Historical Ignorance on Display

This showed up on the internet (here, for example). A friend picked it up and e-mailed it to me because it was so far off the wall.

The Berlin Wall?!!? The level of historical ignorance is apalling. Rather like the folks that think the Civil War was fought against Germany, or those that think the Civil War is what we fought in from 1941 to 1945. In this particular case, the historical wall is identified to the wrong dictator, from the wrong country, in the wrong decade. Could the "Occupy Democrats" be any more historically ignorant?

Actually, they probably could. The Left always keeps surprising me with how ignorant and unschooled they are. I suspect that's a side effect of the fact that history is barely taught any more at all.

There's another ignorance issue as well. These people want to pretend that the Nazis and other fascists (and their descendant successors) were and are right wing. But that's just DUMB. That's most obvious for the Nazis. The full name of the Nazi Party was (in German) the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. That translates into English as the National-Socialist German Workers' Party. Note the second word in the party's name — Socialist. That's right — the Nazis were and are left wing, NOT right wing.

An Issue in Education

The following letter to the editor appeared in the Albuquerque Journal a week ago, on January 22nd. It definitely makes some most valid points.

I am a Canadian teacher and literacy specialist who is following New Mexico's literacy debate with interest. I have met with the same stubborn refusal by government and school districts to even consider that perhaps the reading methods being used are ineffective, and that more money will not solve the problem.

Having taught students and teachers for over 20 years, I know what works; however, an inexpensive, easy-to-use, guaranteed-to-work phonics method is not what the billion-dollar business of education — with its "balanced literacy, guided reading" jargon — wants to hear.

I find it especially ironic that New Mexico seems to have the same attitude, and such dismal literacy stats, since the "cheap and easy" method I have been using for over 20 years to successfully teach reading was created by New Mexico's Dr. Ernest Christman.

New Mexico has a clear, simple, relatively quick solution to its illiteracy woes right in its own backyard. Why is the state not using it?

          KATE KELLY
          Delta, British Columbia, Canada

My mother would have enjoyed reading that letter. She used phonics to teach reading back in the 1960s. Then, as now, it was both out of favor and highly effective. But she only cared about what would work for her students. And as she noted,

Some students will learn no matter how well or by what method they are taught. For others, the teacher must find the method that can enable the student to learn.

Phonics really should be used to teach reading. If the education establishment wants to use the latest fad instead, it should at the very least allow and support the use of phonics to teach students for whom the fad does not work well.

Police Retraining

There's no guidance or discipline in the home. The family situation is so unstable, 'Junior' doesn't even know where to send a Father's Day card. Junior gets dumped into the education system where he is socially promoted because the overwhelmed school district can't deal with the undisciplined whelp. Junior's major formative influences are 'gangsta' rap videos and a corresponding peer group of gangsta wannabes.

At age 18, Junior is turned loose on society carrying a bad attitude, a broken compass and no respect for authority. Junior gets himself in big trouble with the law because he is illiterate, unskilled, unemployable and his only source of income other than Government assistance is illegal and meets dire consequences. Then, the situation diagnosis is that the police need more training, compassion, sensitivity and understanding?

Pardon me for asking, but do you really believe this B.S.?

The conditions described here have taken decades to fully develop, and to result in the kind of unrest we see today. Fixing these conditions will not be easy or quick. It will take even longer if we don't get started.

We know what must be accomplished — teaching individual responsibility and accountability, as well as self-discipline, as well as providing an education that prepares young people for success in life without having to lean on gangs and illegal activities. We can only hope we can come to some agreement on how to get there.

Zero Tolerance Is Zero Intelligence

... suitable only for those with no capacity for judgment.