Tea Party Demands That Schools Not Teach All Men Have Inalienable Rights

From Politics USA:

The other subject matter on the page displayed a website that listed 24 things that government schools dare not teach. Examples 1, 2 and 3 were staring back at me. The first ‘thing’ the schools DARE NOT TEACH was that all men were endowed with certain unalienable rights (I’ve compressed a bit). The second ‘thing’ the schools DARE NOT TEACH was that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men and finally, schools DARE NOT TEACH the meaning of liberty.

More here.

It is important to note that this comes from a local Tea Party rally, and is probably not some sort of official statement on their part at the national level. However, it is also important to note that such attitudes are very likely shared by most of the Tea Party faithful. That may be a little weird because the TPs are such Constitution fetishists: even though the phrase "inalienable rights" doesn't actually appear in the Constitution - Thomas Jefferson coined it for the Declaration of Independence - it is a notion deeply entwined in modern jurisprudence when it comes to the Bill of Rights, which is in the Constitution. Of course, Tea Partiers don't really understand the Constitution they cherish so deeply, so it's probably not that weird.

The above linked essay doesn't really explain why the Tea Party might oppose teaching foundational concepts behind the notions of American liberty and freedom, but I assume these people view anything coming out of the public schools as somehow tainted by communism or something, and therefore the opposite of freedom and liberty. Kind of reminds me of an argument I had with a pro-lifer at a street demonstration in front of an abortion clinic years ago: I told him the Bible said nothing about abortion; he told me I was using a "New Age" Bible that had perverted the sacred Word of God--in fact, the Bible says nothing about abortion, but that never stopped the pro-life movement from saying it does.

But, hey, I can tell you today that the Tea Party has absolutely nothing to worry about!

That's because, even though public schools do, indeed, teach the Declaration of Independence, as a text, it is done in the most eye-glazing and meaningless way. It's just words to be memorized and regurgitated for the test. There is, and can be, no understanding of what "liberty" means. There is no understanding of what it means for regular people to depose an authority and replace it with something better. As always, in the public schools, authority, discipline, and order dominate everything, and that reality drowns out what essentially amount to abstract concepts on a piece of paper. That is, to paraphrase a line from the indy film Schooled, we teach democracy from an authoritarian classroom. If kids want to understand freedom, they have to figure it out on their own 'cause they sure as hell aren't getting it in school.

I mean, the Tea Party, in itself, is a living example of this.

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