IT'S NOT LATIN FOR 'DRIVING PARENTS CRAZY': In Loco Parentis is a description of the schools back in a simpler time. Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal writes about a court opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas in the case of "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," where Thomas notes the original role of schools:

A North Carolina court in 1837 spoke of the need "to control stubbornness, to quicken diligence and to reform bad habits." In 1886, a Maine court said school leaders must "quicken the slothful, spur the indolent and restrain the impetuous." An 1859 Vermont court spoke of preserving "decency and decorum."

Missouri's court in 1885 found reasonable a rule that "forbade the use of profane language." Indiana's in 1888 ruled in favor of "good deportment." An 1843 manual for schoolmasters speaks of "a core of common values" and teaching the "power of self-control, and a habit of postponing present indulgence to a greater future good."

Imagine a school where the most pressing problem is bad language.

Read the whole thing.

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