When I was in high school, which was about 1,000 years ago (!) we had a principal who was in his early 50's, about 5'5" and 140 pounds soaking wet but tougher than grass-fed steak.  (I say tougher than the back wall of a shooting gallery)!  Anyway our principal had been in the Navy and was a boxing champion while in the Navy, too boot. He was known by everyone  as "Speed". He ran that school like a Marine drill instructor. If you were "invited" to visit Speed's office, you knew for whom the bells tolled!  There was no discussion, he just asked you why you were there.  If it was any breach of the strict disciplinary code he bounced you around a bit. But there were never any hard feelings on the part of the bouncer or the bouncee; you knew you had it coming.

Come with me now on a little journey from those days to just a couple of years ago (that would make it about 1969 to about 2022). My friend (we'll call him Larry) was a superior teacher in a medium-big Midwestern city.  Larry's highest teaching priority was inculcation of the basics.  He insisted his students had the basics down pat.  In time he was of such high reputation he was moved from a high school in a deprived area, where his students loved him and produced for him, to a junior high in a posh neighborhood.  The self-esteem of his former students fell drastically.Many of them began to think in terms of skipping out on college educations. 

The youngsters at his new junior high were a different story.  Coming from affluent homes, they were disobedient, arrogant and defied him to do something about it. HE DID.  He came down on them hard, determined to introduce a brand new element into their pampered lives: Discipline.  Before long, Larry was causing a furor at the school.  Parents of the pampered darlings were not about to let him discipline THEIR children.  How dare he!  Confrontation after confrontation resulted.  Larry would not budge.  He began to get pressure from the Principal.  He held to his guns.  Discipline was, he reasoned, essential to learning and to successful living.  But success to the parents of these spoiled kids meant big houses, big cars, memberships in the right clubs - - - you know the story.  Discipline did not actually include anything remotely like real discipline.

After 7 years of relentless pressure, Larry told me over dinner one night after a school function, "I'm resigning". 

"Why Larry? Parents?"

"Partly, but also because of the principal.  He knows I'm right; he's told me so, but he wants to be superintendent of schools and in order to get that he has to court the big shots". 

So, a super teacher was put down. Larry was a person of highest personal integrity. His superiors, his students, their parents had NONE. 

That situation exists all over this country TODAY.  Parents not only do not discipline their children, they will not permit anyone else to do it either.  So, students go to classrooms unprepared, uncaring, arrogant and learning how to be failures.  They are taught there are no absolutes, everything is relative, and the primary concern in life is numero uno ... self ... old number one.  And now in today's world we have to catch up by sending our kids to trade schools and we also have to teach them the basics of math and English so they can do menial work and "get by". 

We're not making it in many areas of our society.  It seems to me what we need most in America today is a return to public and private MORALITY, a major overhaul in our priorities so we don't come off as people who will continue to worship celebrities and jocks, and think only of money and sex and cars and massive doses of freedom in everything we do rather than follow some principles.  If we don't change, and soon, we're going to lose our future.

Let's hope it's not too late.