Monday, June 30, 2008

Swedish school confiscates boy's party invitations

If a boy is inviting people to his birthday party, shouldn't he be allowed to invite his friends (subject to parental approval, of course)?

School officials in Lund, Sweden say no. They say an eight-year-old boy has to invite all his classmates, including the boys who don't get along with him.

Because, you know, otherwise it's discrimination.

We know this because when he handed out invitations, he didn't invite two boys, whereupon the school officials confiscated the invitations.

The boy's father has been reduced to filing a complaint with something called a "parliamentary ombudsman."

Uhm.

Raise your hand if you're glad you don't have a child in that school.

Raise your other hand if you're glad you don't live in Sweden.

(I thought the civil rights movement was all about encouraging people to judge other people on the basis of their character, instead of on the basis of irrelevant factors beyond their control. What in the world happened to that worthy goal? And how did mindlessness, of all things, take its place?)

2 comments:

Barb Szyszkiewicz said...

Hmmmm.

All the schools my kids have ever attended have had a policy that you must invite all the children in the class or at least all the same-gender children in the class IF YOU WANT TO DISTRIBUTE INVITATIONS AT SCHOOL. If you mail them, you can ask whomever you want.

I happen to know, however, that this policy is never enforced. It's a nice guideline, and it does at least have the potential to give one pause about the advisability of excluding children so obviously in this way.

Deliver us from the Land of the Nanny State. You can't legislate politeness.

Anonymous said...

You stated "discrimination" towards the middle of your post, however towards the end you were DISCRIMINATING the Swedish!!!!!