Yesterday's show with Cary Cartter went well. For those that missed Cary Cartter as my guest on Political Pistachio Radio, the archive is available to be listened to on the media player in the sidebar of this site, or at PPR's BTR Site.
The guest on my radio show the prior Saturday was Lee Culpepper. Also a fantastic guest. However, because certain topics seemed to dominate the show, there was a few more things he wished to say. The following is a post he wrote for this purpose. It's a good read.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, I was honored to be the guest on a radio program called Political Pistachio. The show’s host (Douglas Gibbs) and his wife (“Mrs. Pistachio”) invited me on to discuss several issues facing public education. I shared my inside view regarding two PC agendas polluting public classrooms: multicultural excrement and artificial self-esteem. In nine years of teaching, I saw firsthand how PC programs retarded my students’ critical thinking skills and defiled American cornerstones like competition and self-reliance.
Multiculturalism and tolerance sound pleasant and polite, but their mesmerizing drones have paralyzed students’ ability to think. The staggering number of American students who cannot formulate meaningful arguments based on reason and facts is a serious concern, but why is anyone surprised? Multiculturalism orders students not to make judgments about anything, and tolerance deceives kids into believing that uninformed opinions are just as valid as reasoned arguments.
Considering these issues, the Pistachios and I discussed the appropriateness of teaching moral values in school. Multiculturalism and secularism have all but eliminated America’s moral values from our classrooms, replacing them with harmful ideologies that mystify logic. Such dogmas also aim to discard moral boundaries. In fact, I remember the professor of my diversity class -- the course I was “ordered to tolerate” -- informing me that not committing murder “might be” the only moral value every culture shares. His remark supposedly explained why teaching American moral values in American public schools fails the sensitivity test multiculturalism demands. I can only guess his point was also meant to clarify why teaching American students to embrace foreign beliefs that might conflict with American values is the logical alternative, but I’m too obtuse to grasp such “logic.”
During our discussion of morality and children, parental and societal influence entered the discussion. As an English teacher, I addressed moral issues regularly that pertained to our literature. The example I shared on the show dealt with the duality of man. I often asked students whether man inherently knows right from wrong. I explored deeper by asking whether parents had to teach babies how to be good or how to be bad. Students usually agreed that babies tend to have temper tantrums naturally. They also concluded babies behave selfishly by nature and therefore must learn to share. Babies even smack (punch) and bite on their own. However, the responsibility to correct such behavior lies first with their parents. Parents must teach children what’s right and what’s wrong. Eventually, society's laws and practices also set such examples. The older we get, the more responsibility we have to behave morally and orderly on our own. Bad parents and bad neighborhoods may be mitigating factors, but they don’t excuse immoral or bad behavior. Obviously, without boundaries right and wrong do not exist. This is a concept multiculturalists and secularists understand. They share a freakish fantasy of a world without boundaries. Consequently, they advocate tolerance and shun common sense. In other words, they promote “not thinking.” Occasionally, a clever student asked me, “Well, who decides what’s right and wrong in the first place?” to which I would answer, “That’s something you’ll have to decide.”
“God?” students sometimes asked.
“Sounds like a reasonable guess to me,” I typically answered.
Devoted to disregarding all the multicultural nonsense expected of teachers, I encouraged clear values like honoring parents, having integrity, working hard, being disciplined, and being responsible in my classroom. To develop these values, I worked to teach students self-discipline. My views regarding classroom discipline ignited a lively debate during my interview on Political Pistachio. I shared an example about a new teacher I had worked with in California. She had encountered problems getting apathetic students to do their work. Our department colleagues advised her to call parents and to dock points, but these suggestions had already failed to sway the students. Exasperated by a hesitation to confront a problem directly, I interjected, “Make them do it. Chew their little butts out and try lighting a fire under their [butts]. Make life incredibly uncomfortable if they are not prepared.” Some colleagues stared at me with open mouths, as if I were Conan the Barbarian.
The new teacher explained to me that we shouldn’t hurt students’ feelings or damage their self-esteem. On the contrary, I thought these boys deserved to have their feelings hurt because they were behaving irresponsibly and failing her class. How much self-esteem could they have possibly had? What they needed was a reality check to set them on the path to success.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Pistachio took exception to my advice. She said, “A teacher’s job is to teach,” and I totally agree -- teaching discipline was a key ingredient to my primary responsibility to educate. Without inspiration and discipline, a teacher might as well have a conversation with the chalkboard (something I pretended to do occasionally to humorously recapture wandering teenage minds). Mrs. Pistachio contends that a teacher should notify the parent when a student misbehaves. Like many adults today, she does not support “chewing students out.” However, students who lack discipline interfere with the lesson’s objectives. Leadership requires judgment, and when students misbehave, teachers must react immediately to maintain order, as well as to successfully complete the mission. No, not all misbehavior requires harsh reprimands, but such reprimands have their place. The old maxim "spare the rod, spoil the child" is controversial but compelling. (I suppose it depends on whether we value the wisdom of the God who created us or the wisdom of a secular psychologist who evolved from a monkey.) Loving children makes punishing or disciplining them incredibly difficult. Making a child feel bad does not make responsible adults feel good. However, parents cannot afford to shirk their obligation to discipline their children. Parenting and teaching are both about leading, and leading is TOUGH – it’s fun only if we are succeeding. It’s not a popularity contest either. Tough love is hard to master, but hard lessons are usually great lessons. Overcoming a challenge is healthy for everyone, especially children. It prepares them for life. Leaders don't discipline harshly for jollies; it is done in the child's best interest to help them develop properly. Nurturing children at the wrong time only fosters undesirable behavior. Furthermore, to expect a teacher to call a parent during class when the problem is occurring is simply silly -- and I don't think that's what Mrs. Pistachio meant, but it is what she basically said – “to call her if there is a problem.” However, I do have a friend who sometimes called parents during class while their child was sleeping in front of him. He did claim those kids rarely went back to sleep. But I preferred to have sleepy students stand – I wasted less time making a phone call and had more time to teach.
I hope Mrs. Pistachio’s opinion of my brand of teaching will change. The success I had teaching was rooted in parents supporting just how badly I wanted their children to succeed. The common sense of a great American, Thomas Paine, helped parents appreciate and backup my approach: “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” The quote exudes American moral values, not politically correct excrement. I pray all parents will think about which philosophy is best for their children.
Copyright by Warren Lee Culpepper
Warren Lee Culpepper is currently writing his first book, Alone and Unafraid: One Marine’s Counterattack Inside the Walls of Public Education. Additionally, he is a contributing columnist for The North Carolina Conservative, The HinzSight Report, and The Publius’ Forum.
Lee can be reached at drcoolpepper@yahoo.com.
Read Lee's published work at http://wlculpepper.townhall.com/
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