An Accelerated Curriculum of Ignorance
By Frank Salvato (03/10/06)
In days of old, when teaching right from wrong was the responsibility of parents, schools exclusively taught the basics and neither teachers nor parents could be charged with a crime if they disciplined unruly children, not only was a public education worth something, the country was a civilized place complete with ethics, morals and values. Today, the "village," governmentally empowered to educate and look after our children, is producing arsonists and anarchists. Civility is nowhere to be found. Oh, happy day!
It’s ironic that “evolved” liberal institutions of learning (such are our universities and increasingly, our high schools), complete with accelerated courses in the humanities, sociology and ethics, are increasingly producing graduates who have no ethics, no understanding of morality and no mastery of the skills that can reasonably be described as the basics of education.
Today’s focus is to instill in a child an undeserved, positive – dare I say “progressive” – self-esteem, moving away from the tenet that good self-esteem is earned by hard work and that success is achievable through that work ethic. George Washington’s Rules of Civility has been replaced with The Hitch-Hooker’s Guide to Applying a Condom as required reading in our classrooms and the “village” is okay with that.
There is, however, a price to pay when deference is given to narcissism and inflated self-esteem – not to mention inflated grades – over a solid, basic education and instilling a fundamental commitment to self-responsibility.
Three college students from Birmingham, Alabama were arrested recently and charged with setting nine churches on fire, burning each of them to the ground. The arson spree, which started February 3rd, terrorized both black congregations and white, depriving them all of the ability to gather in order to practice their faith.
(These boys better hope that the prosecutor isn’t creative. The thought of multiple charges for violating the parishioners First Amendment rights to freely practice religion is quite enticing.)
In court papers that were filed at the time of their arrests, the three college students – two of them sophomores at Birmingham-Southern College, which is affiliated with the United Methodist Church – described their acts of destruction as “a joke that got out of hand.”
Who in their right mind would find burning a church down to be funny? Adjusting the intelligence curve I will ask the question another way. Who besides the mentally challenged, ignorant, pointy-hat wearers – and perhaps the more hate-filled human secularists – could possibly find burning down a house of worship, a place where people go to celebrate and enjoin in love for their fellow man, funny?
Humor is an odd thing. Just a few decades ago people used to prefer humor that was well crafted, witty and intelligent. Sure, there were fart jokes as well but by comparison they were sophomoric. It seems that three students from Alabama have redefined sophomoric humor.
Then there is the issue, still being mulled on the University of Washington campus, about whether or not a Medal of Honor recipient meets the “standards” of the UW’s student senators.
In debating whether or not Medal of Honor recipient and former POW Col. Greg “Pappy” Boyington was worthy of a statue in his honor on the UW campus, student senator Jill Edwards queried whether it was appropriate to “honor a person who killed other people.”
As a rule, I usually try to refrain from name-calling. Therefore I am taking this opportunity to state that I am about to use the word “twit” in its literal capacity; a foolishly annoying person.
One has to wonder how Ms. Edwards, a mindless twit for her statement and inability to understand any situation which does not directly affect her, would feel about a US soldier who shot dead an al Qaeda terrorist who was about to saw off her head? Or how she would feel about a police officer who shot dead a lunatic holding a gun to her head? Would she still be predisposed to asking such an incredibly ignorant question?
Of course, there are a few very large questions that we all should all be asking.
How did our education system – the “village” – produce such incredible stupidity? How is it that college sophomores don’t know that burning down a church is wrong, especially in the South, given its history of hate-motivated church burnings?
How is it that today’s university students don’t understand there are evil people in the world, people so filled with hate that they would slaughter in the name ideology, religion or both in the blink of an eye?
How can it possibly be that allegedly educated minds are ignorant to the strength of character and selflessness, the shear courage demanded of the human soul, it takes to risk one’s life for another’s? How is it that the students of today are capable of denying honor to a person who is directly responsible for their freedom?
We have to ask ourselves how public education transformed itself from a system that produced some of the greatest thinkers in the history of the world to an institution dedicated to the promotion of multicultural globalism and anti-Americanism, catering to the lowest common denominator.
Then again, the answer is quite clear. Our “progressive” education system – the “village” – thinks that Jay Bennish is one hell of a teacher.
Related Reading:
Indoctrination of Our Youth
http://www.cnsnews.com/Commentary/Archive/200602/COM20060222d.html
Suspect: Church fires started as 'joke'
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/08/alabama.churches/index.html
Shooting Down the Ace
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/011/928tbgof.asp
Copyright © 2006 Frank Salvato
(Printer friendly version) Email: Frank Salvato
