High school students rebelling against pacifist agenda.

The placid surface of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School is being ruffled by a kerfuffle over a class in "Peace Studies." Some students think it should be removed from the curriculum, arguing that

"The 'class' is headed by an individual with a political agenda, who wants to teach students the 'right' way of thinking by giving them facts that are skewed in one direction.. . ."

Within a few hours, the normally staid e-mail list BCCnet -- a site for announcements, job postings and other housekeeping details in the life of a school -- was ablaze with chatter. By the time Principal Sean Bulson checked his BlackBerry on Sunday evening, there were more than 150 postings from parents and students -- some ardently in support, some ardently against the course.

Since its launch at the school in 1988, Peace Studies has provoked lively debate, but the attempt to have the course removed from the curriculum is a first, Bulson said. The challenge by two students comes as universities and even some high schools across the country are under close scrutiny by a growing number of critics who believe that the U.S. education system is being hijacked by liberal activists.

At Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Peace Studies is taught by Colman McCarthy, a former Washington Post reporter and founder and president of the Center for Teaching Peace. Though the course is taught at seven other Montgomery County high schools, some say B-CC's is perhaps the most personal and ideological of the offerings because McCarthy makes no effort to disguise his opposition to war, violence and animal testing.

I'm for dropping the class. There'll be plenty of time for inculcating political correctness when the kids get to college. But I wouldn't get too concerned until they start offering it as an AP class.

It must really shock the folks from my era to hear kids spouting the same arguments against them that they used to promote the sexual revolution and anti-war movements in the '70s.

I wonder what they'd say about a class in Conservative Thought or Cato's Letters.

Update: Jame Taranto is all over this story with some background on McCarthy.