The Egg Drop Predicament

I'd like to relay a story to you and then I want you to decide if it's true or made up. It's a short story so don't worry. The father of a high school senior was collecting materials at the local market for his son's school project, the infamous eggdrop competition now standard in most public school physic classes. The students are challenged to produce a container that will protect an egg from destruction when dropped from a height that would normally easily crack the shell of an egg. Limitations and restrictions are placed on what can be used and so the experiment becomes a test of ingenuity for the students all else being equal. The father in a moment of whimsy buys a carton of brown eggs , instead of the typical white eggs that most students would use. Not a big deal , it's just the expected norm. On the day of the competition the container used by his son fails to safely deliver the egg to the ground and the boy's grade is of course negatively affected. The father of the boy objects and officially accuses the physic teacher and the school, of racism based on the color of his son's egg. The dispute goes to court and the school system settles for an undisclosed monetary judgement. I'll give you a moment to ponder the veracity of this story. (3,2,1)

I just saw a guy on TV who made a documentary called The War On Children. It's premise is that in today's public schools there exists an atmosphere that closely resembles that of a prison more than an atmosphere that promotes individuality and creativity. This trade off is the result of what can be described as a climate of fear within the school environment that struggles daily with the possibility of violence and the more sobering thought of litigation and lawsuits from all directions. This fear, not necessarily unfounded, has resulted in a fundamental change in the way students are learning and preparing for life in the real world. And it sucks.

I myself raised two boys both in public school and routinely dealt with absurd issues like the logic of school uniforms or why toy weapons or nooses can't be brought to school or even pictures of these items brought to school because of the liability it creates for the school system. It's a society on pins and needles ( or dare I say eggshells) and schools are now routinely equipped with their own law enforcement teams, networks of security cameras and students who give up a percentage of their civil liberties in the way of random searches of clothing and belongings. How does this foster learning and what does this teach our future generations who are slowly being conditioned to conform and comply to authority without question? This trend did not start with the Obama administration. It's been growing since Columbine. The Secret Service was solicited by previous administrations to research and provide recommendations to the Department of Education as to how to fix the fear. George W. Bush and his Education Secretary pushed for the measures that we currently see being instituted nationwide in our schools. For all purposes public schools are little mini police states preparing our population for mediocrity and unquestioned compliance.

Think about that for a while. Conformity and compliance. Sounds like a cautionary science fiction story. Oh yeah, and about the egg drop story?... I made it up, but you have to admit it could very likely happen and , tell the truth, you almost believed it.