Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences, a K-12 facility in Santa Monica, California, is tired of all the political insanity out there. To help ameliorate this state of affairs, the school has decided to use its campus assets, its school email system, and its teachers to sponsor a Jon Stewart-styled rally to “restore sanity” in its area.

Luckily for Santa Monica such “moderate” voices as 60s counterculture activist Tom Hayden, progressive talk show host and activist lawyer Jim Lafferty of the National Lawyers Guild, and others are going to be on hand to shout down the “extremists” out there. But with this list of speakers, “moderation” is the last thing that can be expected.

This rally raises many questions. Private school or not, why is a school for younger children advocating adult political issues to its students by hosting a list of left-wing, radical speakers and presenting them as “moderates”? How can a school that claims to be interested in fostering “diversity” be lending itself to a rally lacking diversity of thought? Does this school get any federal or state money? If so, how can it justify the use of its teachers, technology, and facilities for a partisan, left-wing rally?

The Crossroads school, a private institution with tuition from between $22,806 and $27,210 per child, per year, has announced its rally on a Facebook page and has it planned for an off-class day, Saturday, October 30. (My emphasis)

The Crossroads’ Political Union Club will be hosting “Crossroad’s Rally to Restore Sanity” a day of Music, Food and Speakers. This event will mimic Jon Stewart’s rally in Washington D.C. and will take place on October 30th from 10 AM until 5 PM in the Crossroad’s alley. This event is open to the public. So far Davis Guggenheim (director of “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Waiting for Superman”), Tom Hayden, Jim Lafferty (Head of the …National Lawyer’s Guild and talk show host on KPFK), Sharon Baradaran (Poly Science professor at UCLA and founder of the Israeli Studies program), Jim Miller (producer of “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price”) and Kelly Carlin Crossroads Class of 81′ (author, performer and host of “Walking from the American Dream” on NewDissidentRadio.com) will be speaking. There will be a lot of student bands as well as The Jane Carrey Band (Ian Sloane ‘06, Terry Goldber ‘06, Jane Carrey and George Krikes). This is an event organized primarily by students with the help of Humanities teacher Carole Winter.

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Here’s a little mid-week scare courtesy of the 4thgraders4obama YouTube Channel. (Don’t waste your time — I searched high and low and no luck finding the 4thgraders4bush YouTube Channel.) Yes, you read that right, an entire portal filled with nearly a dozen videos devoted to nine and ten year-olds singing, speaking and in general, getting awfully excited over a politician on the brink of having us all long for the good old days of Jimmy Carter. Here’s a taste:

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The programmer teacher is Ms. Clark (she makes a short appearance here), but there wasn’t anything that identified the actual school. In last week’s Elementary Epidemic you saw a mix of Obama-enthusiasm. Some of the videotaped students were reminiscent of POWs speaking against their will on camera as they blink a Morse code plea for help, others were truly excited — and it’s the excited ones that are most worrisome. They’re gone. Lost forever… Ms. Clark’s entire class is like that.

The 4thgraders4obama videos do give us a broader glimpse into the methodology at work in our nation’s classrooms. In a couple of the videos you’ll see the kids watching President Obama on television and the whole class is as giddy as though they were in line for Space Mountain. Other videos have the kids standing before the camera reading what sounds like love letters to the First Family. Public or private school — that makes no difference. You don’t do this to young minds. There’s a wide berth between infusing your children with values and this. (more…)