “This is done with all good intentions, to have all students be accepted, to have all students feel like they belong,” she said. Someone should explain to the principal that immigrants have to assimilate to the native culture, that the native culture doesn't give up its own identity to accommodate newcomers.

Ugh! Educators like Keenan are not only make education dismal for young learners, they destroy the imagination the kids already possess in the name of political correctness. Keenan said the school was not canceling Valentine's Day. Instead, the school kids are going to celebrate a "modified version". “Every student is making a friendship card for another student,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that every single student is given the opportunity to get a card and to also give a card. I didn't want some students feeling left out.” Doesn't that idiot know that a child experiencing the left-out feeling is not an aberration of childhood. It is as necessary as the experience of being included. Education is not about shielding kids from reality so they will be unequipped to deal with reality when they are adults.]

Keenan and her superintendent already ban candy in school.  Massachusetts guidelines governing what kind of food is allowed inside a public school building say no sweets are allowed. (My own motto is to never trust anyone who says sweets are "Bad")
Hmmmm If I were a parent of one of those kids I would send a heart shaped chunk of tofu to Principal Keenan for her Valentine gift! Most of the parents and residents of the city where the schools is located say they are furious at the decision. They wonder how celebrating a holiday in the USA supposedly interferes with cultural and language equality. I think it sad that political correctness is not allowing children to be children.  When an activity is positive, children need times when their parents and teachers let them do what they want to do. Adults need to stay out of positive child play.

The cultural element to banning Valentines and Valentine's candy is offensive as well. Stopping a traditional American culture practice because some immigrant kids are present is absurd. In too many places in the United States today, to be an American child  is to be bound and gagged by the culture of the immigrant. American traditions, one of the things that drew immigrants to this country are cast aside in order not to offend. And that sort of offends me, Principal Keenan.