Why Not?

There is a troubling trend in various schools around the nation that has become an open sore in the past few years. More and more schools are minimizing the teaching of history and American government in order to focus on things that will make our youth “more prepared to join the nation’s work force.” At least that is the excuse.

Granted, that preparation is important, but it should not be to the exclusion of other areas of a general education. A vital part of our nation’s education system appears to be missing and few seem to be aware of it.

I had an intense 12 years of school – 8 years of grade school and 4 years of high school in order to be graduated into the adult world (not counting 1 year at the University of Alaska and 5 years in the U.S. Navy). The schools I attended in Fairbanks, Alaska were a Catholic Parochial School and a Catholic High School. Monroe High School was a college prep school and both schools are still in existence. In order to advance from grade to grade and finally graduate students had to achieve a minimum grade point average. The school was a no nonsense establishment... you did the work to the teacher’s satisfaction or else you did it again, and again, and again until you got it right even if that meant staying after school for an hour or two!

In fact, the school’s grade average policy was so strict that if a student was unable to achieve the required GPA they were given 1 chance to do so by taking additional schooling after the day’s classes were over, and/or taking summer classes, if need be. If a student was still unable to achieve the minimum grade average he or she would be expelled and sent to the local public schools. A basic focus of all of the classes was enabling the students to think logically and make rational choices based on facts. There was no nit picking when world and U.S. history was taught. We got the bad with the good, but the teachers left it to us to make the final decision on which was which. We were not programed.

Starting in sixth grade and lasting through our senior high school year we studied American and world history, and American government (including 2 semesters of study on the Constitution of the United States). By the time we concluded those courses we had a fairly good understanding of how and why America became an independent and freedom loving nation. It wasn’t perfect then, and it isn’t perfect now. Nothing that mankind produces is perfect. Rather America was designed to grow and strive towards becoming better over time.

Better at what? Our founding fathers knew something many today seem to have forgotten: none of us are perfect and none are all knowing. As a result our system of constitutionally centered and ordered government is designed to adapt and change to meet the demands of reality. And changed ONLY after following a long and strenuous procedure insuring changes were for serious reasons and not for political gain. At the same time government was supposed to be able to protect the God given rights that are embedded in America’s founding philosophy and method of government. That is why it was deliberately made to be a time consuming and exhaustive method... it forces citizens to think things through before making changes.

You see, what mankind does can always be modified or trashed. What God has given remains, regardless of what humans say or do. Sooner or later He wins. And history is replete with humans’ failures and God’s victories. You don’t have to believe or accept this statement. As a many decade student of history, as well as living through some of the most interesting decades (1950’s to the present) I’ve seen first hand what both men and God can do. I’m putting my trust and money on God winning. And why not?

Always remember – what humans build can always be modified or destroyed. Remember the Tower of Babel? Do your kids a favor and take a good look at what is being changed and trashed in today’s America. What kind of a future will our kids have? It is not looking pretty. But you can take a stand against the radical movement to change America into a socialistic nation. The future is in our hands if we will act while we can.