Public School Salutes the Troops

Public School Salutes the Troops

I have posted with some frequency criticism of the goings-on and the lack of educational focus in America’s public schools, what I believe is much-needed criticism, and the following should in no way be interpreted as a retraction of those critiques.

Something very good happened in the auditorium of a Long Island public middle school on Tuesday evening. (My grandaughter’s “graduation” and receipt of three or four awards were good but merely tangential expressions of a grampa’s pride and not the subject of this article, so don’t stop reading!)

The fact the school is located in the same district in which the horrendous quadruple, drug-motivated ”pharmacy murders” occurred last Sunday is inconsequential except insofar as it illustrates the abiding tenaciousness of the district’s residents in the face of the shocking murders. They would not be phased and they turned out in droves to watch their young sons and daughters move on up from elementary school to sixth grade, and then to support our troops.

It began as a typical school event, for the audience if not the students, with teachers and administrators hogging much too much lectern time and with anticipated minor glitches in the ceremony. Various speakers, many of whom didn’t know the kids, got the opportunity to praise and encourage them anyway while getting in plugs for their bosses, including the New York State Attorney General and others.

One of the speakers occasioned a totally unrehearsed and obviously unanticipated demonstration by the audience.

After a student rendition of all three stanzas of “The Star Spangled Banner,” two of which I’m ashamed to admit I don’t think I had ever heard, a representative of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter approached the mic and introduced the young man clad in camouflage standing at his side. They were there to present meritorious service awards to deserving students.

The VFW rep gave a brief introduction to the soldier, citing his year fighting in Afghanistan where he sustained unspecified injuries. After the intro, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4857)