Statecraft Informer

So everybody is up in arms over at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, MD, because students are having to wear ID tags of varying colors. Each color represents one of eleven sub-sets of learning “academies�? on the campus of 3,000 students.

The administration had hoped to bring about a new sense of togetherness within the various groups, but students complain the new policy “tags us like dogs, “ or, “We look like Skittles now.�?

While it’s still too soon to tell what long-term effects wearing what almost 400 Blair students polled called a “hideous embarrassment,�? it clear what some other cases color-coding have wrought.

More than four years ago, President Bush announced the Homeland Security Advisory System, representing “Threat Conditions�? being faced by America and its citizens from terrorist attacks. Can you name them? They are Green = Low; Blue = Guarded; Yellow = Elevated; Orange = High; and Red = Severe levels of “risk of terrorist attacks.�? Do you know what today’s color is? Do you care? Do the terrorists?

House paint has an amazingly complicated color-coding system, which require hardware and paint professionals to input a series of numbers into a computer in order for you to get that Autumn Sage you always wanted for the living room. Nobody seems to know or care what the numbers and corresponding colors mean as long as the shade and price are right.

Handy people, and every electrician (in the U.S.) know, the white (or gray) wire is neutral, the black (or red) is hot, and the green (or bare) goes to ground. Not too complicated, easy to remember, very effective. Most people never think about it and the wires don’t care.

The country has been divided into so-called “red�? and “blue�? states, depending on their preference for either Republicans or Democrats. Now it looks as if the color-coded map of the U.S. may not mean so very much in a couple of weeks. If people take my advice and vote for anyone other than R’s and D’s, that map won’t matter at all.

Back in Montgomery Blair High, disgruntled students will wear their ID badges and lanyards, or face the consequences (there are penalties!). Administrators say there has been less hazing this year than in past years. Students say they just reinforce old stereotypes, encouraging prejudice, and generally making them feel foolish.

Time will tell whether this color-coding exercise is a harbinger of a greater trend, aiding in the orderly, safe, intelligent operation of educational institutions throughout the land, or just dumb idea by another group of bureaucrats trying to simplify what is becoming an increasingly complicated life.