A SOBER REMINDER

Hitler said, "He alone who owns the youth, gains the future."

The guttersnipe was right. 

There's a story from South Korea today that reminds us that what we put into the heads of our children will determine the fate of the nation:

SEOUL — When the Korea Military Academy asked its incoming cadets in 2004 to name South Korea’s main enemy, they were shocked at the answer: 34 percent said the United States while only 33 percent said North Korea.

And...

The academy’s then-superintendent, retired Lt. Gen. Kim Choong-bae, was so concerned about the survey results he cut the cadets’ boot camp from six weeks to four.

During the two extra weeks, cadets attended classes on South Korean history to learn how the country got its independence, what happened during the Korean War, and the role the United States played in the war.

Teachers told them about the U.S. Military Academy at West Point class of 1950, whose cadets graduated less than a month before the start of the Korean War. Nearly 50 of those cadets were killed.

“The [KMA] cadets were shocked. They said, ‘We didn’t know that,’” Kim said.

The cadets told academy officials they had leftist teachers in middle and high school who told them the United States was trying to dominate South Korea.

“The young cadets were kind of victims of the wrong education. They were kind of indoctrinated by the wrong education, the wrong textbooks,” Kim said. “Youngsters have no idea what was the Korean War, what was the contribution by the United States. They’ve been educated with a different perspective for the past 10 years.”

Please remember what you've just read.  You'll read many stories about education in the next year, and they'll reflect our regularly scheduled anguish on the subject.  But how many will explore what is actually being taught to our kids? 

A commentator several years ago said that American parents spend years molding their children, pressuring them, working the system, to get the kids into the best colleges.  Then these same parents never ask what their offspring are taught.

The political left that has dominated our colleges since the sixties is now filtering into the high schools.  There are frightening reports that students at schools of education - our future teachers - are now required to have the proper "inclinations" - that's the actual term - for teaching.  In other words, they must have the correct political point of view.

If you are a parent, explore what's actually being taught in the schools your taxes support.  You may be very disturbed at what you find.  You may be even more disturbed if you dare to criticize, and find yourself labeled a McCarthyite. 

At least the Korea Military Academy took action when it found out what had been installed in the minds of its cadets.  I see nothing similar here, and no interest in the media.

April 18, 2008.