Monday, March 21, 2011

NYC Educator: An Updated Enemy Within

NYC Educator: An Updated Enemy Within

An Updated Enemy Within

I'm reading Lord of the Flies with my 9th-grade daughter. I don't exactly love it. The prose is leaden and confusing, and her teacher insists on making every word, no matter how obscure or impractical, a required part of study. But despite my misgivings, the book's message is starting to resonate with me.

Americans are all riled up against our particular beast--quite different from that in the book--more modern, frightening for different reasons, but still ourselves. We're guilty not of savagery, but of being a middle class, personified by unionized teachers. We threaten society's march toward "progress," lead by the likes of