Violent imagery from conservative educator

by David Safier

This isn't a big deal, but it's part of a frightening trend: the increasingly violence-tinged imagery of the right wing.

Educator Diane Ravitch has been making news lately, because she's gone from promoting conservative educational ideas to bashing NCLB, high stakes testing and charter schools, moving to the left of Obama and Arne Duncan.

But what I'm talking about isn't her use of language. It's Chester Finn's, a conservative educator Ravitch used to agree with in her more conservative days.

In the article, Finn says, he and Ravitch see similar problems but different solutions.

“Diane says, ‘Let’s return to the old public school system,’ ” [Finn] said. “I say let’s blow it up.”

Why "blow it up"? Why not "start over" or something similar?

Like I said, it's not a big deal, but gratuitous violent imagery is becoming increasingly common among conservatives. I've come to expect this kind of thing at tea parties and anti-abortion rallies. But from an educator? He should know better than to use "schools" and "blow it up" in the same statement.