Teaching Gratitude

Pop Quiz

What magazine magnate said: “The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”?

What Chinese philosopher said: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”?

What Renaissance genius said: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”?

What religious leader said: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”?

What peanut entrepreneur said: “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.”?

Answers at the end of this post.

Is it any wonder why many young people are cynical about what they are inheriting from generations past? Many either voted for Trump or chose not to vote at all. Are they hungry for something positive?

Take the ongoing Senate hearings on the Trump nominees…please. (Hat tip to Henny Youngman) They come off as a very bad SNL skit. Adam Schiff for brains hyperventilates about the integrity of every candidate and he is an expert on the subject having been censured by the House of Representatives for lacking integrity. Fauxchahontas Warren is likewise indignant about the veracity of the Trump picks even as we are indignant about her 40 year fraudulent claim of Native American heritage. Crazy Mazie Hirono tosses a word salad statement and adds a question mark and when the target of her inquiry does not say what she wants to hear she proceeds to talk over them and assumes the answer is NO. Ed Markey is, to quote Joe Biden, a one horse pony…every question he asks relates to his manic obsession with climate change. Imagine how hard it is for intelligent people like Pam Bondi to take the whole thing seriously.

To describe this gaggle of Senators as a kakistocracy is to insult those of us who are actually mediocre.

Ask any young student being held prisoner in the US public school system to expound on the genesis of the American nation and you will be treated to fiction that would make Dr. Seuss blush. There is no parole from the public educational labyrinth.

Here are some historical “facts” these students are being taught.

The Past

Apparently North America circa 1491 was an idyllic world populated entirely by “indigenous peoples” living peacefully and at one with Gaia, the personification of Earth in its primordial form. Or so students are led to believe. The truth is somewhat more pedestrian. There is evidence that Paleo-Americans crossed to an uninhabited North America by way of a land bridge between Siberia and what is now Alaska. DNA evidence ties the Native Americans of today to the ancient people of Siberia.

Queue sinister music…this veritable Garden of Eden was despoiled by the arrival of white, Christian explorers from the East. These uninvited visitors brought with them disease, white supremacy and racism all of which are, according to modern academics, the earmarks of Western Civilization. Put aside the fact that the Native Americans had not developed a written language nor had they invented the wheel. In short their pastoral existence was interrupted by the arrival of human progress.

Snidely Whiplash, aka Christopher Columbus, is now introduced as the villain of the story. The arrival of the Europeans marks the transition in the Western Hemisphere from Pre-Columbian history, i.e. before 1492, to our dystopian modern history. In 1971 we began the annual celebration of Columbus Day and it was also seen as a celebration of Italian-Americans. In the United States today it is called Indigenous Peoples’ Day so as to avoid any suggestion that we are celebrating the depredations that followed the arrival of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.

It surprises almost any person under the age of 40 to learn that Columbus made four voyages to the New World and never once set foot on land that is now part of the United States.

Young students often believe that slavery was invented in North America. The so-called 1619 Project is the confection of a “scholar” and has been identified as historical fiction. Only 2% of the 12.5 million Africans kidnapped and brought to the Western Hemisphere were brought to what is now the United States.

In summary our schools teach that the United States was “discovered” by explorers who brought disease and pestilence, uprooted an innocent indigenous population and introduced slavery into the world (all before 1620). Then in the ensuing years we inflicted capitalism, imperialism, climate chaos, Anthony Fauci and systemic racism on the entire world. Thus concludes the fictional portion of this post.

Here are some historical facts these students are NOT being taught.

The Birth of a Nation (not to be confused with the D.W. Griffith paean to the KKK)

To say the creation of our government was a difficult birth is to engage in epic understatement. W. Cleon Skousen has written an amazing book entitled The 5,000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World. It describes the 28 Principles of Freedom that motivated the individuals that founded our often imitated but never duplicated form of government.

The Revolutionary War

The colonists were the military equivalent of the 1969 New York Jets. The ultimate underdogs. There was no mandate among the thirteen colonies to go to war with the most powerful military empire in the world. The British established a naval blockade that crippled the economy. After the Battle of Lexington and Concord George Washington was made Commander-in-Chief of the colonial forces which were in no way unified. The selection of Washington was the game changer. Now Washington is decried as a slave owner rather than the American Lucius Cincinnatus who won the Revolutionary War and he was the man who refused to be king.

The Battle of Saratoga

It was the most consequential battle ever fought in North America. The British were engaged in a well-conceived strategy to divide the colonies and isolate New England which they saw as the catalyst of the colonial dissent. General Horatio Gates led the victorious Continental army and General Burgoyne was forced to surrender. It was consequential because the French became convinced that the British could be beaten and entered the war on the side of the Americans. It was the French that tipped the balance at Yorktown and ensured the victory of Washington’s army and the final surrender of the British forces under General Cornwallis.

The Declaration of Independence

There was an intense debate as to whether the Declaration should be signed and delivered to the British. The document was based on the 1689 Declaration of Rights which was a precondition to the Glorious Revolution. A number of leaders in the 13 colonies believed that such a declaration against George III would constitute treason. Yet on July 4, 1776 our Declaration of Independence was signed and the American experiment began in earnest. Recommended reading: The Declaration of independence by Carl Becker and American Scripture by Pauline Maier. This document has served as the guiding light for the American people.

The Constitution

The greatest contract between a people and their government ever devised. What our founders crafted in Philadelphia in 1787 has stood the test of time and has proven to be a blueprint for the management of our government. As a result we have avoided what some see as an inevitable drift to an omnipotent government which the authors described as tyranny. We have not been perfect but we have gotten closer than any other nation in world history.

The Present

The confirmation of the nominees for positions in the Trump administration is a stark reminder that a government is as good as the people who hold office in that government. How far we have come from Washington, Madison, Jefferson and Adams to Adam Schiff, Mazie Hirono, Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren. Makes you question Darwin’s theory. Yet, this too shall pass commencing January 20, 2025.

We must educate the next generation. We must renew the debate that took place at the Constitutional Convention between those who wanted to minimize the power of the central government (the Right) and those who wanted a monarchy with all power in a single leader (the Left). The legal structure must be respected and supported. Censorship must be vigorously opposed and free speech must be protected. If we suppress truth we are doomed…even if the truth is unpleasant.

We must instill in the next generation the ability to think critically and not use the education system to teach them what to think.

Answer to the pop quiz:

What magazine magnate said: “The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”? Malcolm Forbes

What Chinese philosopher said: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”? Xunzi, who made this observation about 2,500 years ago

What Renaissance genius said: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”? Michelangelo Buonarroti, he of Sistine Chapel fame

What religious leader said: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”? Martin Luther King

What peanut entrepreneur said: “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.”? George Washington Carver, born a slave, died a free man