administer a test roughly in the 5th grade, that determines what
educational track you follow. Democrat politics aside, not everyone can
be above average. Some people need to be plumbers, so why not teach
them early, so they can reach their maximum earning potential as rapidly
as possible?
The teachers can teach to a relatively uniform level of talent and
preparation, with the result that everyone learns more, and is better
prepared to meet the challenges of life.
We used to be serious, as recently as the early 1960’s. There is
nothing in our history that is opposed to being serious. We used to be.
It was the 1960’s that broke the back of our national identity.
Where there was promise for African Americans to be fully integrated
into our national life, we took the wrong direction. Where there was
promise to deliver a serious reverse to international Communism in the
early 1970’s, we let them grow.
It is not too late even now to bring back common sense, personal
dignity and gravitas, and serious engagement with the business of life.
But we have ignorant clowns all around us who mistake pastels for
black and white, and who insist on merging them into a dull gray, from
which nothing but enervating apathy, and rote conformitarianism can
grow.
It’s like the whole nation is on laughing gas. I can pardon the “man
on the street”, but I cannot pardon the intellectuals who have very
carefully led us to this state.
The end game is absolute power for the State, but even then general
misery ensues, for all but a few, and arguably even for those few.
Everyone loses, nobody wins.
You make clear demands that material be mastered in order to graduate
from high school. I took classes in German (literature), English, and
Spanish. We learned about the Pre-Socratics, and the history of
psychology (that may have been an elective).
Bottom line, though, is no slackers made it through. There were no
interruptions from learning, and the tone in general was serious and
mature.