Tuesday, May 28, 2019

American Schools versus the U.S. Military


Fox news highlighted this rant by a California teacher, Gregory Salcido:

“Think about the people you know who are over there,” Salcido is heard saying. “Your freakin' stupid Uncle Louie or whatever. They're dumb s - - - s. They're not high-level bankers. They're not academic people. They're not intellectual people."

“They’re the freakin’ lowest of our low.”

The irony is that the military is a legitimate function of government, especially as it is an all-volunteer military. Government schools, on the other hand, are not a legitimate function of government. They are an infringement on the inalienable individual liberty rights of Americans. America’s public schools are locked in place by compulsory attendance and compulsory taxation, and some level of coercive government control extends to private schooling as well.

A further irony is the relative performance of the military versus the schools. The military has done a stellar job of performing its primary function of defending America’s borders from foreign enemies (even while hamstrung by politically imposed combat restrictions). On the other hand, American schools are largely failing at educating American kids. It’s interesting that Salcido is a history teacher. One of our schools’ greatest weaknesses is the failure to educate American kids on America’s Founding freedom principles—individual rights, constitutionally limited government, political equality, free markets, intellectual freedom, etc. More broadly, American kids are failing to learn to think critically and independently.

Given this disparity in performance, is it the military or the teaching profession that can logically be accused of being infected by “the lowest of the low”?

Related Reading:

Why Johnny Can’t Think--Leonard Peikoff

The Comprachicos—Ayn Rand




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