The Education Papers: 1

Rights

With the passage of time, many things have become rights in our nation without definition or support from the Constitution. Though the Constitution provides a person the opportunity to live a life of their choosing, free from persecution or state interference, it was purposefully open to adjustments. This constant reassessment of rights has perpetuated the idea that any issue is a civil issue and, therefore a violation of one’s rights, if the issue is not provide for. Education is one “right” that is without foundation within the Constitution. I propose that it has been the establishment of education as a right that has hindered our nation both socially and economically.

Some will say this thesis minimizes the issues of race, gender, and disability. That continued discrimination by the people has warranted the need for legislation and funding to bring about national equality. To that I say it is the pursuit of freedom that will lead to equality, not the other way around. Freedom to think, to dream, to work and live as the person sees fit brings about the greatest form of prosperity, because it emphasizes the individual’s definition of success. In the fight for equality, a request for equivalent books and supplies was interpreted as a request for wanting to be in the same building as the discriminating ethnicity. On the issue of gender, the numbers (rather than want and desire) force situations that perpetuate and encourage negative stereotypes. Economics are used to demonstrate how race and gender are improving, based on dollars spent rather than successes earned. Without active participants, that have a clear personal desire and motivation to be a success, money can do little to improve the state of equality in our nation. Just like a horse can be led to water but not forced to drink, so too is the effectiveness of forcing participation on individuals who lack the motivation. If a person has a desire and a will to bring a goal to fulfillment, a want and a need to have something beyond what their family had or has, to show another individual that they are a proud citizen of our nation, than that person need only the desire and fortitude to achieve their goal. Though individuals might not accomplish their goal, as quickly as another, nor in the same manner, it should be the fulfillment of the goal that should be desired. Our society needs to see that merely wanting something is only the admission that something is missing. We cannot legislate the compliance of an individual’s education for any reason. If a person is to become a truly free member of society, then they need to seek out a life for themselves built on the knowledge they attained through effort, dedication, and time.

Our country needs a sense of self-motivation, the like of which we have not observed since the great march west. Opportunity for land, a life and wealth were handed out but it was the fortitude and willingness of the settlers that made their success; not the support of the government. Education is the Great Frontier, but the spirit of the frontier, of exploration, adventure and self motivation is lacking in our nation. We look to a broken and fractured system that is politicized, over-funded and always lacking in some way to force our children to become productive citizens rather than free-thinking and independently minded citizens. This lack of free-thinking and self-motivated individuals has dramatically limited our nation’s capacity for self-governed growth and motivation that is based upon the will of the people. Our Manifest Destiny to our landing on the moon was done by those who found solutions to the impossible and kept seeking to make their answers better than the last.

These individuals were not forced to go to school, nor given excuses when they didn’t. It is by this example that a move back to this should take place. Students need to find that our nation cannot grow until they do. We can’t force maturity or growth, but we can certainly provide the opportunity for a student to do so. Questions and answers can only come through experimentation. Students should be allowed shop classes where they build, design and think through how to get a job done. Students should go back into the kitchen and learn how to feed themselves and how to manage a family budget. Such things are places where math, history, science and English all merge into practical applications that are engaging and give unlimited opportunity for the students to grow.