And at this rate, stupid is going to be pretty bad
Graduates from Richmond’s Binford Middle School get a diplomalike certificate, signed by the teacher and principal. It is ringed by six graphic marks, including icons of a notebook, an apple, the school mascot and such.
Then there is a picture of a man. And who is this icon of American education?
Not John Dewey or Horace Mann, both of whom were called fathers of American education. It’s not Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin or George Washington, either. Nor is it even James H. Binford, the first superintendent of Richmond Public Schools, for whom the school was named when it opened in 1915. This picture looks a little like Albert Einstein, perhaps. Or maybe Frederick Douglass. Or the Smith Brothers cough syrup guy. . . .
Wait a minute. . . .
It’s Karl Marx!
Not exactly the father of education. This is the father of socialism. The father of communism. Author of “The Communist Manifesto.” Any Google image search confirms it. The specific Marx image on the Binford certificate, artistically embellished with books in the background, can be found online.
There’s nothing odd with teaching Karl Marx. Any well-rounded education ought to include his ideas. But Marx as the sole human symbol of Binford Middle School? In fact, if you were to rank anyone in the world who might appear on a graduation certificate in Richmond what number would Marx be? Would he even make the top million? Karl Marx would rank below Groucho Marx.
Binford Principal Juanita Nicholson said yesterday that she had not known the photo was of Marx or the reason for its use. She agreed it was an odd choice. Nicholson said one of the teachers on a committee apparently had done it. “I’m not sure . . . she even knew who it was.”
Turns out she didn’t.
Richmond schools spokeswoman Felicia Cosby called last night to explain: “She really thought she was capturing clip art representing Frederick Douglass. She did a search to pull up Frederick Douglass and this is what came up . . . with the beard and the hair.”
Hold on. Wait a minute.
One was a German philosopher, the other an African-American slave who became a leading abolitionist. They can’t be distinguished? The teacher, the school and the school system “apologize profusely if this image offended parents and children alike,” Cosby said. “But it was not intentional to put an image of Karl Marx up.” It will be taken off in the future, she said.
Those poor children.