Under the "right" conditioning?

This bothers me. Raising teenagers to believe they can't be trusted will not beget a generation of well adjusted young adults.

Yet we send that message every time we invade their privacy, from drug testing to random police dog sweeps and now this, monitoring their lunch choices. It's no wonder they have no respect for anything when they are treated with such disrespect by adults.

More disturbing, is the idea of raising a whole generation of public school children to expect to be under constant surveillance. Add to that the growing movement to replace science with creationism, to the abandonment of teaching critical thinking in favor of teaching the answers to standardized tests under the No Child Left Behind Act, just for two, and the extremist right's agenda already takes on a more sinister air.

And who will challenge it? As Goslin says, "For the occasional student who sees through the system-wide scam, there’s always the resort to labeling such an individual a dangerous, anti-social crackpot."

[hat tip to Sharon Secor]