'He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind...'

WASHINGTON – An elementary school in Madison is now apologizing for the letter-writing campaign some of its third grade teachers tried to get students involved with: a plea to end the war in Iraq, according to the Associated Press.

A teacher in Vermont isn't fairing much better after giving a vocabulary quiz to students that included phrases deeply derogatory toward the President and American conservatives, according to various news services.

And these stories, for all the rage they may create, don't even touch the tip of the iceberg of what I was exposed to in Women's Studies 103 last spring. But, alas, I digress.

Perhaps this seems a touch too simple, but it really is high time to get politics out of school. This country is divided pretty close to down the gut and, as such, any teacher claiming to have a political moral superiority to the point that they may justify abusing their pulpit is plainly ignorant toward the political reality of the day. In fact, I would argue that any teacher unable to see the legitimacy of the other side, at this point in time, probably needs to go back to school, because that Masters degree is failing them.

We ought to have a great national debate about intelligent design and biology. It is a fascinating topic on which reasonable people disagree, and it is being debated in the proper manner. Even in the days of John Scopes, when the tables were turned, this stuff was not covertly preached to the young and naïve in classrooms but, rather, taught only in accordance with well-meditated law. (Mr. Scopes' arrest, if you look carefully, was a well-staged event – this was an orchestrated test-case, not an actual teacher taken to rebellion. The lesson plan didn't even begin until the police officers had taken their places in the back of the room.)

I'm for biology and against intelligent design; I'm for vocabulary and against defaming the president; and, yes, I am for citizen activism and against premature withdrawal from Iraq. But, above all else, I am for ideologically neutral classrooms and against teachers abusing their pulpits.