( CNN ) If ignorance is bliss , then America must be a pleasure junkie , because we sure are chasing that dragon . The most recent example : A school in New York sought to celebrate `` National Foreign Language Week '' by having the pledge of allegiance read in a different language every day . You get one guess as to what happened when it was Arabic day . Complaints came in from both Jewish parents and people who had lost family in Afghanistan , according to the school superintendent . What language do they speak in Afghanistan ? Not Arabic . The main languages are Dari and Pashto . Perhaps this complaint illustrates why we need more education , not less . Unfortunately , this was n't an isolated incident . Earlier this year in Florida , parents were up in arms because a school taught about Islam in a history class . And , there are perennial stories about `` Americans '' offended by a Spanish recitation of the pledge . Because of the outcry , Pine Bush students will now not hear the pledge in Italian , Spanish , Japanese , or French , as planned . That they were deprived of such a pedagogical exercise is bad enough . What is worse is that the school district felt that it had to apologize . The district 's statement was a surrender to ignorance . `` The intention was to promote the fact that those who speak a language other than English still pledge to salute this great country . We sincerely apologize to any students , staff or community members who found this activity disrespectful . '' Instead of the Pine Bush students learning about other languages and cultures , they learned that the `` heckler 's veto '' and phony tales of `` offense '' trump open mindedness and the quest for knowledge . At least they do in modern-day American education . Perhaps this is a lesson best learned now , because once they get to college , it will be even worse . Our universities were once places where ideas were safe to flourish , and we went to question what we knew . Today , they are places where disfavored ideas are all but banned . According to students , Dixie State ( Utah ) bans posters that `` mock '' anyone , including former president Bush . Last year , Smith College 's president apologized and there was a student outcry because students had `` hurt feelings '' when alumna Wendy Kaminer argued at a panel discussion moderated by the college president against using the euphemism `` the n-word '' in historical discussions . She believed that using the actual word , in context , was proper ( and it is ) . Yes , censorship of ideas and speech is no longer a top-down or parent-driven phenomenon . Now students themselves insist on being insulated from anything that might make them question their beliefs . Instead of debating an anti-abortion protester , Oregon University students preferred to call the campus police -- who briefly took their side . George Will was slated to speak at Scripps College in a program specifically designed to challenge students ' prevailing views . But , since he challenged the feminist view of sexual assault on campus , Scripps pulled his invitation . When I went to college , I enjoyed challenging my beliefs . I still do . I hope that my children constantly do the same . That is how we grow . If we can not tolerate foreign languages , or distasteful ideas , even in an educational setting , what hope do we have ? When we have orthodoxy of thought , the very notion of liberty begins to shrivel up and die . When the cry of `` I 'm offended '' can shut down debate over philosophies , or learning about other cultures , or learning other languages , then what have our educational institutions become ? How much further will this enforced ignorance and orthodoxy need to go before education is just another word that comes untethered from its meaning ? And the very inspiration for this column , a debate over the pledge of allegiance , makes the problem even more glaring . A rote and thought-free-chant of mindless allegiance ca n't even be expressed in a different language ? Is America really so fragile that if a citizen proclaims `` fidelità agli Stati Uniti '' that it means anything less because it is in Italian ? Perhaps this highlights more than the fact that we should step away from the brink of ignorance while we can . Perhaps a good place to start is by doing away with enforced orthodoxy of thought and speech in the first place . Perhaps a good place to do that would be by doing away with the pledge of allegiance itself . Perhaps if we pledged to uphold the Constitution , instead of a piece of cloth , we would be reminded of what really built this nation -- the Spirit of the Enlightenment . No views are so sacred that they need not be challenged . Whether we are talking about learning to say the Pledge in Japanese , or hearing a speaker who challenges our beliefs , that is what education is about , not enforced ignorance .
NY school district canceled its experiment with the Pledge for `` National Foreign Language Week '' a week of activities and events to promote foreign language learning in schools across New York City that was scheduled from Sept. 19 through Oct. 2.