Recently I saw an article in EdWeek called, "The Case For Universal National Service. Reading it made my blood boil to the point I became incensed.
This state, once so constant at the offense of Common Core, is now a rarity truthfully. In fact, I have pretty much given up attempting to turn the Titanic that has become Public Education after fighting the public education establishment and the layers upon layers of bureaucracy that serve as government. It simply isn't a tenable objective anymore when combined with the ignorance of the majority of those living in our country today (much of it deliberate) as to even the functions of our state and federal government, let alone what it means to actually live in a Republic.
I'ts also a rarity to find me commenting on articles because screaming into the hurricane is a waste of time better spent doing anything but.
To this I had to respond, however.
The author of this article - James M. Stone (a philanthropist involved in commodities trading and the CEO of a large insurance conglomerate - so obviously he knows the public education system inside and out) believes US students should be 'conscripted' into public service because US public education stinks and only the rich and smart are becoming educated in our country since the rich have the ability to pay for an education and educate themselves outside the 'system'.
Classic class warfare. How gross. Maybe it's my increasing levels of unwillingness to go along with this idea - which, of course by necessity, completely removes the responsibility of individuals to become educated for themselves by equating lack of coin with lack of brain cells - an odious comparison if ever there was one - that forced me to HAVE to comment against the thesis of this elitist ignoramus. And so I said in response to a commenter who praised the author's plan but worried it would not be P.C.:
Mr. Hoff..."Terms like "Mandatory" seem to have been lost from our vocabulary as we have certainly developed an "I" persona"?
What? Have you even read the Constitution of the United States? Have you read any works written by either George Washington or Thomas Jefferson?
American Government was established to protect the rights of the INDIVIDUAL. This country was NOT established as a COLLECTIVE - that would be the system of governments referred to as either socialism or Communism.
Mr. Stone is making a case for a collective solution to an individual problem.
When I saw the picture posted with this article, all I could see was a portrait of individuals rounded up together and pointed in one direction. Where is the INDIVIDUAL in this particular scenario? Where is the concept of "choice"?
I'm sorry if young people aren't making the choices you wish them to make, however, the abject failure of public education has nothing to do with them and everything to do with the adults in charge of that failed institution from the most local of localities to the federal government who long ago forgot their place and learned to love overstepping their boundaries.
The United States military is not currently under a draft and therefore, anyone who chooses to apply can do so. US military service, therefore, is a conscious choice made by an individual - not an idea forced onto an individual by a governmental entity as in conscription.
It boggles the mind how thoroughly Americans have lost their way. To even see this kind of thesis given life in a national magazine on public education makes it absurdly clear that, not only is Republican government not taught to American students, it's neither understood nor given any due.
Such a sad, sad day to see ANYONE laud the idea of involuntary servitude at the behest of a government - particularly ours. Americans have now apparently lost all touch with relevant history as recent as the 1940's. Woe be unto us all.
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