Thankfullness all around during this holiday season
In this Thanksgiving season, lots of folks give a thought or two about the things we have to be thankful for. Of course, there’s maybe a lot of folks who might be just thinking of all the Black Friday deals looming on the horizon, but I would hope that most people take the time to consider what they have and what they have avoided.
The first Thanksgiving story relates to the native Americans and the immigrant Pilgrims getting together to have a meal together to celebrate the harvest. Without the Indians’ assistance, the Pilgrims would have perished from starvation as they were woefully unprepared to meet the challenge of living in the New World. The English expatriates had fled their own country for religious freedom and, while things were tough for awhile, they eventually survived and flourished. Without native help, it wouldn’t have happened.
Here in Pea Ridge, we can be very thankful for the school and community as it has become a place that people want to come or move to. The school facilities are topnotch, the academic programs the same, and no student seeking success in athletics will be held back because of a lack of opportunity.
Reading the news stories of the past few months ought to make locals extremely thankful to be living in this little corner of Arkansas. In one school recently, a dad was arrested because he walked to his daughter’s elementary school to walk her home after school. School policy required that to go home, students either ride the bus, ride in approved cars, or walk home on their own. The dad walked up because he didn’t live very far from the school and he could walk his daughter home faster than using his car because of the long lines at this particular school. However, it was against “policy” so the police were called.
In California, in one particular school, a boy felt like he was really a girl so the school allowed him to use the girls’ restroom facilities. In New York City, the word “dinosaur” has been banned from any test material because it might “evoke unpleasant emotions” in the students.
If you want to hear about real insanity, just bring up the topic of guns. In Maryland, a kindergartener chewed his Pop Tart into the shape of a gun and was promptly suspended. Many nutritionists would argue that consuming a Pop Tart is way more harmful than making a toy of one.
In another school in Maryland, a boy was suspended for bring a 1-inch toy Lego gun to school. A 5-yea- old girl in Pennsylvania was suspended for having a small pink gun that made soap bubbles, and similar stories are endless.
In Los Angeles county, because of political correctness, if any child has an Easter egg at school, or one of those hollow plastic kind with candy inside, they must be referred to as “treat spheres.” The schools don’t want to offend anybody who doesn’t believe in Easter. Of course, the school is fostering ignorance in that eggs are not sphere shape, since spheres are perfectly round.
Getting back to guns, in this local paper, students are often pictured together with their hunting rifles and whatever game they may have harvested. In a recent art display and project, my kindergarten through fifth-grade students drew pictures of American military veterans over the years. Many of them were drawn holding — can you believe it? — weapons!
Interestingly enough, I was asked by some of my older students who were new to the district if I was breaking a law. Where they came from, they would be suspended for even drawing a weapon or gun. This question brought an excellent opportunity for a conversation.
I told the students that it was matter of context. Students drawing weapons depicting scenes of abuse or mindless violence would find their art in the waste basket, although I would refrain from having them arrested. Guns in and of themselves are not evil, they are just a tool, which can be used for the good or for the bad.
It wasn’t that many years ago that I made a request of my principal if I could get a person from the Pea Ridge Battlefield to come over and talk to the kids, or if I could make a field trip to the nationally recognized park. The answer I got was not just no, but what was I thinking? There are guns out there! They talk about war! The place is completely inappropriate for children!
Thankfully, that lady is long gone and now the school not only recognizes the importance of the battlefield, but embraces it. It is one thing to glorify war, but quite another to recognize and cherish the sacrifice of others who made our lives as free as they are.
In this Thanksgiving season, I am most thankful for freedom. Over the course of human history, very few people have lived in what could be described as a free society or environment. There are those who would like to change that and make America more like the rest of the world, but for the present, we are the freest of the free.
Living in a community that has the best of the things that matter most is truly a cause for Thanksgiving.
Editor’s note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at prtnews@nwaonline.com.