Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Notes From The Education Underground: The TeachWonk Diaries

Another Brick...
When I got home from work today, I took a look at the newspaper, and was reminded of one of our more idiotic examples of political correctness here in Middletown.

For years, we have had an annual "Battle Of The Bands." In this event, the marching bands of several high schools would get together, and perform their best halftime routines. The performances were then rated, and ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

However, something has been different the last few years. The event is no longer a "Battle Of The Bands." It is now called a "Halftime Festival," and the latest edition was staged last evening. This change was done to remove the element of competition from the occasion. Several bands still perform, there just isn't any ranking of the performances.

After all, any competition can have only one first place, and we don't want anyone's feelings getting hurt, do we? It looks like Political Correctism is running amok yet again.

And what do the students think? Research has shown that the majority would like to see the competitive element restored.