Posted on 05/26/2012 3:53:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
As a former high school teacher, I know one of the great challenges in education is to get teenagers interested in their country. Many of them take their freedom for granted and have no interest in even learning about what it takes to be a good citizen. They are too busy keeping up with the Kardashians to absorb John Adams.
So I have undertaken a new project: teaching a 13-year-old girl to care about being an American.
Lesson 1: Obey the rules. We start with open doors. The rule is that no door in the house is closed unless there is a dressing situation. The reason for the rule is to discourage Internet chicanery and encourage lively conversation.
"I can't have my door open, I just can't," the teen wails.
"What's the problem?"
"People are annoying. I don't want to see any people."
"Then look away when a human being passes."
"YOU are SO annoying!"
I know.
Lesson 2: Discuss intelligent things -- and not just reality shows and music maniacs.
"Nobody wants to talk about politics. That's boring!"
"The presidential election is boring?" I am sincerely curious about this one.
"No one cares about Obama and Romney."
"Well, at least you know their names."
"But I don't want to TALK about them."
"I do just fine talking about them. Millions of people listen."
"But you have no social skills. That's why you're on TV. I can't be like you."
She may have a point.
Rule 3: Learn about your country's past.
"My school says we have to read your book 'Killing Lincoln' over the summer." This soon-to-be eighth grader is nearly distraught. "I can't believe it costs $20. What a ripoff!"
"It's worth it. You'll learn a lot about the greatest president America has ever had."
"No one cares."
"So what do you guys care about?"
"'Harry Potter' and 'Glee.'"
Sounds like the situation is hopeless, right? Well, it's difficult, no question. When I was a kid, there was boredom to contend with. Some days nothing was happening, so you might actually read a book about your country. Not anymore. The machines have made boredom obsolete. There are thousands of video games, chat opportunities and gossip sites -- plus Facebook -- and they're all available if your fingers work. There is always action in cyberspace, much of it pernicious.
Therefore, you have to either force the urchins to pay attention to important things like their country or bribe them to do it. There's no other way unless you have a savant like Bill Clinton running around your house.
But educating America's youth about the value of their country is second only to educating them about the value of their souls. So against all odds, I'm attempting to do it. Abe Lincoln would approve.
I prefer the old tried-and-true method. Beatings.
Nothing like a good beating to focus the mind ... like a junior version of the hangman's noose.
When the barbarian begins actually to wonder why all that crap is so important to you, then you have finally won. You at last have its mind on the subject.
You play for keeps, don't you?
They're usually right. One exasperated executive's solution, 20 years ago: He finally figured out that the way to domesticate his teenaged daughter was to nail her up in a big packing crate with a hole to feed her through -- then bung up the hole.
He announced his discovery at work one day. Never having had a teenaged daughter, I took notes.
Bill O’Reilly is a COWARD and a TRAITOR.
And you are an IDIOT. So there
I’m impatient with teenagers ... as I’m sure my parents and grandparents were when they had them! I wish there was a way comfortable suburban teens could get a dose of reality sufficient to make them realize how good they have it, but without fatal consequences.
My oldest daughter joined the Coast Guard when she turned 18, and has visited many of the cruddier parts of the Pacific Rim. She’s a fire-eating radical right-wing fanatic.
(And I agree about Washington.)
Hedrick Smith, Moscow reporter for The New York Times, wrote a book about Russia when he came home in the 1980's (and so, by coincidence, did another journalist even more senior than Smith; their books appeared at the same time). I don't know who it was who made the comments in book-flogging interviews, more likely Smith I think, that American liberals posted to Moscow on whatever business, back in the 70's and 80's, usually came home foam-at-the-mouth, flag-waving patriots.
I read Smith’s book, I think. “The New Russians,” was it?
Anoreth said that Russian immigrants were likely to take her side in arguments with the communist natives of Seattle.
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