I can't say I remember most of the assemblies we had to sit through in high school. With the exception of one particularly pathetic "teambuilding" effort led by a superintendent who insisted we all "turn Me upside down and make it about We" (um, actually what would be a W and an upside down e, buddy), each lame lesson blends into the next. So maybe it's a miracle that kids at Iowa's Dunkerton High School can recite chapter and verse on the "anti-bullying" lecture they received last week.
Or maybe it's because the folks from Junkyard Prophet actually showed off pictures of aborted fetuses and made the girls chant mantras about remaining "pure." In a public high school. Without telling the parents. And someone actually invited these morons to talk to kids?
Kind of makes you wonder who's being called in to talk to your kids, doesn't it? It's hard enough keeping track of curriculum issues, but I have never actually gotten a note home about the assemblies my kid has sat through. I thought it was just me, but a quick survey of parents in other districts (yes, I did it on Facebook) yielded the same results.
The schools that are so quick to tell us when our kids sneeze are pretty blase about inviting a whole group of people into the auditorium to spend an hour up close and personal with our kids. And you better believe they have our kids' undivided attention -- the prison guards teachers who are cranky to lose valuable class time tend to do a lot of snapping when they catch two students whispering or someone dozing off.
And if you're not careful, you end up with a group like Junkyard Prophets telling your little girl that her wedding dress will be covered in mud if she doesn't keep her legs closed, and gay kids being told they'll die by age 42 because of their sins. If someone had done a little research on their website, they could have seen they preach "the beauty of a spotless bride" and believe alcoholism is a myth. Flashing warning signs like that, and they still got into a public high school? I shudder to think what could creep into my kid's school.
Maybe if parents were told, they could have stopped this whole thing. At least, I'd like to think there are rational parents out there who would fight to keep the homophobes and women haters out of their kid's school. I know I would.
Do you know what influences your kids are being exposed to beside the curriculum at their high school?
Image via dave_mcmt/Flickr