Recently the ISD (Independent School District) of the Dallas suburb of Mesquite insisted that a little 4 year old boy named Taylor Pugh get his hair cut or get out of school.Yes, you reading this in more civilized parts of America, I am not making this up.
Taylor's parents say they will pull him out of school rather than make him get the hair he likes so much, cut.
Now, it is well known that many Texas schools do not perform, education quality wise, as well as schools in other parts of America. Wasting time on a 4 year old's hair, rather than teaching him, seems like it might be a symptom of a bigger problem.
As in way too many stupid people in positions to do damage with their stupidity.
Speaking of stupid. Taylor's hair first came to my attention when reading Letters to the Editor in the Dallas Morning News. Two people opined about Taylor and his parents, saying things like..."Yet another young person who will enter society with an attitude of disrespect and self-entitlement. I would only hope that they don't just leave the Mesquite ISD, but that they would leave the entire state of Texas."
And...
"I want to congratulate the Mesquite ISD for sticking to its dress code. It is nice to see a school district that refuses to be bullied by parents who do not respect authority.
Sometimes the rules don't have to make sense to everyone; they are just simply the rules.
As far as raising a child who is brought up to rebel against the simplest of rules -- good luck with that. Maybe we will read about this kid again in the paper in about 10 to 15 years, but let's hope not."
How depressing. How can people be this stupid? It is better to teach a kid to question authority rather than blindly, obediently conform. There was a time, not too long ago, when a country insisted its citizens be blindly obedient and follow the rules. Some brave souls broke the rules, but the majority only followed orders. World War II was the result. And Germany and Germans remained stained, a half century plus later, by their blind obedience and conformity to authority.
Taylor's hair was hurting no one. Though Taylor does live in Texas, he also lives in America. In America we have this thing called freedom. This freedom covers all sorts of things, like the freedom to express yourself in any way you want, including how you dress or wear you hair. As long as your exercise of your freedom does not encroach on anyone else's freedom.
I believe the boneheads who made an issue of Taylor's hair and put Taylor's parents in a position they should not have been put in, should be fired. If the decision to make an issue over Taylor's hair went all the way to the Superintendent, he or she needs to go too.
Then today at least part of this aggravation had a happy ending that left me way less depressed about the blind obedience to authority practiced by way too many Texans.
The Letters to the Editor from the 2 boneheads generated a large number of follow-up letters that greatly improved my opinion about opinionated Texans.
Like jmac who said...
"Good grief. Will Texas ever grow up? This is a repeat of the 70's."
And then Pursuit of Happiness said...
Out of the state… That’s good comrade. Perhaps the state should build some camps to keep troublemakers like this isolated from everyone else. It wouldn’t do to have everybody questioning the rules. Maybe we could get some hair length police and encourage people to turn in their neighbors. After all, we all know that there is only one morality.
You might recall that Jesus had long hair and was a rule breaker. The same for Einstein."
With ashlock4forgreenfuture saying...
"Following rules "because they're the rules" is how some of the worst atrocities in history got committed. In Nazi Germany, it was the "rule" that Germans had to persecute Jews. The most important lesson a parent can teach a child is to think about whether a rule makes sense, before following it.
Respect for authority is not a good thing to have. The heroes of history have been those who respected their own conscience in defiance of authority.
I think this is more about persecuting the kid's parents for being countercultural, than it is about the kid. The dad is a former tattoo artist with earrings who used to shave his head-- well, they can't punish him. so they're trying to punish him through his kid."
Emily makes a really good point...
"When did the school systems job become teaching children how to conform rather than educate them on how to function in society of individuals? Let's not forget that public school is something that we pay for and should have authority over. Not the other way around. I commend the parents for teaching their kid that it's important to not obey but to choose to co-operate on what he feels is fair and just and refuse to co-operate on things that are not. There are many reasons for him to have long hair, all of which are none of the school business. This issue of long hair and authority is not something that is going to keep this kid from getting a job or being successful. Segregating him from class over petty issues is."
And finally Soup said...
"To the people who argue that it's more important to teach respect for authority, I entirely disagree. People understand laws. They understand rules. This is not something that has to be hammered into someone's head from the day they are born.
Far more important, and far more true to the philosophy of the Founding Father's of these United States, we should be teaching our children TO question authority. After all, were our founding fathers not questioning authority when they started the American Revolution? Was the Boston Tea Party simply a misunderstanding? Did the participants not realize that they were undermining the authority of the British government? Trivial crap like this is the perfect opportunity to teach our children to mind their rights.
Of course, I guess we could do as Texas wants and encourage our children to blindly trust their government. Surely no harm could come from that. (For the geniuses out there, that was sarcasm, and so was calling you geniuses)"
There were many more letters regarding this issue. A few were of the bonehead sort, the majority were of the non-ignorant sort. You can read them all here. Trust me, these are good comments from a lot of very smart Texans. I'm feeling much more optimistic about this place.
But, I am also wondering hope deep this teaching of blind adherence to rules goes? Has this been going on for generations? Did the cultural revolution of the 1960s skip North Texas? Is this conforming, don't question authority, attitude why there is not more of a rebellion against what's being done to North Texas and North Texans by the gas drilling industry? Is it why so few people vote? Is it why there are so few organized protests here, when there is so much to protest about?
A school district in Texas is allowed to embarrass and harass a family over a little boy's hair, while in Arlington a gas drilling company is allowed to disturb the peace of who knows how many people by drilling around the clock with the Do Not Disturb The Peace rule not applying to them. Little boy's hair hurt no one, little boy gets, well, punished. Gas driller hurts a lot of people, does not get told to stop, does not get punished.
Like I said, rules are made to be broken. I think if some entity is disturbing my sleep and won't stop, I'd be within my rights to do whatever it takes to shut them up. I wonder how one goes about toppling a tower?
