“We have left behind the roots of our system which were laid deep enough and strong enough to sustain us even through long periods of neglect and decay.”
It was early in the morning as I considered what I’d just read. I left a brief comment:
“The idea occurred to me that the public schools, to include colleges and universities, might be intentionally turning students off to American History by the manner in which it is presented. These classes had no purpose other than to test students on how well they could remember a date, a name or some other important occurrence. At the end of the year nothing had been gained regarding the struggle of individuals to stand for concepts which made America great. My college level course was no different, maybe even worse.
I’m not a big fan of the word “coincidence” believing instead that most everything has a purpose. Looking at the miserable track record regarding the teaching of important American values as pertain to History would be the same as going over the many blunders that Jimmy Carter chalked up while he was president and then crowning it off with his giving away the Panama Canal; you can’t do that many things wrong by accident. There must be an explanation as to why American children are not given a proper lesson in the history of those who have gone before them, the spirit of America has not been promoted, an interesting choice of words when talking about students, which is why they have been failed.”
Go back for that last paragraph, find that word “coincidence” and then finish off with, “American children are not given a proper lesson in the history of those who have gone before them.” I finished my wake up bowl of oatmeal and glanced at the fancy media multimedia center on my computer only to find a wonderful old black and white movie, “The 49th Parallel”, all about the individual actions of freemen in Canada when pitted against an invading force from Nazi Germany.
I looked it up on Google and found a plot summary written by Steve Cook, “A damaged U-boat is stranded in a Canadian bay in the early years of World War II. The Fanatical Nazi captain and his crew must reach the neutral United States or be captured. Along the way they meet a variety of characters each with their own views on the war and nationalism.” I suppose the use of the words, “variety of characters” will have to do for my purposes.
Mind you, this was a movie; however, it was put together in a time when Hollywood stood behind the basic belief that we, that being those in America to include the Canadians, were on the side of goodness and virtue as opposed to the present day when Hollywood is synonymous with sympathizing with our enemies because we are an evil capitalistic society intent on taking advantage of the rest of humanity. In the movie, each individual who came across the small band of Nazis stranded in the back country of Canada rose to the occasion affording us a look, as if in a museum, a brief explanation of what it means to be in a free country while at the same time drawing into focus the terrible hypocrisy of Nazi Germany under the Third Reich. Each individual acted with dignity and stood as shining examples of what humanity is all about.
The movie which followed, Destination Tokyo, about life on a submarine headed to Tokyo bay to obtain needed first hand knowledge in preparation for a future military mission. Each individual was shown, character flaws included, to be worthy of the title, American citizen. You should have noticed by now that the key is in the American individual; the hearty breed which mixes compassions, desires, fears and even being a little cocky or boastful; all those human emotions which elevate us as a race and as a people.
I wrote an article last year, “Who’s Audie Murphy?” after I was faced with the fact that I could find no members of the next generation who knew who Audie Murphy was. I repeated that same question to a few young people this morning; having taken a short break in my writing to make a living in my chosen field of locksmith work. I asked if they knew who Alvin York was as a bonus question. The results were a total zero, just as before.
http://tfsternsrantings.blogspot.com/2006/10/whos-audie-murphy.html
The public schools in America are partially at fault; however, the responsibility must eventually come to rest within the walls of our individual families and finally upon each individual. I know a few wonderfully self taught individuals who came from homes where the parents might have well been lumps of coal for all the lessons they never taught. In spite of that neglect, it is the responsibility of each of us to find our place in our glorious history, the history of the United States of America. Parents are not doing the job of instilling those values, those peculiar American character traits which set us apart from all other nations of the world. We have a history worth imparting and yet it is being left in the dark closets to grow mold and mildew, to rot as if a thing of naught. When our children are not taught the importance of the past it is lost, and that loss will be a sin before God, the Author of our Liberty.
http://tfsternsrantings.blogspot.com/2005/05/author-of-liberty.html
I have entered this as my second article in the Carnival of Principled Government since principles should be taught at home.
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