Teachers, "It's the Law"!

The American Magazine ran a series entitled "It's the Law" from 1934 through 1956, created by Dick Hyman and cartoonist Otto Soglow.  I pored over them in the summer of 1991.  I made a number of photocopies.  Some provide insight into times past.  Some shed light on the lingering nature of archaic laws.  Some make you wonder at times how there was ever any sense to or need for such laws. 

The imagination could run wild, speculating why anyone would take the time to create and pass some of these laws.  Some crack me up.  Some are probably still on the books somewhere.  Surely every country has its share of seemingly strange ordinances; here are a few examples from The American Magazine: 

              

                     December 1936                                                                 April 1946

                                                                              May 1950

Here are two cartoons that I dug up from my archives depicting

teacher-related laws.  The first is from December 1942.  The second is from September 1944.

     

 

These laws seem to stand in stark contrast with current trends of educational deformity, blaming teachers and treating them as scapegoats.  In the spirit of Race to the Top, I feel we need "It's the Law" cartoons more than ever today.  Such cartoons could point to the faulty principles upon which our current national education laws are founded, including an increasing emphasis on high-stakes standardized assessments, the evaluation of teachers and schools based upon the same and the creation of intrusive data systems.  It's a pity that "It's the Law."