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| L'Eggo My Lego | |
| 2007-02-28 | |
| Some Seattle school children are being told to be skeptical of private property rights. This lesson is being taught by banning Legos. A ban was initiated at the Hilltop Children's Center in Seattle. According to an article in the winter 2006-07 issue of "Rethinking Schools" magazine, the teachers at the private school wanted their students to learn that private property ownership is evil. According to the article, the students had been building an elaborate "Legotown," but it was accidentally demolished. The teachers decided its destruction was an opportunity to explore "the inequities of private ownership." According to the teachers, "Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation." The children were allegedly incorporating into Legotown "their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys." These assumptions "mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society -- a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive." They claimed as their role shaping the children's "social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity ... from a perspective of social justice." So they first explored with the children the issue of ownership. Not all of the students shared the teachers' anathema to private property ownership. "If I buy it, I own it," one child is quoted saying. The teachers then explored with the students concepts of fairness, equity, power, and other issues over a period of several months. At the end of that time, Legos returned to the classroom after the children agreed to several guiding principles framed by the teachers, including that "All structures are public structures" and "All structures will be standard sizes." The teachers quote the children: "A house is good because it is a community house." "We should have equal houses. They should be standard sizes." "It's important to have the same amount of power as other people over your building."
Officials in Bremerton, for example, condemned a house where a widow had lived for 55 years so her property could be used for a car lot, according to the Institute for Justice. And Seattle successfully condemned nine properties and turned them over to a private developer for retail shops and hotel parking, IJ reports. Attempts to do the same thing in Vancouver (for mixed use development) and Lakewood (for an amusement park) failed for reasons unrelated to property confiscation issues. The court's ruling in Kelo, however, whetted municipal condemnation appetites even further. The Institute for Justice reports 272 takings for private use are pending or threatened in the state as of last summer. It's unclear if Legos will be targeted. But given what's being taught in some schools, perhaps it's just a matter of time. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #9 twobyfour nailed it. These are more people that need to feel some pain. We have to organize and marginalize these people at every level. |
| Posted by: Chiper Threreger8956 2007-02-28 23:00 |
| #8 D *** ng it, when will the California SSR start contrux on State Dachas for CPUS- CCUS/CCAC Party members alongst Lake Placid? LEST WE FERGIT, ala PRAVDA, GOOD AMERIKANSKI SOVIETS DEMAND TO BE PERMANENTLY POOR [or DEAD?] BUT D ***ng it OPTIMISTIC - AMERS COMRADES ARE NOT LIVING IFF WE AREN'T STARVING/DYING! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-02-28 22:32 |
| #7 I just realized that Invasion of Body Snatchers was about lllibruls. The ideology is as alien, destructive and as detrimental to human well-being. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-02-28 21:47 |
| #6 So, I can have a piece of AlGore's house? Maybe stay at Edwards' place for awhile? Sure. |
| Posted by: john 2007-02-28 20:55 |
| #5 "We should have equal houses. They should be standard sizes." Except for those animals that are more equal than others, of course. "A house is good because it is a community house." How about a Central Community House for the Committee of Communal Security, with little lego guillotines in the basement for renegades, contra-communitaires and public enemies? |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-02-28 20:32 |
| #4 #3 Just try walking in off the street to use the bathroom at Hilltop Children's Center. Posted by: eLarson Just call it a "donation to the teacher's fund" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-02-28 16:06 |
| #3 Just try walking in off the street to use the bathroom at Hilltop Children's Center. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2007-02-28 14:59 |
| #2 Or maybe their parents could decide not to pay the $1185 a month tuition at Hilltop Children's? Education should be a right open to all. There shouldn't be a pricetag put on it. I propose in that spirit that the teachers volunteer to work for nothing but the sheer joy of the profession. It would be a valuable "life lesson" for the children... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-28 14:47 |
| #1 I wonder if those teachers would mind if I were to take their cars. Or their clothes, or anything else they own. I wonder if they would use force, directly or indirectly (by calling the police) to stop me. And why are they teaching at a private school anyway? Isn't that school private property? |
| Posted by: Rambler 2007-02-28 14:26 |