Back to School

Soon, there will be advertisements everywhere concerning “back to school” specials. For eight years, I was the editor of a professional journal, and each fall I would have a picture on the front, children happily returning to school. They will not believe it now, but their school years are the happiest years of their lives. All children want to learn, and most children will learn. Just as Satan put into the minds of the “first family” the act of rebelling, so he has put the act of rebelling in the brain of every child. Governor Charles Brantley Aycock (NC Governor 1900-1904) was called the education governor of North Carolina, he had attended a one room school in Wayne county NC with both of my grandfathers. This school now sits at the Aycock birthplace in Wayne county. The governor said he got his passion for education when he saw his mother make her mark on a deed, she could not read or write.

When I was young, a high school graduate was rare, a college graduate stood out in the entire community. My father, and all his brothers and sisters were high school graduates and most went on to college. My mother was the only member of her family that did not graduate from high school.

This writer went to the same small county school for twelve years, there was 13 in my graduating class. A boy named Elvin started school with me, but only went through the sixth grade, having to drop out to work on the farm. Elvin's family lived back up in the woods, I never saw his mother but once. Tenant farmers, they had very little as far the world goes. I remember that one teacher, Ms. Champion (fourth grade) gave Elvin a lot of attention. He told me that she went to his house, took clothes to his mother for Elvin and his brothers and sisters. She told his mother that Elvin had the prettiest eyes she had ever seen. His mother said that this was the nicest thing that had ever been said to her.

At a school in Johnson county, Glendale, a teacher told her students to write on three sheets of paper the names of each classmate, skip three lines under each name, and under each name write the nice things you know about your classmate. The class was amazed to find how much they were appreciated by their fellow class members.

I heard recently of a school in Arkansas where, when the students arrived at their classroom, there were no student's desks in the room. The teacher had made all the arrangements ahead of time, with the principal's permission. When the teacher came in, she said, “I want to ask you who makes it possible for you to sit at a desk each day.” As the students sat around the wall, on the floor, they gave various answers: the state, the county, taxes, the president. The students, tired and dejected around 11 o clock, heard a knock at the door. Twenty seven veterans with their veterans cap on came into the room, each carrying one of the student's desks. The veteran put the desk down and called out the student's names. The teacher than introduced each veteran to the class, their military service, and how long they were in the military. The teacher said, “this is the reason you are in school, because these are the men who made it all possible.”

The total annual budget for education of school-age children, public and private, is $970 billion. Some states spend more than others per student, North Carolina spends $6500 per student. Of course, more and more students are going to private schools, Christian schools, charter schools, and more and more students are being home-schooled. One of my assistants had five children, she home-schooled all of them. Parents who love their children will not subject them to insults, embarrassment, and the degradation of the public schools. Parents who love their children, who spend much time investing themselves, their morals, their spiritual beliefs in their children will not allow everything good done at home to be undone at the school.

There was a time when the public school teacher was respected; not anymore, most have gone the way of Sodom. More interested in their national union, political correctness, evolution and atheism than the tender, innocent beliefs of God's special chosen people, little people. Even 80 years ago, there was bullying in the schools...and these were segregated schools. I still remember, as a small child, how I suffered because I was afraid to go to the bathroom because of the thuggery that went on there by the larger, bullying boys who knew nothing about sensitivity towards anyone. I can only imagine what is like today, you do not want your child, the most precious possession of your life, to be subjected to such. It amazes me that most children turn out as well as they do, considering from where they come, blaring music, cursing, beatings, infidelities.

Recently, my driver and I were in a fast food restaurant having lunch, I could only hear what went on. My driver described the scene, a black woman had come in for her paycheck, and evidently the manager told her that she was fired. In front of other employees, customers, I have never heard such profanity from the lips of one black woman. My driver told me that she had a small boy with her, and that he acted very unconcerned. I said, “such language is shocking to us, but he has heard it all before, it is a daily diet with him.”

I have been active in many political campaigns, campaigns for governor...Terry Sanford, Dan Moore, Jim Martin, etc. Always, without fail, every campaign is built on the theme: “why Johnny can't read”. More politicians express interest in education now than ever, more money is spent on education than ever, there is more interest by the general public in education than ever before. Until the entire education system, federal, state, local is dismantled and we return to basics, nothing will improve. As one Massachusetts educator said to me, “we just need to tear everything down and start over.”

At the national teacher's union convention in 1997, a black choir sang an anthem in which God was mentioned. The president of the national teachers union apologized to the assembled delegates for the reference to God. One mother told me recently that her child gets his vitamins each day, just as important, as important as it was to our ancestors: Bible reading and prayer each day.

I was in Ulan Bator, Mongolia out early in the morning for a walk, near a school. The students marched to school in uniform, military music could be heard from the school. A teacher was standing at each entrance door, checking each student before the student entered the school. I saw the same routine at schools in Ivory Coast, West Africa, and certainly the public school palaces in communist China. In 1963, because of an innocuous 21-word prayer, Bible reading and prayer was taken out of the public school, replacing these American traditions with police patrolling the halls.

Socrates said the best way to learn is by asking questions. I have the following questions: When will education be taken out of the political system? When will we return to the time of teacher's colleges, when new teachers were educated by old teachers who knew how it is done? When will discipline be returned to the classroom (we pay someone well to discipline the dog, but do not want a child born with rebellion to be disciplined)? When will the public realize that as long as it takes a father and a mother to make a living for a family, with all the quandary of responsibilities in any extra time, that excessive taxation has led to the moral and education decay of the family? When will we learn that it is not transportation to school, it is not skin-color, it is not DNA, it is not the education of the parents that determines a child's learning skills, development and contribution to society.

There are 125 youth programs controlled by Congress, not one knows what the others are doing...much duplication, most political appointments. Evolution and entertainment are not the answer, as Sir Winston Churchill said, his “first and greatest teacher was [his] mother.”

“For He teacheth them to despise earthly things and to love heavenly; to neglect the world and to desire heaven all the day and night.” (Imitation of Christ)