Tag Archives: education

Children Learning: Readers Respond

25 Thursday Feb 2016

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Yesterday’s article on freedom in education garnered quite a bit of commentary. Here are a few thoughts from select readers that I culled from my email, texts, blog comments, etc. I tried to respond to each. I usually shy away from this back and forth but I felt compelled by coffee and allergy medicine this morning.

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‘The quality of public education directly impacts shareholders concerned with the school to prison pipeline. I have dedicated my professional career to ensuring the terminal end of the process remains lucrative. Dumb adolescents equal profits.’ – P. Warden, President, Private Prisons, Inc., Atlanta, GA.

Perrin: Remember, Warden, the millstone is better than what’s coming.

‘I was misenharted when Laura readed me you’re story. The children required victory for successes. We did!’ – G.W. Bush, Crawford, TX.

Perrin: Uhhh????…….

‘Consideration of various socio-economic indicators provides conclusive evidence and tacit reinforcement for generalized appropriation towards sustainable feasibility. More importantly, gender, racial, and ableist inequality derives from comprehensive malfeasance within the structural construct of disenfranchised and technonic economy, which, being a product of the patriarchy, is inherently insecure for ambulatory … [This went on for 666 more words…].’

– Chava Finkelstein, Cambridge, MA.

Perrin: You, “lady”, you….millstone…

‘Help! I want to read!’ – Johnny, age 8, Toledo, OH.

Perrin: Drop out now, Johnny.

‘Off topic: Mr. Lovett, your continual comparison of YOUR elected, idiot scum to MY people is a gross and abominable insult! Please discontinue this disgraceful political maligning.’ – M. Mouse, President, American Association of Rodents, Washington, DC.

Perrin: My sincere apologies.

‘Don’t need no school, won’t be no school. Them Cathilicks aughta study from what lord King James wrote. USA! USA!’ – Bubba, Anniston, AL.

Perrin: Bubba, I wrote my article out of concern for you and yourn.

‘I am so very glad that I invented education.’ – A. Gore, Outer Space.

‘you ain fo shit. sckool fo fool.’ – A. Sharpton, NY, NY.

Perrin: I also wrote being concerned for you, Sir. 

‘Like I always tell Patrick, when you’re frowning, imagine a happy rainbow.’ – S. Squarepants, Bikini Bottom, Ocean.

‘Your caring, your intellect, and your rugged good looks make me want you so bad.’ – S. Johansson, Hollywood, CA.

Perrin: Call me. Right now.

‘We give them what they need; they give us what we want. Like shooting money in a barrel. Heckle, heckle, you can’t stop the shekel.’ – M. Rothschild, London, UK.

Perrin: Funny you mention shooting.

‘My union rep says we have to right to coffee and donuts in the lounge. My planning time is my Overstock time. Johnny smells and needs a placement plan and Ritalin.’ – Suzy Q., Teacher, San Diego, CA.

‘Why learn when you’re hot? I have money. Jeally?’ – P. Hilton, Beverly Hills, CA.

Perrin: Yeah… Aaaand, no.

‘Socrates, Aquinas and I want to know what the hell happened! Water the tree, for God’s sake!’ – T. Jefferson, Heaven.

Perrin: Working on it, Mr. President.

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Is Our Children Learning?

24 Wednesday Feb 2016

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“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?” So inquired President select, George W. Bush to a crowd in Florence, South Carolina, January 11, 2000. The politicians obviously are not learning. But is … are the children? A new international study doesn’t look too good for youngsters in America. The study is massive, 384 page PDF download but here it is.

The 2015/16 Index of Freedom  of Education concentrates on the availability of “non-govermental” education. The rankings are deeply hidden, starting on page 315. The mighty United States, which ever one knows is the freest place on Earth, is in a tie with Hungary for 17th place. Who knew Hungary was the co-freest place on the planet.

This study is concerned with educational opportunities outside of the mainstream of “public” “schooling.” That would include private schools, charters,community, parochial, family schools, tutoring and home schooling. Most global education studies center on proficiency in one or more subjects. The U.S. does poorly in those too. I didn’t bother to look up any of those. Just Google, “where does America place in … reading, math, science, etc.” and you will be unpleasantly surprised as to just how poorly our schools do in any given field. I think we place outside of the top 20 in just about any category. Frequently American students are the only ones who can’t find America on a map. They also have trouble spelling “America” and can’t count high enough to cover all 50 States. The problem runs from elementary school through high school and even to the university level.

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Might as well be Harvard today. Google.

As for free choice in education, the Catholic Register sees a worldwide issue.:

Each country’s ranking depends on four differently weighted factors: the legal possibility to create and manage a non-governmental school; whether it is publicly funded, and if so, which pre-specified costs that funding covers; the net enrollment rate of primary education; and finally, the enrollment rate in non-governmental schools as a percentage of total primary education.

Ireland came in at number one. Were it not for American homeschooling, which typically ranks highest in any rankings, the U.S. would have come in worse than 17th. Most students in America are forced to suffer twelve plus years of prison-like “public” indoctrination. After all that many cannot read. Most that can read only at a 5th grade level.

The Register gets it:

Thomas Jefferson over two centuries earlier:

It is better to tolerate the rare instance of a parent refusing to let his child be educated, than to shock the common feelings and ideas by the forcible transportation and education of the infant against the will of the father.

And perhaps a little more surprisingly, with this Jeffersonian affirmation by the Democratic Party National Platform, which declared (as late as 1892):

We are opposed to state interference with parental rights and rights of conscience in the education of children as an infringement of the fundamental Democratic doctrine that the largest individual liberty consistent with the rights of others insures the highest type of American citizenship and the best government.

How times change!

For most of human history, prior to the twentieth century, children were either educated at home, in church, or in small and independent local schools. Many never made it past what we would call the 5th grade but at least they could read (without wasting seven more years). What changed?

During the late 1800s, as larger and more complex government was beginning to grow like kudzu, and as the industrial revolution was taking off, business and state leaders saw an opportunity. They institutionalized education in order to control what was taught and, ultimately, to control society. To paraphrase George Carlin they wanted obiediant workers just smart enough to fill out the forms and run the machines and just dumb enough to keep taking the status quo. That’s exactly what they got.

Today schools, especially in America, what little or nothing to do with education. They raise children into subservient adults who will pay taxes, watch television, and look forward to social security. It’s not just the schools.

Almost all children are bright and inquisitive by nature. They want to learn. Learning is fun. They question everything. How many times has your child asked you, “why?” You did that too, if you recall. Then sadly, after just a few years, most start to turn into zombies.

Ours is a silly culture where people start absentmindedly at screens most of the waking hours. It’s a sick and dying culture where every form of sin is on display and openly celebrated. Many parents cannot educate their own children because they themselves are not educated. Their too busy with triviality anyway.

Enter the government. How convenient that benevolent old Georgia or California or New York offers free daycare and schooling for the kids. We get what we pay for. It costs nothing and it is worth nothing.

Those government schools waste so much time taking attendance, monitoring water fountains, locking down for nothing, promoting football and other bullshit it is no wonder they can’t teach Johnny to read. He doesn’t need to read to work for corporation X, sit in prison, or collect welfare. It’s part of the plan.

There are plenty of exceptions but they are just that – good apples in a rotten lot. Given the wicked nature of the system, there is no point in reforming it. Reform after useless reform is constantly foisted on the dumbed down public: Deweyism, the Frankfurt school, the new school, charter schools, head start, no child left behind, common core. None of it works.

Abolishing government schools entirely would be a good start but only a start. The whole state needs to be abolished so people can be free to spend their time and money with their children effectively. Those who care will have to step in and step up to do the teaching. Fortunately, with modern technology, this is easier than ever before. A free, world class education is readily available online for any who want it – from phonics to calculus.

Have you heard any of the morons running for president talk about this? Of course not. They may pay lip service to education but they will continue to keep things as they are.

We as adults must change. People must stop wasting time chasing raises, getting tattoos, watching television and loafing around. Spend time with your children. Show them by example what decent educated people do with their lives.

The alternative we are experiencing has nearly destroyed is. We have sacrificed multiple generations on the alter of statism. This is a sin worthy of the millstone. When will we learn?

All But Dissertation

24 Thursday Dec 2015

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A.B.D. has special meaning in the academic world. It stands for All But Dissertation and means a scholar has completed all work towards his PhD except for the final review of his primary research project. Universities advertise many professorships as open to ABDs so long as the candidate meets the other job requirements. Dissertation approval and granting of the actual degree is, of course, necessary.

I know this because I have applied for scores of academic jobs only to be declined every time. According to the American Bar Association a JD is equivalent to a PhD for teaching purposes. Most hiring committees have a different view. In reality they want a professor with a terminal degree in the exact discipline taught. I almost exclusively applied for political science positions so I understand my handicap. That, and my personal political philosophy is at odds with most American faculties: me, anarchist; them, communist.

At any rate I am not hurt in the least by this quandary. In fact, I’m kind of happy about it. I’m not alone either. There is a glut of advanced degrees out there destroying the market. There are shocking figures about PhDs taking jobs as waiters, bartenders and truckers. Others turn to alternative disciplines. My writing career is my alternative to teaching and to law.

Gary North faced a similar situation decades ago. He just wrote an enlightening and somewhat damning article on the experience.

Certification vs. competence: Which is it to be? Of course, it would be nice to have both, but Christian colleges are strapped financially, and they cannot afford both. In fact, given the nature of bureaucracies, especially academic bureaucracies, they cannot be sure of anything except certification. There are no measurements of academic competence that are easily examined, since each field is so specialized that aging faculty members are hardly able to judge the competence of their younger, more energetic colleagues. If anything, competence in the classroom is a threat to the self-esteem of those who are tenured, and who also make the decisions. But certification upgrades their departments, and therefore lends prestige to them. What those doing the hiring really want is to hire new men with superb credentials and only mediocre performance subsequent to the earning of those credentials.

When I Didn’t Get Hired, North, Dec. 22, 2015.

Still, part of me wants a PhD in political science – political philosophy, specifically. I see three avenues for achieving this goal. I could return to school and earn a degree. I wrote a short time ago of my last failed attempt to do this. I spent seven years earning the two diplomas I have now. They sit in a box somewhere. This strategy isn’t likely to succeed. Neither is the second option – being gifted an honorary doctorate. I suppose I will have to wait and see if some university values my contributions to the liberty movement or my literary achievements enough for recognition.

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BBA, JD, fishing tackle, etc.

I’m leaning towards option three – claiming or manufacturing a PhD. This is a very popular trend. Americans by the thousands are buying degrees online from diploma mills. Some use these credentials for fraudulent or criminal purposes. Not me. I’m putting my fraud out there now, before the fact. Nothing to hide. And for the degree I want I think I’ve already done the required research and work.

Some college professors admit that many of the “fake” degrees are not so far off the mark anyway. Many who pass successfully through “real” schools come out as dumb as they went in.

Here is my current idea. I may look through the political theory class offerings at MIT’s free course website and see how my experience and skills stack up. I may need a little legitimate brushing up. Then I will simply grant myself a title and print up a diploma. It can keep its predecessors company in that box – if I can find it …

As a Doctor of Law I can already proclaim myself “Dr. Lovett.” I do not but I might. I just might. Let’s just say I’m a JD, PhD (ABD).

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All Bear Dissertation …

The Allegory of the Cave

15 Tuesday Dec 2015

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Sometimes one finds after trials that what one wants isn’t really what one needs. The unknown need is often what should be desired. So it is with both the lesson behind The Allegory of the Cave and in my method of discovering it.

Long ago I wandered aimlessly but unintrepidly into the University of Georgia. I was convinced I was destined to study business and become a real life Gordon Gekko or something similar. I have yet to make millions or be investigated by the SEC. I have experienced some very attractive women and sunrise on the beach, so it has not been a total loss. Whatever.

Back in Athens, entering my senior year, I found myself faced with a host of required elective classes. I had essentially finished my business education which did turn out to mostly be a total loss. Hoping to get out into the “real world” as fast and as easily as possible I signed up for what I thought would be the easiest classes offered. I loaded up on philosophy and classical studies.

These I did find easy and I earned above average grades. However, my ease of completion, my excellence, derived from my immense enjoyment of the subject matter. Only at the end of my tenure did I discover the misdirection of my education.

Plato, being one of the greatest minds of all history, was required reading in one or more classics courses. Plato’s thoughts and methodology have influenced scholars since, to include Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, More and Kant.

Deep inside Plato’s Republic one will find The Allegory of the Cave. It is a metaphorical conversation between Socrates (Plato’s mentor) and Glaucon (Plato’s brother). Ancient philosophy frequently featured dialectic parables to stimulate thought about the conveyed concepts. The Cave is such a story about human experience and education.

Socrates and Glaucon discussed a cave where were chained a group of people. The prisoners sat in a row facing a smooth black wall at the back of the cave. None had ever lived outside; their imprisoned condition was all they ever known. However, they were not without entertainment.

Behind the chained men burned a fire. Someone would regularly hold in front of the fire but behind the prisoners a series of shapes and models. These forms were representations of real things from the outside world. The shapes cast shadows on the wall. These were viewed by the captive audience. The shadow figures were the only substance ever viewed by the captives. As they viewed the apparitions the men would murmur sounds. Over time they came to assume these sounds came from the images and, thus, emanated from them. This spectacle provided a multi-dimensional element to life in the cave.

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Still it was a false life, a fantasy. None had ever experienced reality. What they knew were only representative approximations of actual reality. Immersed in this setting the men assumed the shadow forms to be all of existence.

Suppose one of the captive viewers broke free and ventured back to where the models resided. Suppose he escaped the cave entirely and saw, for the first time, the real world. Given his shadow education he would eventually correlate those images to their real forms. Given a little longer he might come to appreciate his whole world view had been a mere theatrical production, a myth.

Initially, such a man would experience confusion and perhaps fear. Then what? Depending on his disposition, intelligence, and fortitude he would either become ecstatic in his newfound freedom or else he would shun reality in favor of his former imaginary life.

Suppose this escapee went back to the cave to teach the other prisoners about the truth. How would they receive his message? If history is a guide, then the reception would be cool at best. Intelligent people are frequently seen as crazed by their simple contemporaries. The ignorant are generally suspicious of the enlightened. Sometimes they persecute them. See the examples of Socrates, Archimedes, Galileo, and Jesus.

Art imitates life. The Matrix movie is the space age telling of Plato’s Cave. Neo barely overcomes his desire to remain in fantastic perfection over entering the more sober real world. He needed convincing too.

Life imitates art. Today many live out the allegory, not in a cave but in the comfort of their homes. The chains are mental rather than physical. Modern electronics have replaced the fire and shadow show. The allegory of the television.

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In a way, by taking those elective classes I stumbled out of my own cave. What’s that? The allegory of the allegory? Years have passed and I still battle to convince myself of reality. It’s not always the most pleasant of places. I imagine you, dear reader, face similar dilemmas. Realization does not, by itself, breed happiness. It is however close kin with freedom. I’ll take that over being chained in the cave.

News of the World, Good and Bad, Dec. 2, 2015

02 Wednesday Dec 2015

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Some in Iraq think the U.S. government is in bed with ISIS. It is, unless it’s not – as complicated as it is dangerous and stupid. This apparently is what passes for foreign policy in the 21st Century. It all matches domestic economic policy.

At home the meddling is immeasurable. Upon getting around the pointless debt ceiling … again … the government ran up the national debt $674 Million – in one day.

The debt cost never stops growing. Neither does any other program costs. The fools at United Healthcare admit they didn’t imagine the costs of Obamacare would rise so high so fast. They, being part of the larcenous Big Club lobbied for the Act. Now they regret it. Fools.

Citi Group says we’re in for a recession next year. Next year they will say it started this year.

Retailers know we are depressed now. Black Friday sales were nearly dismal this year. Except for gun sales – they keep smashing records as intelligent Americans prepare for the inevitable. This offends the unintelligent, the criminals, and the left. Much of life offends them.

White college students nationwide, tired of being hated by the system merely because they exist, are organizing student unions. Liberal administrative leaches, “educators” and the rabble that passes for the student body are all so offended.

Having had enough of the crybabies and fake students, the President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University has told them to grow up and shut up. His words bear repeating in full (this is truly great):

This is Not a Day Care. It’s a University!

Dr. Everett Piper, President

Oklahoma Wesleyan University

This past week, I actually had a student come forward after a university chapel service and complain because he felt “victimized” by a sermon on the topic of 1 Corinthians 13. It appears that this young scholar felt offended because a homily on love made him feel bad for not showing love. In his mind, the speaker was wrong for making him, and his peers, feel uncomfortable.

I’m not making this up. Our culture has actually taught our kids to be this self-absorbed and narcissistic. Any time their feelings are hurt, they are the victims. Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them “feel bad” about themselves, is a “hater,” a “bigot,” an “oppressor,” and a “victimizer.”

I have a message for this young man and all others who care to listen. That feeling of discomfort you have after listening to a sermon is called a conscience. An altar call is supposed to make you feel bad. It is supposed to make you feel guilty. The goal of many a good sermon is to get you to confess your sins—not coddle you in your selfishness. The primary objective of the Church and the Christian faith is your confession, not your self-actualization.

So here’s my advice:

If you want the chaplain to tell you you’re a victim rather than tell you that you need virtue, this may not be the university you’re looking for. If you want to complain about a sermon that makes you feel less than loving for not showing love, this might be the wrong place.

If you’re more interested in playing the “hater” card than you are in confessing your own hate; if you want to arrogantly lecture, rather than humbly learn; if you don’t want to feel guilt in your soul when you are guilty of sin; if you want to be enabled rather than confronted, there are many universities across the land (in Missouri and elsewhere) that will give you exactly what you want, but Oklahoma Wesleyan isn’t one of them.

At OKWU, we teach you to be selfless rather than self-centered. We are more interested in you practicing personal forgiveness than political revenge. We want you to model interpersonal reconciliation rather than foment personal conflict. We believe the content of your character is more important than the color of your skin. We don’t believe that you have been victimized every time you feel guilty and we don’t issue “trigger warnings” before altar calls.

Oklahoma Wesleyan is not a “safe place”, but rather, a place to learn: to learn that life isn’t about you, but about others; that the bad feeling you have while listening to a sermon is called guilt; that the way to address it is to repent of everything that’s wrong with you rather than blame others for everything that’s wrong with them. This is a place where you will quickly learn that you need to grow up.

This is not a day care. This is a university!

OKWU might be the ideal place to go should you find yourself in the market for actual higher education. Impressive.

On the trivial but exciting side of “education” UGA is rumored to be higher Kirby Smart as its new head football coach. Mark Richt fans (legion) want him to consider running for governor of Georgia. I suspect he is too good a man to stoop down to the politicians’ level.

Speaking of the pols, there’s a big election looming. I’ll bet your favorite candidate has actionable plans ready to deal with all of these problems. That was a joke …

 

Anarchy Is Better Than No Government At All

30 Monday Nov 2015

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Some years ago I landed in what for me was probably the perfect legal position of employment. I took a job out of law school as a law clerk with a Georgia court. Law clerks review case file, do research and make recommendations to their judges.

My tenure went far beyond the norm. I was afforded the opportunity to wear many hats – each of which fitted me perfectly. I was able to indulge in a great breadth and depth of research with some publication to boot. I was granted the more prestigious title of Staff Attorney. I was also a registered lobbyist, working occasionally in pursuit of projects concerning the judiciary. I even filled in a few times on the bench.

Gravitating naturally towards research and writing and having almost total freedom with my time I began to explore additional opportunities of academic nature. My great interest is in freedom in and out of legal and political systems. I am a theorist. I learned towards some hybrid between legal theory and political philosophy.

The American Bar Association views a J.D. as the equivalent of a PhD for teaching purposes. Most non-law schools hold a different view. I realized I might benefit from another, specialized graduate degree. My choices as I saw them were either a Master of Law or LLM (in law a Master’s degree comes after the doctorate – yes, backwards) or a PhD in poly sci.

My school of choice, based on both reputation and logistics, was the University of Georgia. I had my own strict criteria concerning any entry into these programs.

The only LLM program in the world which interested me was at UGA. It was a directed study of comparative legal theories under the esteemed base master of such philosophy, Dr. Alan Watson. The only PhD I would consider was in political theory or philosophy and, with a concentration in natural law and libertarian/anarchist views.

I demanded, or would have, freedom to explore my own paths. I also included teaching experience as a must have.

My quest never got very far. In short order life dictated I abandon my beloved job and move to a less than desirable locale, practicing less than desirable law. Thus began my professional “downfall.” I ended up, for a brief time, a miserable prosecutor. When I could no longer stand that I entered private practice. Several were my shinning moments but I never regained even a shadow of my former fit and happiness.

Everything happens for a reason. Today, through my writing, I am finally able to pick up where I left off nearly a decade ago. This time, it’s my way on my own by necessity. One, I doubt there is any organized poly sci department in America which would or could house me. That’s fine – times have changed. Today we have YouTube and Udemy. Two, Alan Watson retired and took with him the last vestige of true legal study in the country. Again, I’m on my own. Autodidact or die …

I visited Watson’s office a few times back the. It was my intention to interview him and to be interviewed myself to check compatibility. Per my usual laziness I always showed up unannounced. He was never in. I have never met the man. Perhaps that all was a sign. My little daughter did accompany me on one visit – we had a great time – as such the trip was anything but a waste.

The political science department did receive me for an arranged visit. I toured the facility and we had a good discussion. There was a real chance things might have worked out. Nearly all the faculty members were “liberals” but they seemed to tolerate my extremism rather well. They were open to my ideas of a very loosely structured curriculum and my desire to teach while I worked. They also deemed an attorney in the department a plus. But, as I said, life intervened.

On my afore-mentioned tour I passed many faculty office doors. Many were closed. One was covered in signs and stickers. One of the stickers read: “Anarchy is better than no government at all.” That stuck in my jumbled mind. I think I used it as a title once …

“Anarchy” has various meanings to different people. Of late the term has been used to describe somewhat disruptive protestors of modern socio-economic life. These, to me, appear more like pro-communist or anti-capitalist activists than anything else. Communism is in my mind the polar opposite of anarchy. Then again, I don’t have a monopoly on the word. I suppose this crowd is descended from the mad bomb throwers of yesteryear.

Tolkien, a hero of mine, described his own political philosophy as anarchism. The specifically rejected the bomber disposition; rather, he merely wanted to leave others alone in exchange for equal treatment. This position is as close to my own as any.

Anarchy and “no government” as the door sticker alluded are often used synonymously. However, I don’t think they are one and the same.

Many consider anarchy the equivalent of chaos. To them it is the complete absence of any controls, political or societal, and could only lead to pandemonium. Their views are understandable. For 10,000 years we have been trained to accept some degree of authority outside of ourselves and over us. As society has evolved (or fallen) government and society have also become synonymous. They are not.

One can speak of the American or French or Japanese cultures and traits without the slightest regard for their respective governments. Government did not create the beauty of the natural world. Nor does it bring happiness to small family gatherings. Though they might claim otherwise, politicians had nothing to do with the development of symphony, football, pizza or the quiet enjoyment of an evening cigar.

Anarchy does represent a form of governance. It is one that stems from the natural freedom of association between civilized people. Heavy-handed policies, tactics, and laws are most unnatural. Too many repeat the phrase “government is a necessary evil.” At least they acknowledge the evil but the institution is just that – evil but unnecessary.

Think of anarchy as “Golden Rule” government. Each affords the other respect and vows not to violate the other’s rights and freedoms. Anarchy is freedom. Freedom is happiness.

Yes, not all people are civilized. Criminality is a continuing cost of original sin. Somewhere in time someone postulated the state’s main purpose was to protect the good people from the bad. History shows this premise is a total failure. Governments are typically the worst violators of freedom and dignity. They also have the nasty habits of coercing decent people into supporting and paying for their depravity and of criminalizing private attempts to disrupt real criminal activity.

In the absence of such retarded controls the free would be able to – individually or in concert – using their strength and conscious – shame, disrupt, or terminate undesirable elements.

Other things government is supposed to do, but which it can’t do well and did not invent, are better left to private cooperation. Roads, schools and defense are all possible without state intervention. And they all predate government.

Many a good, libertarian man I know have said to me (almost in desperation) “you have to have some government!” No, I do not. I have reached a point where I am content to manage my own affairs and relations. Perhaps they real mean “they have to have government.” They don’t. It’s the conditioning of 10,000 years at work which convinces them otherwise.

Anarchy isn’t better than no government. It is the best government.

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Note: I realized upon finishing this one that it’s as much about me as my pet philosophy. The two seem intertwined. Funny. I don’t care much for structure and tend to live out a life of personal anarchy. I have to admit that for all the foibles it works out pretty well.

Law Schools: Deans, Dunces, and Degeneracy

28 Saturday Nov 2015

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This week I protested the wholesale stupidity and cowardice of high school administrators in Massachusetts. Sadly, I now have bigger fish to fry. Fry them I shall. Last night I read about the utter demise of the Moritz College of Law at THE (they put emphasis on that word) Ohio State University.

You may recall my reflections on my own Legal “Education” – a process which bears little resemblance to the legal profession and none to the actual law. Law schools obsess over “positive law,” meaning statutes and court decisions (particularly the courts). There the Natural Law is a heresy.

In general law schools are not worth attending. They offer three years of state worship, communism and idiocy in exchange for entry into a failed and depressing career. THE Ohio State law school provides an excellent example.

Until about 40 or 50 years ago American universities were places where ideas were exchanged and cultivated. Law schools were supposedly high bastions of legal theory. I say supposedly because they also served as gatekeepers for the attorneys’ professional monopoly. Many of our best lawyers – Jefferson, Adams, Spooner, etc. – did not attend law schools – they “read” or self studied the law while apprenticed to a practicing attorney. I digress…

Elementary and high schools provided the base education. They made sure graduates could read, write, add and think for themselves. They also instilled a sense of history and scientific wonder and civic appreciation. Colleges were where serious scholars furthered their learning. Graduate schools were reserved for the elite.

Everything has changed now. Grade schools today serve as temporary detention centers where the inmates are indoctrinated as they await entry into either real prisons, menial employment (becoming rarer), or college admissions. The colleges serve as hosts for semi-professional football teams, sex and drug parties, and havens for the mentally defective, otherwise unemployable people known as “academics.”

Colleges, to include law schools, babysit a generation of uneducated, uninterested, uninteresting weaklings. The students demand “safe spaces.” They obsess over trivial or purely imaginary sufferings of which they have no understanding. They are unfamiliar with free thought or the value of a question. The staff and professors, still mourning the loss of the Soviet Union, cater to this legion of wusses in a desperate bid to keep their own irrelevant jobs. They cater and coddle so long as the little snowflakes are politically correct. The free-thinker, the libertarian, the conservative, the proudly Caucasian and the Christian are considered enemies within.

Madison Gesiotto found out about the deplorable intellectual dishonesty and spinelessness of the Moritz College of Law the hard way. The stunning beauty queen (Miss Ohio USA) came to Moritz for the stunning purpose of furthering her education. A pro-life Catholic and an accomplished writer, she penned a story about the devastating effects of the abortion industry on the black community.

This was a triple sin. First, Christians are supposed to be silent should they even be allowed inside the temples of government worship. Second, abortion is a sacrament to the cult and never to be questioned. Third, and a recent development, the black community is not to be mentioned outside of glowing support for the black lives matter bullshit and other small sects of discontent.

A reasonable, thoughtful person would glean from Madison’s article her concern for black children, all children, murdered by the Satanic likes of Planned Parenthood. The American abortion trade was born of racist Nazi origin. One would think liberals and the modern race hustlers would declare war on rather than fully defend such an institution. Those black lives must not matter.

For her sincere concern and honest scholarship Madison received scorn and even a threat. “The government cannot take action against you for your offensive and racist article. But your colleagues can,” wrote some idiot on Madison’s Facebook page. Madison does not know the fool who posted this statement (smart enough not to be criminal but dumb enough for national condemnation) though she knows or suspects he is a student at Moritz.

I wrote to Madison too, informing her that her online stalker is a wuss and not to be feared. I can almost guarantee he sleeps with a nightlight – the kind who flits about in skinny jeans – the kind just brave enough to threaten a girl on the internet – the kind that finds girls “icky.”

We can tell a good bit about our e-vilgilante by his choice of words. He starts: “The government cannot take action against you …” He really wishes it could. He’s a socialist or Nazi at heart. Anything he deems inappropriate should be a crime. The government should take action.

“…for your offensive and racist article.” Up is down and black is white to these itty bitty babys. An article condemning the murder of several hundred thousand black children each year is racist. Does the bedwetter want them killed? Why? Perhaps his cry is a transferring admission of a conscious he is personally afraid of. And “offensive.” Lefties love nothing more than to be offended by something. Rather than threaten Madison they should thank her for giving them something to cry about.

“But your colleagues can.” Can what? Take what action? Whatcha pansies gonna do? They’ve done it. They sent a Facebook message. They have now exhausted their powers. One would hope they are now safely back in the safe room being safe. You can’t help but feel sorry for them. It’s like coming across a terminally injured rabbit (except the bunny thinks a bit more and isn’t afraid of girl bunnies).

Using this dork as a benchmark Madison has no colleagues at Moritz. She must stand out like a tree among weeds. That last line – the threat – was a subtle warning that politically incorrect thought and expression will be punished by the legal community. The sentiment was echoed by the school itself as I will note shortly.

So what? Madison can’t be kicked out for free speech (though that would rid her of all this stupidity). Perhaps the Ohio Bar will frown on her application. Odds are the review personnel are not smart enough or industrious enough to connect these dots. Even if they did, they can be sued just like a law school. Maybe Madison won’t have the luxury of slaving away 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for years at a big “prestigious” law firm. The kind of firm where, if you survive, they come to you one day and tell you you’re not moving up so it’s time to move out.  Horrors!

No, Madison’s future is secure. She was bright enough to make it on her own anyway. Now, as a victim of statist discrimination, she is a national sweetheart. People (most of us) still love real women and real Americans. She’s probably already had job offers. Maybe book offers. She will be on national television this weekend to explain her experience.

Now, let us look at the school itself. Feeling threatened Madison did what she was supposed to. She contacted the school and arranged a meeting with the dean. At the meeting she found herself confronted by three deans. They blew off her concerns for her safety and freedom and immediately attacked her and her article.

“This is a flawed article, it’s not a good legal piece, it’s not a good journalistic piece, either,” snorted her trio of over(tax)paid assailants. Like the Facebook bully these “academics” revealed a bit of their psyche and lack of mental horsepower. Their statement revealed a lack of understanding of journalism, legal or otherwise.

Dean Alan C. Michaels said he “takes any alleged threat against its students very seriously.” The thought bubble over his head continued, “except in this case. We’re going to abuse the victim here.”

Alan, who graduated from Harvard and Columbia, can be reached at (614) 292-0574. He’s a former prosecutor and criminal law specialist. Criminal. You know. Like threatening remarks criminal. Criminal negligence in refusing to investigate threats. Pitiful. If the roles were reversed, Madison would be in a holding cell somewhere. Pathetic.

Dean Kathy Seward Northern ((614) 292- 7750) alerted Madison she had reached out to the Moritz’s Black Law Students Association and found them not a threat to Madison. This was pointless as Northern knew the stalker was white and likely not a member of the BLSA. Her real intent was probably to fan emotions in the BLSA against Madison’s raaaaaaacism (defending black babies and all that). Her specialty is “environmental racism” whatever the hell that is.

The hidden agenda worked. The BLSA said they were OFFENDED by the racist article. Again, she made their day, showering them with glorious offense. Not mine. All this offense taking is beginning to offend me.

Northern told Madison (probably while looking down her nose) “that in her mind this article could be taken various ways and left questions to be answered.” Yeah, idiot, that’s what good journalism does. It provokes questions. Thoughts. Discussion.

The deans did recommend a “facilitated discussion” between Madison and her intellectual and emotional inferiors. She wisely refused. Such a session would have consisted of lowbrow freaks taunting the young woman (while maybe also flinging poo at her) while the deans looked on in smug approval.

A third dean was mentioned but remains unidentified. It’s as likely as not it was a homeless person pulled in off the street by Michaels and Northern. Hobos look and act much like law school deans. He obviously added nothing memorable to the conversation.

The Moritz website touts its faculty: “Brilliant scholars and devoted teachers, our professors are passionate about making lasting contributions in their fields of expertise and in the lives of their students.” I ponder their lasting contributions to Madison. Maybe they did teach her something – personal fortitude in the face of socialism.

Like a champion, Madison remains undeterred. She wrote another excellent article in her own defense. 

I am Catholic, I am conservative, I am an American, I am a woman, I am a millennial, I am a law student and I am proud.

I am not afraid to voice my opinions and refuse to be stifled by the unwillingness of others to accept views, beliefs or behaviors different from their own.

Madison, Washington Times.

You. Go. Girl.

Concerned Women for America and other groups have come to her defense. Not that she needs it. She has single-handedly defeated the fascists of Moritz. She did it by merely standing up to them. They have no power over her and will fear her going forward. They also have nothing to teach her though this incident has given her an education of sorts.

Madison is beautiful, brave, talented and a winner. She can’t be alone in academia. If there remain even a few like her, then the institution is not completely lost.

northern_kathyHobo-Costume1

The dynamic deanery.

 

Airspace and Airheads

24 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

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ISIS is supposedly our enemy – when we’re not funding and training them. They shoot theater patrons and bomb stadiums when they’re not fighting our enemy (or friend) in Syria … or something.  Very complicated.  Very stupid.  Every other Wednesday we are at war with them.  We bomb hospitals like they bomb soccer games thus demonstrating our moral superiority.

Russia recently began bombing the daylights out of ISIS’s military operations in Syria.  To be sure, Putin has ulterior political motives but his are probably not as murky nor schizophrenic as ours.

Turkey shot down a Russian plane it said had violated Turkish airspace.  Russia disputes the claim.  Washington, never wanting to miss a good time, has sent Air Force F-15s to Turkey to help fight the threat of Russia, which fights the threat of ISIS, which is crossing some stretch of the Texas border into the U.S. right now.

Geo. Washington, in his Farewell Address, 1796, referred to this as the “insidious wiles of foreign influence.” Of course, he would neither recognize nor understand what his homeland as descended into these days.  He might ask that his name be removed from the national capital (“Moronia” might be more appropriate).

Odds are there is more intelligence (far more) in Moscow and in Ankara than in D.C.; things should cool down sufficiently to prevent a sprouting of the giant mushrooms.

If intelligence is lacking in D.C., then it is utterly lost around metro Boston. At least as far as local government schooling is concerned.

In Revere, a North shore suburb, the high school cheerleading captain, Caley Godino, was kicked off the squad after some pitiful nitwits found one of her Tweets “offensive.”  It seems Caley Tweeted, “When only 10 percent of Revere votes for mayor cause the other 90 percent isn’t legal,” as part of a political discussion about illegal immigration. [Revere’s population is about 30% foreign-born].

Local school superintendent and head Nazi in charge, Dianne Kelly, said of Caley’s horrible, racist, offensive (free) speech, “If you’re going to stand up and say something that other people will find offensive- than you need to be prepared to deal with the ramifications of that.”

I see nothing racist in her tweet. Hyperbole I sense. A hint of truth perhaps. Nothing to offend any reasonable person. Then again, the reasonable seem few and far between.

People find everything offensive today.  I’m sure some in Revere find the town’s namesake, Paul Revere, offensive – he was opposed to the illegal invasions of his day (one Tweet if by land, two if …). Many are offended by the existence of white people.  Caley is likely offended she’s not a captain anymore.  Kelly is probably offended Caley is young, attractive and popular (and not PC). I find Kelly a bit offensive; she appears to be a self-righteous Marxist crossbred with a woodchuck.

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See what I mean?  Maybe it’s the lighting.  Picture (first one) courtesy of the Revere Ministry of Indoctrination.

By the way, Herr Woodchuck can be reached at 781-286-8226 should you have any comments for her.  Just don’t offend her tiny sensibilities.  I won’t call because I would say something like, “Go to hell, you communist bitch.”  Very insensitive. They might make me an honorary cheerleader just so they could kick me off the squad.

I hope young Caley has learned her lesson: American government schools, where immigration law breaking is tolerated but free speech is not, are a joke and not worth attending.  I would tell her to get a GED and be done with the foolishness.  She might want to consider suing – The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education could help.

Dropping out of the failed system would do her better than any court action. Should she attend college she will find the same hypersensitivity and PC BS – writ large. Maybe she could get an education provided all the silly snowflakes are locked up in their safe places.

I hope this article is not offensive to woodchucks, not all of whom are communists. I’m sure not all educrats are stupid. I’m sure everyone in Washington is. Polys, please don’t get up nuked. Caley, do not give in.

Valediction

24 Sunday May 2015

Posted by in News and Notes

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As I type this bit up I am listening to several of my friends discuss the graduation of their several children from high school.  It’s that time of year.  All across America eighteen-year-olds are preparing to say goodbye to lifelong friends, to embrace college, to join the workforce, and to become adults.  It is a joyful time.

The local fish wrapper ran, today, a separate pictorial section dedicated to our young people, their early accomplishments and their future plans.  In particular the paper dwelt upon the lives and missions of the valedictorians and salutatorians of local schools. These are young men and women who are poised to go far in life.

The news calls them the “best and brightest.”  By the popular measure of educational achievement, this moniker fits.  However, these words are today minced in a somewhat incorrect manner.  “Valedictorian” and “salutatorian” come from Latin roots – valediction and saluation.  The former is a farewell, the latter a greeting.

At ceremonies coast to coast these meanings serve a justifiable purpose.  The valedictorian speaks first to bid the class farewell to the sheltered academic lives the members have known.  The salutatorian then speaks to the promise of the coming years. Or, something like that.

Those acquainted with the works of John Taylor Gatto or who have children of school age, surely understand the decline of quality in American public education.  Gatto was formerly New York’s teacher of the year (State and City).  His distinguished career spanned decades.  Now he speaks and writes of the critical need for drastic school reform.  His writing is frequently published at lewrockwell.com.  He is the author of The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling (2000).

Gatto has related the American model of public education to Soviet-era brainwashing:

Two years before I ran across that Atlantic broadside, I encountered a different analysis in the financial magazine Forbes. I was surprised to discover Forbes had correctly tracked the closest inspiration for school psychologizing, both its aims and its techniques, to the pedagogy of China and the Soviet Union. Not similar practices and programs, mind you, identical ones. The great initial link with Russia, I knew, had been from the Wundtian Ivan Pavlov, but the Chinese connection was news to me. I was unaware then of John Dewey’s tenure there in the 1920s, and had given no thought, for that reason, to its possible significance:

The techniques of brainwashing developed in totalitarian countries are routinely used in psychological conditioning programs imposed on school children. These include emotional shock and desensitization, psychological isolation from sources of support, stripping away defenses, manipulative cross-examination of the individual’s underlying moral values by psychological rather than rational means. These techniques are not confined to separate courses or programs…they are not isolated idiosyncracies of particular teachers. They are products of numerous books and other educational materials in programs packaged by organizations that sell such curricula to administrators and teach the techniques to teachers. Some packages even include instructions on how to deal with parents and others who object. Stripping away psychological defenses can be done through assignments to keep diaries to be discussed in group sessions, and through role-playing assignments, both techniques used in the original brainwashing programs in China under Mao.

The Forbes writer, Thomas Sowell, perhaps invoking the slave states in part to rouse the reader’s capitalist dander, could hardly have been aware himself how carefully industrial and institutional interest had seeded Russia, China, Japan, and the Pacific Islands with the doctrine of psychological schooling long ago, nearly at the beginning of the century, and in Japan’s case even before that. All along we have harvested these experimental growths in foreign soil for what they seem to prove about people-shaping.

 – Gatto, The Empty Child, Chapter 13 of The Underground History of American Public Education (2000).

“Slaves,” “people-shaping,” and “brainwashing” are alarming and damning.  However, from my experience I find them succient and apt discriptions of American education.

I was lucky growing up.  I had a slew of teachers, older and steeped in the traditions of real education – the old school way, who actually dared and cared to teach.  I remember them fondly.  Also, in high school, college and graduate school I possessed a hard-headed resilience and independence which plagues me to this day.  You may sense in my writing.

Today schools are little more than prisons crossbred with day care centers.  Our children are marched around like cattle by overweight nitwits.  They are subjected to communist indoctrination and cultural immorality.  State-worship is everywhere.  Rules must be obeyed perfectly.  Freakism of every strip is revered.  God is banned from the building.

In all this idiocy the one thing missing is teaching – learning and educational experiment are vacant in our public schools.  They are unwanted qualities among the people.  As George Carlin used to say, the system wants people just smart enough to operate the machines and file the paper – they do not want educated people capable of free thought or consideration.

By the grace of God Almightly the “best and brightest” are often times exempted from this nonesense.  Many possess those rebellious traits I hold dear.  Many are allowed to pursue real studies in real academic subjects.  These are statistical outliers.  The other children, the majority, are treated like sheep and criminals.

A boy in West Virginian was recently ARRESTED for wearing a t-shirt which expressed support for the NRA and the Second Amendment.  No-one was bothered by the shirt. The lad harmed none.  However, the Second Amendment representing the last hope of freedom for oppressed people (like students), the shirt had to be banned and demonized. In an overreaction typical of modern schools administrators, the teacher and principal called the local Gestapo.  The child was led away in handcuffs – for wearing a shirt.

The charges were later dismissed by an honest judge.  However, great damage has been done.  The boy’s mother is suing the school for violating her son’s civil rights.  Go mama!

Long ago, public schools had civics classes.  In those classes the Constitution, its traditions and foundations were taught.  This included the second amendment and the necessary right and obligation of rebellion against tyranny.  Revolution was celebrated. Today, as best I can gather, such thought or instruction would constitute a criminal offense.  Our babes are taught the government is the end all and be all of human existence.  Its supremacy and place must never be challenged.

This is a crime, in and of itself, equal with all the positive modern instruction concerning dependence, homosexuality, death culture, etc.  Anything goes and is okay, our children are taught, so long as it does not make any sense.  I imagine that math, being completely based on absolute truth, is completely absent from the new schools.  Robots and foreigners can always add for us.  This subtracts from the ability of our people to independently endure.  It cries out for vengeance.  Most ears are deaf to that cry.

Back to our new graduates … the fish-wrapper relayed to its readers how a valedictorian and salutatorian of a local high school treated their classmates to the verse and wisdom of Dr. Seuss.  This is a commonality in schools these days.  Oh, the places you’ll go… This small child’s book was read, in part, in one of my law classes.  Maybe it was at our graduation.  It was foolish and inappropriate.

drseussbook

(Dr. Seuss, keeping children and adults shit stupid since 1937.  Google.)

What kind of world is it when the words of Jesus, Jefferson and Cicero are absent and replaced by the sophomoric rhymes of the kindergarten?  Seuss is the level of the new school – childish, pointless, and optimistically vacuous.

Were I permitted to address a graduating class I too would present a Seuss book.  I would introduce the Cat in the Hat. I would then rip it in half, throw it on the floor and proceed to tell the children that they were, that day, freed from one form of government oppression.  I would congratulate them for surviving without arrest records. I would then extol them of the crucial importance of real learning.  Never let schooling interfere with education.  Never let education interfere with learning.  Question everything.  Accept no mastery.  Put down with brutality that slavery prepared for your adult lives.  I would never be invited back again.

Before I wrote about my experience in college and in law school.  I ridiculed myself for opportunities lost and the system for lack of substance.  Schooling is what one makes of it.  I hope our future generations grasp this.  I hope they reject the new theories of dumbed-down complacency.  I hope they prosper.  Congratulations to the Class of 15.

 

World Class Education – Free

22 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in Other Columns

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Amid other astounding proposals, President Obama recently proposed universal two-year college educations for Americans.  This likely would mean an associates degree from a local community or technical college.  It will also likely be as free as your health insurance.

The good news is you do not have to wait on Washington.  A free college education is now available from one of the finest Universities in the world, and it’s not limited to a two year term.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has made virtually every course available to the public – at no cost.  It’s called Open Course Ware – check it out now.  The only requirements are that you have a computer, be able to read, and know basic math skills.  That means it is open to just about everyone.  Note – I’ve heard some sensitive nuclear engineering classes are redacted.

Here are some of the department offerings available:

ocw1

Here are some classes in the political science department:

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Everything is there, including graduate level classes.

When you open a class you get:

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Notes, lectures, tests are all there.  For a full experience you would probably need to purchase textbooks and other materials.  The drawback is that even if you complete a full course load, you will not receive a degree.  However, you will get the benefit of free information.  It’s like auditing classes, but for free.

Take a look around and see if you find classes of interest.  Yours truly may explore a few subjects.  You do the same – have fun and learn something new!