There was a disturbing story out of South Orange, New Jersey recently where a group of middle school students who walked out of an event rather than take a picture with the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Paul Ryan. It is a sad statement about our country that children are raised to despise those with whom they disagree. Ryan is third in line for the presidency. Teaching your children to show contempt for our national leaders brings a terrible cost for the country in terms of the civility and dialogue. The walk out of half of the students at the South Orange Middle School event was intentionally insulting to Ryan and disrespectful to his office. There was a time when children were taught that they should maintain a level of respect for the government even when you oppose its policies. When the Speaker takes the time to come to your school, he deserves a modicum of respect in my view.
Ryan is a conservative and many disagree with his positions. However, he is part of a democratic system and represents the majority of the “People’s House.” His appearance at the school was a wonderful opportunity for these students and an opportunity to set aside disagreements for a civil and respectful discussion.
I have no problem with taking children to protests though I did not support the protests of the inauguration of President Trump. There are times to voice opposition and times to show respectful consideration. Indeed, I would be thrilled to have my children meet with leaders of different political viewpoints as part of their understanding of our pluralistic democratic system.
I would have been deeply upset with any of my children walking out on such an esteemed visitor to their middle school.
What do you think?
i don’t understand if he was there for a photo op or was there to visit a classroom and then do a photo op. It is a strange response for an entire class. Sounds like mind control to me.
The students were visiting Washington, DC.
David Benson – thanks for the info. Now, who made the decision not to be in the photo and that Ryan had cooties?
These clowns probably know more, and care more, about acne than they do about Ryan’s policies.
And a grandstanding walk-out was probably a “super-neato” thing to do.
Yeah, a real “principled” action.
Yammer, yammer.
You weren’t there so you are just Making Stuff Up.
Benson,…
And you WERE there?
I read the account in Newsweek, linked above. Clearly you didn’t bother.
Not the account in Newsweek….that’s probably why I lack your superior perspective of knowing that this was a “principled” stand.
That’s how I read the article.
Some 8th graders actually know quite a bit.
They know nothing. You’re happily gulled by Newsweek because you yourself are a fool.
Kids are very aware of who is who in politics. They know they want a future and a good education. They know about DeVos and what she stands for or the lack thereof – and it’s not difficult to see the connections to the other politians that keep saying, “now we’re taking this….then that”
Kids are aware of next-to-nothing. A comfortable majority of adults (about 3/4) do not follow public affairs and half of those who do are news junkies who have trouble remembering anything about what they hear or read. The core electorate (people who pay attention for 10 weeks or so every year and cast ballots) has for four decades been about 37% of the adult citizen population.
I bet the young David Frum had lots of political opinions. An ordinary child of 12 knows little and cares less about the world outside his social circle bar the mass entertainment he consumes. A youngster who could correctly name the Speaker of the House is unusual. One who knows anything about him and the public policy questions with which he is concerned is extraordinary.
This wasn’t spontaneous and no one the least bit familiar with the youth of the nation would get the idea in their head that it was.
Turley has categorized this as bizarre. On the contrary, it is quite, quite principled on the part of the dissenting students.
You’ve repeatedly demonstrated that you understood not the slightest thing about the students you’ve taught.
IMO most people have concluded that national politics in the USA are no longer a democracy. Why should our children be taught to respect a office that has been obtained by corrupt activity? Both major parties are corrupt at the national level. I believe many state and local offices are held by politicians that have been elected democratically.
Not in states which make it very difficult to register. Not in states with gerrymandered districts. Not in states where too many fail to exercise their right to vote.
Ryan values freedom above all else. Then he needs to read philosophy, maybe just starting with what Aristole had to say about justice. For the two, freedom and justice, cannot be found together in full measure.
The approximately half of the students who passed up the photo op seemed to have some reasonable understanding of what Ryan propogates.
“The approximately half of the students who passed up the photo op seemed to have some reasonable understanding of what Ryan propogates.”
I am sure that Ryan, who values freedom above all else including food and health care, would approve and strongly support the student’s freedom to walk away from a photo-op with anyone – including Ryan himself.
Propagates.
Neither they nor you know anything about Ryan.
On the contrary, these South Orange students are behaving just like perfect obedient servants of their Leftist masters. The Leftist MSM, the Leftist Educational System, the Leftist big business interests, the Leftist big government interests, the Leftist court system, and so on and so forth, has instructed these student that unless they hear ONLY the Leftist message and agenda, they are to either walk out on any opposing views, or, better still, they are instructed to violently attack the opposing interests.
In this case, although some might have been compelled to carry out their attack instructions, most recognized that they were not yet ready to assume a violent role. So they did the next best thing. Soros would be proud that today’s modern Hitler youth will just as reliably carry out the Leftist edicts as well as the Nazis did.
(Contrary to what some uninformed fools may assume, the Nazis were and are Leftists, not Right-wingers. Nazis do not believe in free markets, the power of the individual, or conservative ideologies. Nazis believe in authoritarian control–which is the the very core of Leftism.)
Well, maybe now I know what you mean by Leftism. Outside of the Deep South there is very little of it.
The issues are something else and you are beating what used to be a dead horse.
Ordinarily, I’d say you were clueless, but more likely, you’re just a Leftist yourself, engaging in your usual Leftist lies, deception, canards, prevarications, and frauds.
If you are really interested in what a “Leftist” or “Socialist” or “Communist” is on this site (besides being synonyms), Dwight D. Eisenhower is a good enough example of one.
A phenomenon brought to us largely by way of Democrat Politicians and DNC party apparatchiks and their insidious contribution to the ever rightward ratcheting of the Overton Window.
Opps, I forgot synonyms “fascist” and “bad bad bad.” Hell, I must have missed at least a dozen terms all used consistently with blissful ignorance of any commonly accepted definition that one might find in any reputable dictionary.
Oh please. Children should not be forced to engage in activities that are designed to give credibility to a politician.
Yup.
At best Ryan is a phoney.
I absolutely disagree with you. The children refused to be part of a photo op of a man who has made it very clear that their futures, their health and their welfare are targets of his adolescent desire to use his power to destroy the very system that supported him when his father died. The children have no responsibility to be in such a photo.
Yup.
No, the children are part of a tasteless prank played by the teachers’ union steward. The name-recognition of the Secretary of State among the adult population has been known to settle around 35% of the public. Most people do not pay attention to public affairs, much less have a strong opinion about any one politician. Paul Ryan is a common-and-garden Capitol Hill apparatchick, notable for being somewhat less careerist in his inclination than the usual sorts occupying such a position. These youths neither know nor care anything about him.
Hitler rose to power through a pluralistic democratic system. I’m sure Mr. Turley would be thrilled to have German school children in a photo op with their new leader in 1933 and displaying the proper respect owed him.
Comparing Paul Ryan to Adolph Hitler? What an idiot you are! You have zero credibility!
Ryan has nowhere near the cleverness that Hitler had, so you are right.
You’ve made one stupid statement after another in this thread. What’s galling is that you were nursing at the higher education teat for three decades.
dss – once you are comfortably in the warm womb of academia, nothing else gets in.
More so Trump than Ryan. My point being that a monster and eventual tyrant can be elected into office just as well as a great leader. Just because someone is elected into office doesn’t automatically make them a just and moral person worthy of respect or absolve them of the blame for being complicit in the face of tyranny.
Godwin’s Law
Sounds like the employees at the government indoctrination center, were displeased that their subjects were not more like the North Koreans and more fawning of their masters. Perhaps they will have to reevaluate their mind control programs.
These kids seem to have a lot of discernment for evil in their midst and acted appropriately.
Too bad most adults are not this perceptive.
Yup.
Let go of everyone’s leg.
One only has to wonder how influential was the faculty in achieving this result.
I saw first hand coincidentally that such SJW mindsets are now at the middle school level.
Two days ago I was attending to a sick relative at the hospital and was standing in the hallway of the emergency department. Adjacent to me were two 14 year olds–a boy and a girl. The two were having an argument where the boy insisted that there were only two genders, girls and goys. The girl started talking about how “patriarchal” he was and that “because someone can be born both male and female” it was proof that there are more than two genders. Such strangeness continued among various topics with the girl spouting so much rhetoric I almost thought it was a rehearsal of some form. The discourse ended when the boy, who was atop a hospital bed, dropped a book and asked the girl to pick it up for him. She immediately chastised him by saying “that’s so 18th century” and that she (who was black) “didn’t have to do what she is told by white people.”
I hoped that this type of mentality would be confined to a cohort that is of college age presently. Unfortunately for all, it is metastasizing to younger minds.
Did he ask politely?
Yes at first, but after continued refusals he became miffed at her.
Well, I was brought up to be helpful, even in small ways. A polite request should bring a polite response, followed by a Thank you.
The fault, in my opinion, was hers.
>”The two were having an argument where the boy insisted that there were only two genders, girls and goys.”<
Sorry–I have never heard of a gender called "goy"! Is it a new term for someone who is both a girl and a boy?
Almost certainly faculty are behind this. Without a doubt, three-quarters of the student body doesn’t know Paul Ryan from a cord of wood, much less have any coherent opinions about anything he’s ever done.
They declined to be in a photo with Ryan. That is their choice. It may be a different story if Ryan was there to engage with the students in a policy discussion.
Ask Lyin Ryan (the name djt gave him) to explain his policies in a coherent manner and it would be a miracle. He had 7+ years to come up with something to replace the ACA and the Conservative ACA (CACA) is all he could manage. You’re correct Lyin Ryan was using the children as a stunt. Outsmarted by 8th graders.
Right on!
Yes!
Anyone who dreamed as a teen of getting rid of “entitlements” (which aren’t; in most cases they’re bought and paid for and paid into for a lifetime of work) has a mean streak to match his lack of imagination.
When our elites in the media are calling the president elected by 30/50 states all sorts of names and write blogs on the msm fraudulent reporting then what do you expect from kids?
Your president bashes and threatens the media. He does not appear to be respectful of anyone and that includes his wives.
Media is corrupt and have gaslighted people like you . As far as I’m concerned msm should be collectively charged for treason that has brainwashed a vast number of people
Conservatives have known this about the left for quite a while, Professor Turley. I can’t imagine what a disappointment they are to you decent Liberals Democrats, what we fondly refer to as “Classic American Liberals” when we can fine one or two.
Conservatives have known for a long time that these people, they actually defy any American political definitions besides the one they have earned “facists”..are totalitarian in nature and they do not believe that fully half of America, the conservative half, should have representation at all.
Neither Cuomo or D’Blasio should have been able to be re-elected once he made the statement about who can and who can’t be in New York..using the dodge of prefacing it with “extremists”..but isn’t that what all Second Amendment Conservatives are tarred as? Aren’t all right wing, right wing extremists in their book?
The solace that most Conservatives have is to ponder the spiritual decay that these people wallow in and realize that in Darwinian style, they are signaling their own end, they are apparently selected against.
This column appeared in the WSJ on May 26. It never should have had to be written and plays to a city that apparently is morally tone deaf.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/manchester-murder-new-york-1495755288
Yammer, yammer.
If any of these middle school students could coherently explain their policy preferences and why those preferences are superior to Ryan’s, then they should have stayed and asked probing questions. Given their age, however, I seriously doubt they’re able to articulate any argument whatsoever. It was a stunt, pure and simple.
” … then they should have stayed and asked probing questions.”
Ryan may very well have given a short presentation to the class and allowed a few questions. But apparently that time was over. The article only mentions the photo-op. There is no mention of a question and answer period.
I agree the students should have listened respectfully, and had the opportunity to ask meaningful questions – assuming a question and answer period actually occurred.
But no one should be expected to be a prop in a photo-op for a politician – especially one as controversial as Rep Ryan.
Absolutely. He wanted to use them as props and they refused.
The photo is a memorial of the trip for those on it, not an advertising flier for Ryan. Ryan doesn’t need advertising flyers and he indubitably had a drawer full of such photos taken with school groups who were not instructed to be ungracious.
dss – you are correct. Senators and Congressman do this sort of thing for constituents all the time. This would have been a picture for the classroom, not for his campaign.
Paul Ryan, like the orange fascist, deserves no respect. Repugthuglicans control the house through gerrymandering and because of that are unlikely to loose control. Respect is earned, not given. Neither have the orange fascist nor Ryan done anything to deserve respect from anybody. As my Aussie buddies say, good on ’em for the students.
@sgtsabai – your name-calling says a great deal more about you than about your targets.
It;s a parody post.
Sgt, I largely agree.
Respect is to be earned and the current Speaker of the House certainly has failed to earn it.
It’s a pity you’re students were treated to your wisdom for so many decades.
Ryan is an apologist for the dictator and he wants to take away your healthcare. Expect more walkouts.
Paul Ryan got drunk and bragged about wanting to starve the elderly and take away their healthcare.. he lost my respect.
The USA has become a much meaner place since the election of the orange one. He sets a very hostile tone.