Years ago, when I was in 8th grade (today's "middle school") an English teacher asked a question I re-visit often. In those days of wooden ships, iron men, and dinosaurs, English teachers were also expected to serve as philosophers, to prepare students for life, and to ask thought-provoking questions about values, morality, and the costs of the freedom we enjoy as a part of our great good fortune.
I find it sad to think the question I was asked as part of my public education, one a 13 or 14-year-old could answer without hesitation, is not asked, nor considered in our teacher's union run schools today - - "What do you consider worth dying for?"
In modern American society, a 13 or 14-year-old asked this very adult question would be completely stumped by that question and would likely require extensive therapy to get over the trauma of thinking about values. The teacher would be called on the carpet and possibly fired because with the excuse that he or she had encouraged suicide by these tender hothouse flowers.
Robert E. Lee was a prophet when he bemoaned the "pussification" of men nearly 150 years ago.
As American men give up dating in preference for masturbation, the character that once identified our nation has dried up and blown away.
Years ago, when I was in 8th grade (today's "middle school") an English teacher asked a question I re-visit often. In those days of wooden ships, iron men, and dinosaurs, English teachers were also expected to serve as philosophers, to prepare students for life, and to ask thought-provoking questions about values, morality, and the costs of the freedom we enjoy as a part of our great good fortune.
I find it sad to think the question I was asked as part of my public education, one a 13 or 14-year-old could answer without hesitation, is not asked, nor considered in our teacher's union run schools today - - "What do you consider worth dying for?"
In modern American society, a 13 or 14-year-old asked this very adult question would be completely stumped by that question and would likely require extensive therapy to get over the trauma of thinking about values. The teacher would be called on the carpet and possibly fired because with the excuse that he or she had encouraged suicide by these tender hothouse flowers.
Robert E. Lee was a prophet when he bemoaned the "pussification" of men nearly 150 years ago.
As American men give up dating in preference for masturbation, the character that once identified our nation has dried up and blown away.