NEW York City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott is standing behind
a Brooklyn principal's controversial decision to pull the plug on a popular
patriotic song that was scheduled to be performed at a kindergarten graduation.
[He should be standing behind her pushing her out the front door, with a pink slip in her hand.]
PS 90 Principal Greta Hawkins won't allow the boys and girls to belt out Lee Greenwood's ballad "God Bless the USA" because it is not "age appropriate." [Age appropriate?? These are Kindergarteners and she thinks the words to Justin Bieber's song 'Baby'? I think this says a lot about the mental capabilities of Ms. Hawkins.]
And Mr Walcott said that is fine by him. [ A loss for words!!!! This guy is as mentally deficent as Ms. Hawkins]
"It's her judgment to make that decision," Mr Walcott said. "It's important to reinforce that they start out the morning every day of the school year with the Pledge of Allegiance and America the Beautiful, and that, to me, is what this country is about, and they celebrate that, and that's how we should start our day. [What does starting the morning have to do with a program for the graduation ceremonies?? It would seem to me that if the kids are starting the morning by saying the Pledge of Allegiance and American the Beautiful, then this song, God Bless the USA makes more sense than Justin Bieber's song. While it may be "her judgment to make that decision", it's Mr. Walcott's job to oversee the decisions she makes. And if they are wrong, as this one is, then he needs to over ride her.]
"You have to really wonder about some of the lyrics in the song, so I have to rely on the principal's judgment along that line." [Say WHAT?!?!?!!????? What's to wonder about???? Lee Greenwood's song is filled with lyrics that are patriotic while Bieber's song contains lyrics that teenagers can understand but not kindergarteners.]
Mr Walcott was responding to the New York Post's story about Hawkins' unpopular decision to ditch the song for the June 20 moving-up ceremony.
It was replaced on the playlist with Justin Bieber's Baby, a flirty song about teenage romance. [And we're dealing with 5 year olds????]
At issue, according to a Department of Education spokeswoman, are lyrics from the tune's opening verse, "If tomorrow all the things were gone/I'd worked for all my life/And I had to start again/with just my children and my wife."
They were deemed inappropriate for the five-year-old children. [Honestly I think the 5 year olds understand the lyrics to Lee Greenwood's song better than Mr. Walcott or Ms. Hawkins.]
Staffers quoted Ms Hawkins as saying, "We don't want to offend other cultures." [Ms. Hawkins should be more concerned about the millions of Americans she's offending and not a handful of "other cultures", which are probably illegal aliens to start with.]
Parents and teachers angry over Ms Hawkins' decision launched a Facebook page demanding she be sacked.
[And angry they should be. Every parent with children in that school should be at the front door of the school voicing their disgust with Ms. Hawkins and those above her who will not get this song re-instated.]
"If the DOE has any brains they should remove her tomorrow," seethed one angry anonymous staffer in a posting. "We were the victims of 9/11. It hit New York really hard. That song became famous because of that tragedy. Removing that song is horrific. It's opening the wound again." [Therein is the problem. The DOE wouldn't know what a brain is if they were holding one in their hands]
Ms Hawkins could not be reached for comment. [I wonder why not?]
Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:
No comments:
Post a Comment