But if a child is to learn, spending at least the required twelve years in school in America, why this “education”?

For one, there are certain, as Allan Bloom believed, education standards required to enhance not only communication amongst a people but understanding. In addition, there is a certain level of significance to the fact that children must learn reading, writing, arithmetic, science, literature, history and such, for intellectual and vocational satisfaction. However, specifically what the depth and breadth of that knowledge should be is widely debated.

But there is more.

As we all know, there is quite a bit missing from education: for one, the heart and soul little touched.

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” ~~ Aristotle

And imagination is given lip service in the arts (it should be used in all disciplines) but our students are little encouraged to fly, rather working to the test ingesting fact, theory, and formula.

“He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet.” ~~ Joseph Joubert

In addition to an under-stimulated imagination, we do little to encourage independent intuitive and critical thinking, the student marching on for the academic machine; or as one of my students claimed “To serve.”

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” ~~ Dorothy Parker

“To control and sort young people for the sake of institutional efficiency is to crush the human spirit.” ~~ Ron Miller

And little is done to encourage individual thinking that which comes through quite reflection and solitude, especially in a day-n-age of constant motion: texting, television, games, and chatting.

“The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.” ~~ Albert Einstein

But I am here to tell you that even though all of these greater things are missing, the argument as to what of the lesser (fact, theory, formula) should be taught in school matters little.

But “Why?” you say. Because most of what is taught to the student is not only of little interest but most of it is never thought of or used again.

But there’s more.

As long as a child is exposed to a good variety of knowledge and, probably more importantly, an enthusiasm for gaining discipline and consistency in obtaining that knowledge, when the child obtains young adulthood she will, through proper training or happenstance (which unfortunately is most often the case), learn what she desires to end up doing the majority of her waking hours here on this earth. And from here she will take the necessary steps to seek satisfaction, if she is fortunate. Unfortunately, within 5 to 10 years after graduation, 70% of college grads are no longer working in a field related to their major. After all that which has been learned in high school has been forgotten and that which has been learned in college no longer of use to the majority, one can see the waste this so called “education” is.

The key issue here, as alluded to above, is that the student needs to know how to self-teach, for it is here and only here where most of her development will occur. (An inward understanding of desires, talents, abilities, and gifts is also necessary to waste less time working where one should not be, a critical point I have spoken to often). It is interesting to note that the majority of those seeking improvement from the mislabeled field of self-help (interesting that ideally this is where the help should come from–the self) begin to do so around the age of twenty-seven. It is at this point in life when the majority get an inkling that “education” has failed them and that they must personally make amends.

But why is this self-educating critical to one’s greater education?

For those who go the extra mile, students will complete their formal education at the age of twenty-two. Of course some later, some sooner, and some will return, regardless, for those who maximize their education they will do so after completing 16 years of a formal education.

Then what?

Since school systems force what is to be learned upon students in a rigorous manor with little desire for input or feedback from them as to feelings, concerns, or thoughts, this has turned off the majority to learning; because of this there is little hope that learning will continue beyond those 12 years, 16 if going on to college. And since learning by wrote to the test is often the plight of most students (after all this “training” they get it and do little other than look to nurture their grade average), learning how to think creatively, intuitively, and rigorously to see the more stimulating and enlivening bigger picture is a moot point. Unfortunately, we are creating drones with little imagination and ability to adapt and think creatively, intuitively, critically in an age when job security and even career security (some experts say up to 10 career changes over a workers life span) is a thing of the past.

Bottom line, if education does not instill a passion for learning in the student, the student has been shortchanged emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually.

Another related point to consider is that education fades. Consider that within 24 hours of reading one forgets 80% without review, what does that say of an education months, never mind years, after completion if, first, that knowledge gained is repulsive (many taking the test and then purging what has been learned like a bulimic), second, that knowledge is never revisited for lack of use.

We fool ourselves as a nation if we think education has any great redeeming or lasting importance under these circumstances. People treat education as if it were a saving grace, the knowledge and understanding gained to be used for greater human good or “job security” (to be a good human one learns wisdom–difference between right and wrong–not facts, stats, and formulas). Yet the majority of knowledge is taken in and lost faster than you can say “Senior skip day.”

“Education in our times must try to find whatever there is in students that might yearn for completion, and to reconstruct the learning that would enable them autonomously to seek that completion.” – Allan Bloom, Closing of the American Mind

Some of that “completion” may entail a standard education, but not much. There is so much beyond what schools teach our children that is not only never taught but never mentioned and is, in most cases, stumbled upon as graduates real from trying to discern why their lives are out of control and missing so much satisfaction not only in career pursuits but greater pursuits of the emotional and critical strengthening of the character.

“As it now stands, students have powerful images of what a perfect body is and pursue it incessantly. But deprived of literary guidance, they no longer have any image of a perfect soul, and hence do not long to have one. They do not even imagine that there is such a thing.” – Allan Bloom, Closing of the American Mind.

May our minds remain open to the possibility of the need for the greatest of change to bring about a better education so that formal education does not simply expire and fade away. May we seek the best answers for our youth now and in the future.

What have you not done for me lately?

Why the collapse? Well, it began many decades ago in America. It was due to rapid economic growth that began in the 1940s and culminated in the boom of the 1990s and bust of the 21^st century.

How much have we grown over the decades? Consider that from 1895 to 1990 bicycles have become 36 times cheaper. However, specifically determining how wealthy we’ve becomes depends on the commodities and their perceived importance. Nevertheless, the point is that our wealth and the ability of the average American to purchase a great number of items has increased markedly.

Bottom line, the U.S. which is 6% of the world’s population has over half the world’s wealth. But this fear of 10% or even 15% unemployment is myopically self-centered American paranoia coming from the richest country on the planet; by contrast, the rest of the world functions at an average unemployment rate of 30% and has for some time. This inward and downward gaze to our collective bellybuttons has created chaos of great depth and that for much concern, but not merely of the economic variety. So what of this other concern?

Regardless of where you look-the sports arena, business room, political meetings, school and college campuses, places public and private-people have become predominantly less civil and moral. The “Express Yourself” 80s has turned into the “Just Yourself” 2000s.

More people than ever before are looking through you, cutting you off on the highway, stepping on your toes or closing the door in your face without a word, cussing without regard, driving without concern for life and limb of even children in the streets, on and on and on.

I have experienced this rudeness and selfishness firsthand for some time and have watched it grow and proliferate (friends and acquaintances across the board verifying the growth). More and more students have cut me off nearly stepping on my toes without apology as they make their way across campus; a man used his truck like a fist as he jacked it back and forth moving people out of his way as he made a u-turn into oncoming traffic; in Boston, after a relaxing three-day weekend at my parent’s cottage on Cape Cod, I made my way to my programmer’s job downtown only to be cut off by a middle-age man in a BMW who couldn’t let another car in, pulling to a complete stop in front of me in rush hour traffic to signal with a finger his displeasure; and the list goes on and on.

I now hear more swear words in one day on a college / university campus than I used to hear in a month in my youth. The amount of self-seeking, self-serving, self-righteous behavior is at an all time high and on the rise. But this is not something that we should be surprised by. We have had warnings for thousands of years as to its coming and its danger:

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, [3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, [4] Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; [5] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away (2 Timothy 3-16 KJV).

So warns Timothy about the end-of-days.

We see this fall in those who took advantage to line their pockets only to bring the current financial ruin. We see the pride in athletes who focus on their accomplishment outside of the team, time and again that which has been encouraged by America’s general focus on individual awards (Before the age of the author, it was seen as rude and self-serving to put one’s name on the book cover or to market one’s self like a household product). We see the rise in disobedience to not only parents but school authorities (as the student who said to my friend who was teaching high school at the time: “Go ahead, you can even call the cops. Do it! I don’t care); we see in politics and business those how are “traitors, heady, high-minded”; we see those who are “blasphemers” who use the Lord’s name without regard every day; we see the proliferation of those “without natural affection” as promiscuity and its encouraging cousin pornography (a multi-billion dollar industry) continue on the rise.

But there is more, much more.

Americans, having become rich and indulgent for maybe too long, have slackened in their work ethic, an ethic that is now monopolized by Easterners: India and China and the Middle East. According to industry experts, they are better qualified, more highly motivated, more reliable, ethical and honest. They have the old-style work ethic that we, in many ways, have lost. One of the reasons for outsourcing is that many U.S. companies see a better, more quickly processed or handle product by countries outside the U.S.

Whatever happened to the “virtues of industry and thrift,” as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stressed? These lessons that the U.S. at one time taught the world are now being improved upon by the student who will soon laugh at the teacher if she does not wake up.

Here is what British historian and author Paul Johnson has to say about the current state of the Western Nation:

“We are traveling along the high road to incompetence and poverty, led by a farcical
coalition of fashionably liberal academics on the make, assorted eco-crackpots and
media wiseacres” (”Can We Afford Liberalism Now?” Forbes, Nov. 17, 2008).

What we need to do is hearken back to an age when “Thank You” was pursed on our lips over and above any current, creative combination of cuss words too freely thrown around today. Self-centered rudeness abounds today.

I have a very kind friend who very patiently put up with a mother’s crying baby in the theater for some time. To the delight of many around him and his wife, he kindly asked the woman if she would remove the child until it calmed down. The woman screamed in a self-righteous outrage, tearing a blue streak that nearly sent my friend back to his seat in several pieces.

We need to return to a time when we thanked people often, quickly, and quietly. We need to hearken back to a time when even stealing a piece of candy or a minute of work from an employer disturbed us to the core. We need to hearken back to a time when we would only take a sick day if we were sick, and then only if it were so bad we couldn’t get out of bed. We need to hearken back to a time when a kind thought, word, or deed was the first thing to mind over and above any self-serving want or desire.

None of us are perfect. And I am not claiming to be sacrosanct in all my dealings with my fellow humans, nor do I expect the same of anyone else, but we must seek to be more honorable, honest, and humble; humble meaning teachable not being of a mind that it’s okay to have people walk over us in their self-righteousness.

In closing we can look to Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and the characters therein for examples of honor, honesty, trust, respect, and accountability, all characteristics that will lead us to betterment, economic and otherwise.

Baba, the father of Amir (main character), is on his way to Pakistan with his son to avoid the Russians in their takeover of Afghanistan. At the boarder, a Russian guard insists on “having an hour” with one of the women in the truck, a married woman with baby and husband in toe. Baba stands and admonishes the guard, asking him if he does not feel shame for what he desires. Amir, afraid that his father will be shot, asks Baba to sit. Baba speaks to the man interpreting, “Tell him [the guard] I will take a thousand bullets before I let this indecency take place.” A true hero, a man of honor and depth, one all would be willing to call friend, associate, companion, father.

During another scene, Hassan, the young servant friend of Amir (Hassan and his father work for Baba), runs to get the fallen kite that Amir has taken down in a kite-fighting tournament, one in which Amir has been victorious. As he retrieves the kite, Hassan encounters the village bullies who tell him to give them the kite or suffer the consequences. Being honorable and brave, Hassan states that he will not give up the kite but take what the bullies have to offer instead. Here the bullies beat and rape Hassan, who never mentions the incident to anyone, even though Amir has been witness to it.

We have fallen on hard times economically, for sure. But morally, we have not only fallen harder but deeper. We must begin by teaching our sons and daughters what is right and wrong, to be honest, hard working, accountable, honorable, to stand up for what is right even in most difficult times and challenging settings. For if we do not, not only can our country not handle it, but the kind and gentle hearts of our mothers, daughters, wives, all the fair of heart, will find them broken and tossed onto the heap of what was once a great and thriving country.