I read yesterday’s NYT story on Hylton High School with great interest because I happen to live within its school boundaries. The article is about immigrants and assimilation. One part of it really struck me — a section that has little to do with the topic. The reporter, Ginger Thompson, describes how a teacher prepares students for a standardized test. It’s a classic case of “teaching to the test” rather than teaching the subject itself. But that’s only part of the problem:

“If you see a question about Bolsheviks on the test,” Ms. Cain said, “the answer is probably Red Scare.”

So that’s the one thing Virginia high school students are apparently expected to understand about the Bolsheviks: They inspired American paranoia. That’s the Bolshevik legacy, you know.