Simple Things

     I grew up in a time when the goal in school was to be the best at something; best athlete, best in Math, best in English, best typist, etc. Oh, sure, there were those who only wanted to be the best at hanging out by the “smoking pole” or the best at finding ways to skip school; but most of us really wanted to be the best at something.

     In today’s schools the encouragement our children and grandchildren receive is to “be the same as everyone else”. We can’t have some children who are excelling in English class, because they make the other children feel bad. We can’t have some who are good in Math because they’ll make another one feel stupid. We can’t have them excelling in sports, because if there are winners, there have to be losers, and it might hurt their little feelings.

     OH — MY — GOD!  Think of this:

     What would have happened if this had been the scene many years ago?  Let’s see ——-

     “Albert!  Albert Einstein!  Put your pencil down and pay attention. No, I don’t want to hear anything about your “pi” and you spelled it wrong anyway. Stop trying to show off your math skills, you’re making the other kids feel bad.”

    ”Ludwig von Beethoven, what do you think you’re doing?  Get off that piano bench right now and come over here and play the snare drum with the other kids. You’re always showing off!”

     “Billy Shakespeare, go outside and play instead of sitting around writing all the time. The other kids think you’re a nerd.”

     “Well, MR. Leonardo daVinci, get over here and wipe all the paint off this wall, and clean up all those chips from that big rock. I keep telling you there is nothing inside that rock - I don’t care what you think you see.”

     Yes, we think it’s funny now, but it’s happening every day. Creative children are told to stop over-doing it and be like all the others.  Maybe that’s why our advances in technology and the sciences are slowing down here in the USA. We don’t want anybody to get ahead of us, but we can’t keep up anymore.

     We have teachers who are no more intelligent than some of the children in their classes. It’s a joke to call some of them teachers; they should be called people-who-hand-out-printed-materials-and-gripe-when-they-have-to-explain-something.

     I’ll stay away from the language barrier issue, otherwise I’ll have to write another 2 or 3 pages and get kicked off the website!  

     “Piccasso - what the heck is that? Looks like an elephant painted it!” (Sometimes they’re right!)

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