‘Soul-crushing windbaggery’

Teaching our school children ‘The Challenge of Excellence’ sounds like an exciting and promising goal.

Except when the epitome of excellence is just being positive.

The page highlights the “six qualities believed to be basic to positive human conduct”: integrity, respect, responsibility, courage, justice and empathy. Worthy enough — to a point.

Unfortunately, most of the 34 bullet points that follow have nothing to with those six qualities, and certainly have nothing to do with helping kids master their multiplication tables and learn how to spell. A sampling of the pap includes (keep in mind, this is for elementary students):

— “Working for peace in the global village”

— “Acknowledging prejudices and striving to overcome them”

— “Displaying the courage to be imperfect”

— “Practicing diligence”

— “Striving to change long standing habits and replace them with open, searching minds”

— Providing “opportunities that enable them to be fair to themselves and others”

— “Struggling with unsettled questions to gain understanding or insight”

— “Recognizing the interdependence among peoples”

— “Seeking social justice”

Those last two nuggets aren’t character-development tools — they’re political ideals. “Social justice” is the new rallying cry for egalitarianism, the belief that everyone should enjoy the same social and economic standing regardless of their abilities or contributions. It is a philosophy, increasingly embraced by far-left Democrats, that seeks not merely equal opportunities, but equal outcomes through the redistribution of wealth and the imposition of racial, ethnic, gender-identity and sexual orientation quotas on darn near everything.

There it is. Disordered priorities.

Provide equal opportunity, and the outcome will be determined by effort, desire, skill and passion. But say that at your own risk.

If anyone in the administration were ever brave enough to question why the district was wasting paper — and the time of parents — pointing out the “six qualities believed to be basic to positive human conduct,” they’d be exposed as heretics. They’d be punished…

These people don’t trust you to take the time to talk to your children about all the differences that you and your kids don’t notice and don’t care about. So it leaks into public education — sometimes in drips, sometimes in gushers — through politically correct textbooks, worksheets and booklets from headquarters.

All this serves as yet another warning to parents that if you don’t take the time to impart values and explain the world we live in, the state will be more than happy to do it for you.

School is open. Navigate carefully.