Pre-school history lessons

The following is not just me bragging; it can easily be confirmed by my wife: My four-year-old son practically worships the ground upon which I tread. I mean, c'mon, isn't every four-year-old boy awed by his father?

With that in mind, I do have to be mindful of what I tell my son, because he will believe every word I say and take it at face value. While I am indeed mindful of this, problems can arise when my stated beliefs conflict with those of others, and my intellectually curious son is all too happy to share my (his) beliefs with anyone who will listen.

A little back story is needed before I give you an example. Being a history teacher, history buff, and former member of our military, there are ample conversation pieces around the house that have prompted my son to ask me anything and everything about history; especially military history. He has grilled me on World War II, wanting to know who was involved, who were the bad guys, who were the good guys, what kinds of weapons were used, etc. I told him that in World War II, the primary bad guys were the Germans and the Japanese. I then stressed that this all happened when Grandpa was a little boy, and now in 2009, Germany and Japan are our friends.

Now I need to mention one more relevant piece of information before I continue my story. Every afternoon, two very nice Japanese ladies come to my son's pre-school to teach the students rudimentary Japanese - greetings, salutations, songs, that sort of thing.

(Yeah, you know where this is going, don't you?)

A couple of days ago, my son - bless his heart, he was just trying to make conversation - told the two ladies that "During World War II, the Japanese were the bad guys." Soon after, I arrived to pick him up, but when I entered the classroom, his teacher - who is an extremely sweet lady - gave me the "come hither" signal, and we spoke quietly in the corner, where she told me what had happened. Then it got interesting. In a very sweet and roundabout way, the teacher admonished me that she hoped that I would be balanced and tell my son that even though we Americans might look at the Japanese as being the "bad guys" in World War II, I also should explain to him that "in their eyes," the Japanese might look at themselves as the good guys in that War, and that who is considered to be good and bad is based on the perception of the two opposing sides.

I was surprised by my perfectly polite, yet firm, response. Without feeling the least bit embarrassed about pressing the matter (this is huge for me!), I quietly and very sweetly told the teacher that I had to disagree with her on that one, and that there was no way I would ever tell my son what she just suggested. I ended it by saying, "I'm sorry, but if you read about what they did, the Japanese were the bad guys in World War II." I then emphasized that I had also informed my son that the Germans were the bad guys too, and that we are friendly with both countries today.

It is this kind of guilt-ridden moral equivalence that runs rampant among much of the faculty and administration in our nation's schools, both public and private. It's a good thing that my children have a heartless right-wing warmonger like me to inoculate them against the inevitable inanities that they will encounter during their education years.

Good Day to You, Sir