In early February, LU ran a piece noting that Delaware was considering allowing 5-year-olds to choose their own gender, race, and even name. Soon after that story ran, the shootings at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School took center stage, catapulting a skinny teen named David Hogg into the limelight, where he and his “children’s crusade” to end gun violence have remained.
Part of the reason for Hogg’s longevity as the voice of “gun reform” is the adulation liberal media and entertainers have heaped on him, which is a growing problem in our society. Some adults, unable to solve the problems life hands them, are willing to punt, hoping that the next generation can provide the answers they couldn’t.
The latest manifestation of this has occurred in Rockland County, N.Y., where two fifth-graders — 11-year-old Niko Keeley and 10-year-old Christopher Deleon – began a petition to do away with homework. The frightening part is that “adults” in their community are listening.
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“I hate homework. It stresses me out,” Keeley told CBS New York. It’s not hard to imagine the boy in 15 or 20 years making the same declaration about work, but North Rockland County Assistant School Superintendent Kris Felicello isn’t thinking that far ahead.
“It’s not about banning homework,” he told reporters. “It’s about looking at it differently and how are we going to do it better.”
But doing “it better” doesn’t seem to be what Keeley and Deleon have in mind. As Deleon explains it, “He [Keeley] was like, ‘Chris, so I have an idea, I want no homework.’ And I was like, ‘OK, that sounds pretty good. I think everyone would agree on that.’”
“No homework, paper, signatures,” Keeley added. No wonder the boys got 150 signatures from fellow students. What fifth-grader wouldn’t sign a petition to deep-six homework for good?
Then again, that’s why fifth-graders are not routinely given adult jobs and responsibilities, David Hogg’s nonsensical drive to lower the voting age notwithstanding.
CBS also interviewed Peggy Macnamara, of the Bank Street Graduate School of Education, who told reporters that no homework can be detrimental. “They lose sort of an independence of themselves, of what they can do on their own,” she said.
Noting that there is such a thing as too much homework, she recommends that fifth- graders receive about 30 minutes of “meaningful work,” adding, “If I’m giving you homework where you’re not learning anything from that homework, that’s not helpful.”
And what is Christopher Deleon response? “It makes me feel powerful and important.”
Say hello to a future Democratic lawmaker.
