Valentine's Day Travesty

I try not to talk too much about my school on my blog. I figure it's public record so I don't want to say something that could hurt me later. But I can't help but write about what's going on at my school right now. It's absolutely ridiculous!

I am not sure exactly how it all came to be. I think it was a collaboration between several people. The end result is hard to explain.

For Valentine's Day our school is having a Queen and King of the Valentine's Day dance as well as a prince and princess for each grade. I suppose we are giving the kids a preview of the Homecoming Popularity competition they will face in high school. The actual idea of a king and queen and a little court are not what bothers me so much. Each class was instructed to nominate a prince and a princess from their class. We teachers let the kids vote but made sure they voted for a kid with good conduct who does their work. Each prince and princess was told to make posters advertising their campaign for Valentine's Day prince or princess as well as a ballot box where the other kids can vote for them. The kids were also told that they could hand out items to get the kids to vote for them. Basically, they were told they could bribe the other kids to get them to vote for them. Great lesson!

Our school is predominately low-income, though there are a few wealthier families. This idea of bringing things to give out to the other kids to garner their votes is blatantly discriminatory towards the kids who don't have enough money to buy candy and pencils to give out. Another slight to the low income kids is that each kid has to pay a quarter to vote. Basically if you and your friends are rich enough, you can become a Valentine's Day prince or princess. What an awful lesson we are teaching these kids! I can hardly believe it. Some of the teachers have helped their kids a bit in creating posters and ballot boxes. I love my kids but I am so weirded out by this popularity contest, that I can't bring myself to help them. My prince hasn't even brought his ballot box to school or put up any posters yet. I don't really blame him.