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An Accelerated Curriculum of Ignorance
The New Media Journal.us ^ | 03.10.06 | Frank Salvato

Posted on 03/14/2006 2:05:46 PM PST by Coleus

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

Suspect: Church fires started as 'joke'

Shooting Down the Ace
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/011/928tbgof


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: churchfires; jaybennish; publicschools

1 posted on 03/14/2006 2:05:47 PM PST by Coleus
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To: Coleus
the shear courage

Your education dollars at work.

2 posted on 03/14/2006 2:09:53 PM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: Coleus
We have to ask ourselves how public education transformed itself

It didn't transform itself; it was transformed by the people who run it, the people who administer it, and most importantly, the people who use it and imagine it OK.

We have met the enemy, and it is us.

3 posted on 03/14/2006 2:12:35 PM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: Coleus

I don't know much about running a school, but I do know we need to get rid of the worthless self-esteem and pacifist nonsense and focus more on the basics(spelling, math, etc.) And make physical education more demanding, maybe even throw in some kind of self-defence course instead of teaching kids that they should be willing victims to bullies. Oh yeah, and maybe screening for illegal aliens would be nice? Schools around here aren't allowed to find out if a family is legal or illegal, and now we have to have translators for a lot of parents and kids.


4 posted on 03/14/2006 2:24:22 PM PST by Firefigher NC (You light ‘em, we fight ‘em!)
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To: Firefigher NC

Speaking of needing to work on spelling, I spelled "self-defense" wrong.


5 posted on 03/14/2006 2:26:00 PM PST by Firefigher NC (You light ‘em, we fight ‘em!)
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To: Coleus
As a college educator, at least 30% of the students I see in my classes have trouble writing a coherent sentence, haven't read even one of the works of Shakespeare or even Mark Twain or Hemingway, have trouble with even rudimentary math and have almost no knowledge of history or geography. However with the likes of that Bennish character teaching in the high schools we shouldn't be surprised.
6 posted on 03/14/2006 2:28:20 PM PST by The Great RJ ("Mir wölle bleiwen wat mir sin" or "We want to remain what we are." ..Luxembourg motto)
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To: The Great RJ

I remember people in my Freshman Econ class who couldn't graph a line.


7 posted on 03/14/2006 2:34:27 PM PST by somniferum
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To: Coleus

bttt


8 posted on 03/14/2006 4:17:10 PM PST by thegreatbeast (Quid lucrum istic mihi est?)
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To: The Great RJ

The rats want minds they can manipulate and we are getting them in droves.


9 posted on 03/14/2006 4:31:06 PM PST by TheLion
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