The nail that sticks up

The nail that sticks up...... how we end that sentence is one of the things that sets Americans apart from other places. In Japan, the answer to that statement is - "Must be hammered down." Fitting in and confirming is high on their list of cultural expectations. Here, we might say - makes a great place to hang a tool, or a picture or even your hat. It might make us ask - Why is that nail sticking up? do we need a repair? or is there a design flaw? - or whatever. Most of our ancestors were WAY out of the box thinkers, heck they hopped out of the box, over a big pond and many couldn't look back. That took a lot of determination. That took lots of courage, self reliance and acceptance that their actions would not fit into the usual definitions. What, you might ask; brought up this train of thought? - The events of last week at Forest Lake high school - or rather the lack of an event. When I read on the district website that the event was canceled over, and I will quote from the website "Despite what is being circulated via the Internet, local and national media, and even gossip around town, the real reason for the cancellation of this event came down to student safety and maintaining our educational mission." From the Forest Lake Schools website: http://www.forestlake.k12.mn.us/
Ok, student safety - In a country where demonstrators have near free reign to demonstrate as a right in our constitution, what does it say about us when the school is afraid for what might happen. On the point of our educational mission - when do you teach how this country works?, when and how to demonstrate? How to handle being a holder of a controversial, maybe even out of the box idea? No, those lessons were overlooked again, along with respect for those who answer the call and serve. Honor, duty, country - things bigger than the needs of one, who can serve to lift all, those are important lessons that seem to have lost their place in classrooms where zero tolerance means no right or wrong, just punish everyone in the hope that this will fix the situation. As a parent I realize that the lessons I taught and continue to teach will have to be reinforced at home. School isn't what it used to be, and that nail won't be used or investigated - now it will just be hammered down or covered up.
Just my .02