Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Gangstas are Not Cool

Hey kids, repeat after me. All together now: "Gangsters are bad. They shoot people. They sell drugs and commit horrible violent crimes. I would never be a gangster because they are scumbags."

Very good children.

Yep, you guessed it, something’s eating me. I just went to pick up my 5 year old from her Sparks meeting (Sparks are the kiddy version of Brownies). The meeting is held in the school gym where both my kids go to school.

And it’s Halloween season. Boo. I vant to d'link your blood.

Anyway, in the front hall of the school, near the entry to the gym, the school set up a table to display Halloween pumpkins decorated by students. Most are really creative and cool. One is not. It’s a pumpkin with a scowl and a sign announcing “I’m a Gangster”. Oh, nice.

We all know that schools are now more social indoctrination centres than academic institutions. Kids know that being sensitive and caring is more important than being discliplined and smart. They learn that evil corporations are raping our societies and environment and to trust nanny government implicitly. They are taught to love multiculturalism and be suspect of traditional white Christian culture.

Oddly, somewhere along the way, our schools seem to have forgotten to teach our children a very simple social fact - that gangsta culture is vile, reprehensible and loathsome. In fact, it would appear that they allow students to express respect and admiration for gangstas.

When I saw the pumpkin I went out to the car, got a pen and napkin, wrote “Gangsters Suck” on the napkin, went back into the school and stuck it on the pumpkin. I hope the poor kid who made it sees my comment. I hope he (or she) is offended. However, whatever they feel, it could never match the offence I felt when I saw this piece of artistic excrement sitting in my children’s school.

Tomorrow I’ll be calling the Principle and my school trustee. I might even write the Minister of Education. I’m going to ask them if next year I can expect to see pumpkins labelled “I’m a Nazi” or maybe “I’m a Rapist”.

Next weekend we’ll read in the papers about a few more shootings and murders committed by gangstas. And surely, many misguided children with stupid parents will think that these fools are cool. Hey, maybe, somewhere between showing our kids how to put on a condom and teaching them about the joys of socialism, our schools could somehow fit in a lesson or two about the poisons of gangsta culture.

3 Comments:

Blogger Candace said...

So what happened when you called the school?

6:10 PM  
Blogger Lester Price said...

The principle was very nice. She said that she noticed the pumpkin and was concerned. I told her that our schools should not be in the business of encouraging children to look to unhealthy role models. I asked her if the pumpkin would be removed as soon as I hung up. She said it would be. I would look to this as a victory except for the fact that they should have been more alert in the first place. It isn't easy being a parent these days.

7:20 PM  
Blogger Canadianna said...

Good for you to take a stand. I would have thought something, but I never would have acted on it.
It's nice to see that some people aren't complacent.

11:28 PM  

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