There is an old adage which says that man exists in a continuum.\u00a0 He goes from bondage to faith, from faith to hope, from hope to courage, from courage to freedom, from freedom to abundance, from abundance to complacency, from complacency to dependency, and from dependency back to bondage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The original author of the adage is not known, but it matters little who said it.\u00a0 What matters is whether or not it is an immutable truth and whether or not American \u201cexceptionalism\u201d might allow us to bypass the ugliest stop on that continuum.\u00a0 I\u2019ve struggled with that question since the day I first heard the adage and I still don\u2019t have a clear answer.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, if we draw a large circle on a blackboard or a flip chart and we write the words bondage, faith, hope, courage, freedom, abundance, complacency, and dependency at intervals along the perimeter, we can demonstrate a major difference between liberals and conservatives and between Republicans and Democrats.\u00a0 Conservatives and Republicans operate in the bondage-faith-hope-courage-freedom-abundance segment of the circle, at which point we learn why God created liberals and Democrats.\u00a0 It is they who control the abundance-complacency-dependency-bondage segment of the circle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Conservatives and Republicans are builders of freedom and the human condition; liberals and Democrats are destroyers.<\/p>\n
We can also place ourselves anywhere in the abundance-complacency-dependency segment of the circle and try to figure out how we can avoid passing through the bondage portion of the continuum, going directly to hope, courage, etc.\u00a0 That is by far the most interesting exercise because when we analyze why any nation, or any group of people, would allow themselves to be taken down the road from freedom and abundance to dependency and bondage, we always arrive at the same answer.\u00a0 So who or what is it that stands in the way of ever-positive growth?<\/p>\n
Is it engineers?\u00a0 No, engineers are innovators, designers, and builders.\u00a0 They spend every waking moment thinking of ways to make life simpler, easier, and safer for everyone.<\/p>\n
Is it scientists?\u00a0 No, scientists spend their lives probing into the darkest recesses of the unknown, concerning themselves not only with known unknowns, but with unknown unknowns, as well. Some of their discoveries are used for potentially evil purposes, such as nuclear weapons, but the vast majority of their discoveries have a positive impact on humanity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is it doctors and nurses?\u00a0 No, medical practitioners spend their lives curing disease, easing pain and suffering, and preserving human life.<\/p>\n
Is it lawyers, judges, policemen, fire fighters, and the military?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 While they may not produce anything of a tangible nature, as the referees and traffic cops of our society they play a vital role in protecting the best of us from the worst of us and in protecting us all from harm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is it farmers and ranchers?\u00a0 No, farmers, ranchers, and food processors spend every waking hour growing and processing the foods that are needed to support human life.<\/p>\n
Is it blue collar workers?\u00a0 No, it is blue collar workers who take the things that scientists and engineers discover and turn that knowledge into practical applications.\u00a0 Blue collar workers are the hand tools of human progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With but one exception, no matter where we look in civilized society we find people who are either builders or maintainers of civil society.\u00a0 That exception is the field of public education.\u00a0 No matter which societal problem we place under the microscope, the search for a solution\u2026 or the absence thereof\u2026 always takes us back to what it is that our people know and understand.\u00a0 It all comes back to the public schools, teachers unions, colleges and universities.<\/p>\n
When people cannot properly read, write, and speak the English language, they are unable to take full advantage of the freedoms that are available to them.\u00a0 When people are inadequately schooled in mathematics and the sciences, they are unable to participate in the advancement of science and technology and it will be difficult for them to find a niche in a highly technological world.\u00a0 When people fail to understand the lessons of history, they are unable to make the political judgments necessary to avoid the mistakes of the past.\u00a0 When people have inadequate knowledge of politics and the workings of government, they are unable to make the political decisions necessary to advance the cause of freedom.\u00a0 And when people have an inadequate grasp of basic economics they are unable to properly assess the impact of taxes, savings, profits, and investments.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In all of these areas of physical and intellectual endeavor, our public education system is by far our greatest failing.<\/p>\n
In an August 11, 2010 article for Townhall.com, titled \u201cThe Left\u2019s Special-Interest Human Shields,\u201d columnist Michelle Malkin gives us a clue as to why our public education system is the greatest failure among all our public institutions.\u00a0\u00a0 Clearly, what has always been an important, necessary, and highly respected profession, has been transformed into just another cesspool of leftist union activism, just another mindless, lemming-like subsidiary of the Democratic Party.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Malkin\u2019s attitude toward schoolteachers is not unlike that of most Americans.\u00a0 She says, \u201cI have nothing against public-school teachers. \u00a0My mother was one. \u00a0My children are taught by some of the best in the nation. \u00a0And over the years, I\u2019ve reported on valiant battles between rank-and-file educators in government schools and their fat, bloated union leaders, who\u2019ve transformed their professional organizations into wholly owned Democratic subsidiaries. \u00a0My opposition to the so-called \u201cEdujobs\u201d bill stems not from meanness but from compassion for millions of dues-paying school employees being used as special-interest human shields.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking into the faces of the teachers at your local public elementary school or high school\u2026 the \u201cmicro\u201d view of public education\u2026 is not the same as taking a \u201cmacro\u201d view of the teaching profession.\u00a0 Malkin quotes the DC-based Labor Union Report as saying that, in 2009, the National Education Association (NEA) \u201craked in a whopping $355,334,165 in \u2018dues and agency fees\u2019 from (mostly) teachers around the country.\u201d \u00a0And although the NEA spent close to $11 million more than it took in, it did not short-change the political parasites who rely on it for their sustenance.\u00a0 The NEA still found it possible to pour $50 million into \u201cpolitical activities and lobbying\u201d for exclusively left-wing and partisan Democratic causes and candidates.<\/p>\n
So, if excellence in education is not the first priority of the teachers union, what do they see as their top priority?\u00a0 The NEA\u2019s retiring top lawyer, Bob Chanin, spoke to delegates at the NEA annual meeting in July.\u00a0 He made no bones about what is the union\u2019s top priority.\u00a0 He said:<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite what some among us would like to believe, it is not because of our creative ideas. \u00a0It is not because of the merit of our positions. \u00a0It is not because we care about children, and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. \u00a0NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.\u00a0 And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year, because they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality and the like are unimportant or inappropriate.\u00a0 To the contrary. \u00a0These are the goals that guide the work we do. \u00a0But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights, and collective bargaining. \u00a0That simply is too high a price to pay.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Talk about upside-down priorities.\u00a0 As Barack Obama\u2019s personal hero, Saul Alinsky, has said, teacher organizers must commit to a \u201csingleness of purpose.\u201d \u00a0Not serving the needs of parents and children, but serving the \u201cability to build a (political) power base.\u201d \u00a0That they have done.<\/p>\n
The Democratic Party is comprised of (in order of importance) teachers unions (NEA and AFT), trial lawyers, public employee unions, blue collar unions (AFL-CIO), radical environmentalists, minorities (blacks and Hispanics), service employee unions (SEIU), organized street agitators (ACORN), radical feminists, gays, lesbians, and the gender-confused community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet, in spite of the fact that public school teachers are now ranked as the most politically powerful special interest in the nation, and in spite of the fact that we as a nation spend more on public education per pupil than any other industrialized nation, we find that among high school students in the 30 richest nations, U.S. students rank 17th<\/sup> in their knowledge of the sciences and 24th<\/sup> in their knowledge of mathematics.\u00a0 Clearly, our public education system is failing to prepare our children to compete in a highly technological world.\u00a0 It is our weakest link.\u00a0 It is the anchor on our Ship of State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is an old adage which says that man exists in a continuum.\u00a0 He goes from bondage to faith, from faith to hope, from hope to courage, from courage to freedom, from freedom to abundance, from abundance to complacency, from … Continue reading