Do "good citizens" always listen to leaders?
Ilya Somin was taken aback by the worksheet his seven-year-old daughter brought home from school, he writes on Facebook. "Some of these are highly dubious!"
Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, was born in the Soviet Union and came to the U.S. at the age of five. He writes:
1. Good citizens do NOT necessarily listen to leaders. Depends on what the leader is saying, and on his track record.
2. Good citizens disobey gravely unjust laws. The people who violated the Fugitive Slave Act were better citizens than those who obeyed it.
3. Not all good citizens work or go to school. Stay at home parents can be good citizens, for example.
Yes, I know you have to simplify things for little kids sometimes. But the above are NOT too complicated to explain to 7 year olds.
I see his daughter marked an "E" for some questions, perhaps standing for "eh," and tan ambiguous picture (a melting snowman? lounging ant?) for the listening to leaders question.