”
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to
stand by the president or any public official, save exactly to the
degree that he himself stands by the country.
”
– Theodore Roosevelt
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any public official, save exactly to the degree that he himself stands by the country.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
I read Mrs. Lisa Pampuch’s column of June 13th with mixed emotions. I have many dear good friends and relations who are warm, supportive, caring public school parents, and Mrs. Pampuch is obviously another such.
I agree wholeheartedly with one of her prescriptions: “Cut whatever bureaucracy you want, but keep our children’s teachers in their classrooms.” Amen.
I also agree wholeheartedly with her underlying philosophy: “There’s no better way to perpetuate a strong, safe, prosperous America than by providing her children with the education needed to keep her that way. We ensure the continuance of democracy and freedom” and here it seems she suffered a typo, so I am going to paraphrase, but I trust I keep her sense intact – by teaching children how to think, and the value of liberty and equality, and the critical importance of voting. Amen to all that.
When we get to a discussion of means, Mrs. Pampuch and I part company.
Mrs. Pampuch asserts, “The more we cut education now, the more we will pay later in social programs, police, courts, and prisons.” This is a beautiful thought, and I could wish it were true, but unfortunately the statistics do not bear it out.
Statistics show a constant steady rise in K-12 spending, a constant rise in crime, especially violent crime, a sharp rise in juvenile crime, and hence, a rise in the amount we pay for police and courts, and a sharp rise in the amount we pay for prisons.
Some states with low levels of educational spending, Utah, for example, also have low levels of crime. Washington D.C., on the other hand, tends to be at the top in educational spending and in crime. If there is a causal relationship between school spending and crime, it seems to be that school spending causes crime.
I don’t think that the relationship is necessarily causal, although it is fun, in a morbid sense, to speculate about it. I think it more likely that states where strong family structures are the norm, such as Utah, have low levels of crime, and states and cities where family structures are weak or absent, like D.C., have high levels of crime. School spending is, at best, irrelevant.
There are some things that our schools could do to help break the cycle of poverty and violence. The biggest contributing factors to criminal behavior are, first, growing up in a single parent home, and second, a poor education. Our schools could help tremendously in decreasing crime if they would teach children to read, write, and calculate. They could help future generations if they would promote chastity and monogamy. They could help preserve our democratic republic if they taught a love of country.
Some teachers do exactly those things, and I salute them. But they are, alas, in the minority. The thrust in California schools is to help students find their sexuality, not wait for marriage. Far too many teachers think that it’s more important to increase their students’ self-esteem than to teach them, for example, to spell.
As long as the GHS English department chair can say at a school board meeting that there is no need to teach Shakespeare, that he is just a dead white male, the English department is not supporting academic excellence. As long as Ms. Emily Diaz can march 30 of her students up to the podium to give cookie-cutter speeches, she is not teaching critical thought; she’s brainwashing Stepford students. As long as Ms. Karen Hockmeyer keeps telling her students that the president is a warmonger, she is not teaching patriotism; she’s merely Bush-bashing. And as long as the state can decide that it’s not necessary that our high school graduates pass an exam showing that they can read, write, and calculate at an eighth grade level, we aren’t educating citizens; we’re providing adolescent daycare.
Until our public schools educate for citizenship, Mrs. Pampuch’s closing jibe, “Want to do something patriotic? Support your public schools,” will miss its mark.
Cynthia Anne Walker is a homeschooling mother of three and a former engineer. She is a published independent author. Her column is published in The Dispatch every Friday.
