What is at the root of changes in our educational systems that seem to award mediocrity? Why are we awarding 'participation' medals to those who cannot compete physically, and eliminating 'demanding' curriculum and examinations for those who cannot compete mentally?

From all that I have witnessed with my own children's upbringing and all that I have read regarding the latest in 'progressive education', it is apparent the root of those changes lies in our failure as individuals and as a society to seek out and promote a person's highest potential.

We fail because the mental and emotional discipline required for an individual to critique themselves against a higher truth is no longer promoted by media or taught in our homes and schools. Indeed even a higher truth is no longer sought; the new, 'woke' ideals being sufficient for most.

As Joel Kotkin observes in his excellent work, 'The End Of Merit',

“San Francisco’s School board member Alison Collins, claim(s) that “merit, meritocracy and especially meritocracy based on standardized testing” are essentially “racist systems.” Some among the new racial cadres even denounce habits such as punctuality, rationality, and hard work as reflective of “racism” and “white privilege”.

The San Diego Unified School District, for example, will no longer count such scruples as turning in work on time in grading and evaluation, and may reduce the penalties for cheating. This is justified as a way of redressing racial issues, as many of the malefactors (like most California students) are from disadvantaged minority groups.”

Even the venerable Yale University in the United States is promoting the idea that meritocracy is an outdated and in fact 'damaging' concept. In their January 09, 2020 issue of Yale Insights they write;

“In the middle of the 20th century, American institutions embraced the idea of meritocracy. Top universities, and the banks and law firms they fed, which had been populated by a hereditary aristocracy, instead sought the smartest and hardest working.

Meritocratic jobs require elite adults to work with grinding intensity, ruthlessly exploiting their educations in order to extract a return from these investments. Meritocracy entices an anxious and inauthentic elite into a pitiless, lifelong contest to secure income and status though its own excessive industry.”

You know, that sounds a lot like Marx and Engels 'Communist Manifesto' and I am not really surprised by that. Bolsheviks in the USSR didn't want people searching for higher ideals or striving to attain them, nor do those running 'communist' or 'dictatorial' regimes today believe in race equality.

As of this writing it has become apparent that in American, Democrat-run states the idea of racial equality has gone out of favour, with Washington State announcing that 'white' children will receive more severe punishment for wrong-doing than will their darker skinned companions.  

I cannot think of a better way to create racial division. Students are young, impressionable and for the most part they have yet to lose their faith in authority which means they believe what their instructors tell them. Educators know this, making their many crimes against children (race-baiting, medical procedures without parental consent, removal of parental oversight) appear premeditated and part of a much larger agenda.

Testing ones self against an opponent, against nature, or any challenge in life has been the hallmark of maturity in every human society since the beginning of humans. An unskilled hunter does not eat, and an untested artist does not blossom, no matter what race or colour they happen to be.

Removing a persons ability and even desire to test the limits, to challenge the normal, to find a new path makes them afraid to trust their own judgment and ability. It causes them to be always seeking direction and approval from outside of themselves.

It makes them fearful and unaccountable followers of anyone claiming authority and in their timidity and sheepishness they will help to create and support an Autocracy.

What must return to society are the values and tenets of a Meritocracy, described by social studies as, “A system that fosters and rewards personal effort, ability, and talent through competition to determine social standing”....The very things that Yale and many other basions of higher learning do not want in their current or future students or faculty.

I am not suggesting that we hang suspended by hooks through our flesh as a test of merit, but I am suggesting that periodic wraps of a wooden ruler across my knuckles by old Mrs. Condor in typing class made me fast and accurate on a keyboard. My point being that without some negative feed-back early on in life our children will not understand or care how their actions and words impact others around them and adversely affect their future.

Nobody likes 'entitled ignorance' in others, so why stand by while your children are being turned into entitled ignoramuses by our schools, our popular culture and your own indifference as a parent?

Examples of that missing critical component of humanity are today more evident in society than ever, mostly because media, academia and government are brimming with 'graduates' who have been taught by 'educators' who themselves have been taught that they are the cream of society and that they can do no wrong.

Joseph Baity expands on this thought when writing, “Safe Spaces or Dangerous Places? The Assault Upon Our Future”, where he states;

“Unfortunately, many of these same educators have also pursued a more liberal mindset to govern and administer their hallowed halls of learning. This mindset, under the guise of free speech, has artfully overrun the educational experience in the West. Over the past century, it has slowly given rise to an elitist, progressive “group-think” among academicians that actually works in opposition to free speech.

Patiently and persistently, this group-think has promoted an anti-Western, anti-capitalist, and anti-Christian bias within the entire academic culture. In addition, academia has shown a stubborn inclination to repress conservative values and to indulge, coddle, and indoctrinate our youth rather than to educate them.”

“When our children—seeds for tomorrow—having been soaked for years in self-esteem and vanity, are planted in a secular institution devoid of the nutrients of virtue, fertilized with indulgence, and cultivated by the removal of all that may provoke, what sprouts is a feeble crop incapable of any meaningful engagement with reality. Naïve to the self-inflicted damage of their self-indulgent zeal, it is little wonder that the “Millennials” are referred to as the “Snowflake Generation.”

What is a parent to do? This practice of making artificial snowflakes has become normalized in western society, where ad-hominem attacks now take the place of rational argument and discussion. Those who lack knowledge of an issue still believe they are relevant by mounting baseless personal attacks on the person(s) who has raised the issue, rather than offering intelligent discourse. We all know people who's only recourse in a discussion is to sink to this level (Justin Trudeau), and we try to avoid them whenever possible; so why let your children turn out like that?

As a parent you must be careful not to fall into this trap yourself. Do not point to the television or news agency and claim they are the only purveyors of truth without you first having enough knowledge of the topic to discuss both, or all sides. The correct answer to a question is never; “Because the experts said so.” Question your own biases and lack of knowledge before you push these bad habits onto your children and those around you.

Suggesting that CNN or CBC or the government or the educators or the police should be believed without question is the perfect way to generate artificial snow in the home. If you believe what I am saying is 'radical' and 'seditious' rather than suggesting your children must learn to think critically for themselves, then I am truly sorry...for you and your children's future.

For those of you who embrace knowledge, the pursuit of fundamental truth and presence of mind, you already know your children's education must extend far outside of a classroom and beyond its ever worsening influence, which means the very important job of teacher falls to you.

You made the decision to have children. Now make the decision that they should be better people than you; smarter, kinder, less gullible. The future of humanity depends on it.

Thank you,

Ted