GED Means "General Educational Development" Not "Equivalency"

We have been conned. Too many students and parents are under the misconception that a GED is equal to a regular high school diploma .Over and over again we read in the magazines and newspapers or hear educated people say the “General Equivalency Diploma.” The initials “G.E.D.” stand for “General Educational Development,” a far cry from a high school equivalency degree. It is a miscarriage of justice to pretend that a GED is equal to a diploma.

The General Educational Development was established during WWII to assist veterans who had not earned a high school diploma become eligible for college. In the 1950s its purpose was enlarged to include anyone who had not graduated from high school. Now there are over 500,000 students receiving a GED each year.

The problem with the transformation of the General Educational Development process is young high school students are copping out of fulfilling the requirements for a legitimate diploma. They are under the illusion that a GED path of dropping out and taking a five- part test is equal to four years of hard work. Many GED recipients learn too late this assumption is wrong.

Even when students possess the GED, their earnings and employment potential is indistinguishable from a dropout’s. Stephen Cameron and James Heckman, “The Nonequivalence of High School Equivalents”, Journal of Labor Economics, 1993, p. 1-47. When something comes too easy it is often not valued.

On the other hand a high school graduate must overcome many challenges. A student who receives a high school diploma has to successfully complete a specific number of required and elective courses. They have satisfied the expectations of numerous teachers, peers and other authority figures. A graduate not only has demonstrated the ability to meet the minimum academic standards on many tests, but can conduct himself in a reasonable manner in many different circumstances. Employers know passing a test does not correct poor attitude, attendance, work ethic, interpersonal skills and perseverance.

Even though a GED gives a teenager another chance to appease his parents and gain a certification of completion, it is not a first class designation. With everything else being equal, employers are less likely to hire a person with a GED rather than someone with a high school degree. The passing of one test does not erase a person’s history of failure to live up to the expectations of educators.

There is no entitlement for a student to be granted a high school diploma. Students must earn their degree by meeting certain standards or the process of education will become meaningless. Lowering the bar by giving a student chance after chance ends in unmotivated, underachieving dropouts.

Parents, teachers and society in general have an obligation to inform students that chances are not granted forever. If a person does not focus today there may not be an opportunity tomorrow. Chances run out with time. When a person fails to practice or develop a skill in an allotted period of time, he often suffers severe consequences when the window of opportunity closes.

The General Educational Development was never meant to be a substitute for the comprehensive high school diploma. It is not a safety net catching all the dropouts. Making the GED process easy has and will have the unintended consequence of increasing the attractiveness of being a dropout. We do not need to create second class citizens whose school history makes them suspect.

Remember the GED is a dubious certificate with serious reservations to employers and college administrators as compared to successfully completing a high school diploma.

America's Internationalists are Traitors

There are many elites in our country who support international corporations above the interests of the United States. These powerful people, often elected officials, are making decisions for the benefit of multinational companies while undermining our sovereignty. Their allegiance is to increase power and money and not to their nation. Many of their actions are treasonous to the welfare of America.

Our leaders should do their job of protecting us rather than selling out America for personal gain. This elitist support is understandable given the multi billion dollars that international corporations have to spend on lobbyists, campaign contributions and advertising. These powerful entities with the assistance of politicians, practically dictate our domestic and foreign policy.

International corporations are outside the control of any one nation. They are mini states. They have no allegiance to a particular nation since they operate in most countries of the world. These entities are amoral with their sole purpose being to make more and more money and gather more and more power.

We Americans have the most to lose from the international’s push for globalism. America has earned the position of the world’s super power through our ancestors and our sacrifice. It is not in our interest for internationalists to redistribute our wealth.

Although the U.S. is the “king of the mountain” we are witnessing before our very eyes international corporation’s dismantling the mountain bit by bit and shipping it overseas. Whole industries have been moved to other nations because of cheap labor, resources or the lack of environmental restrictions all to increase their profit margin with no concern for the negative impact on the public. Their self-serving actions have long-term serious impact on America’s financial and military security.

In the long run the citizens of the USA suffer from our government’s silence. The internationalists use their immense power in politics and the mass media to assist global corporations make the laws. This direct access to affect the wellbeing of America makes them a nation state within our country reminiscent of the city states of feudal times.

Instead of advancing the United State’s interests these elites are manipulating certain aspects of our constitution and heritage to increase corporate power. They are creating a new world order based on global economics rather than national self interests. This makes many rich and powerful people more rich and powerful while making us poorer by leveling the mountain we have worked so hard to build.

Even President Bush, elected as a traditional nationalist has proven himself to be an internationalist. He supports amnesty for the millions of illegal immigrants and unbelievably does not support his own border patrol undermining the national boundaries he was sworn to protect. Many politicians including President Bush, our state department, and dignitaries of foreign countries are fighting to eliminate our national borders through agreements such as NAFTA and CAFTA. These accords are only the tip of the ice burg made by ranking bureaucrats behind the backs of the American people.

The Supreme Court of the United States has begun to cite international law to justify the shifting of our established national law away from our political tradition. This altering of our federal laws by elites’ decree serves the purpose of establishing a new world order.

It is a deception by the internationalists to decry that the global economy is inevitable. We Americans have the most to lose. Besides being the number one economy and military power, we have the most representative and free nation on Earth. If the internationalist corporations, through the bidding of these treacherous elites, use their power to determine the direction of the country, our national independence will be lost.

We will wake up one day to learn that America has lost its sovereignty in a coup unless we take the following steps.

• Place a 10-year ban on any ex-politicians becoming lobbyists for multi national corporations.
• Elect patriotic people who will vote against international corporations receiving unfair competitive advantage through tax incentives.
• Change the campaign finance laws to eliminate the immense influence of national corporations.
• Vote for laws that will create a level playing field for competition amongst businesses.
• Support closing borders to maintain our sovereignty in the same manner that Mexico does on its southern border.
• Reward small corporations, that creates most of the new jobs, for staying here and employing Americans.

As we return to a national economy based on national interest, our standard of living will temporarily suffer. In the long run we will regain our economic strength and spirit.

Americans can govern ourselves through our constitution better than being controlled by a world order based on global economic profit. It should not be what is best for international companies or the global economy. It should be what is best for the USA.

American internationalists who revise our politics and culture are sabotaging the vitality of our nation. They must be seen for what they are: non-violent traitors to America.

The "No Spanking Bill" Abusive to All

Everyone knows an out-of-control child is a nuisance to everybody. On January 24th a three-year-old child and her parents were removed from an AirTran flight to Boston. The child was climbing under the seat, hitting her parents and screaming, annoying the 112 other passengers on the plane.

These types of incidents are becoming commonplace. The ever-increasing bleeding heart’s pressure to prohibit parents from using any forceful “No” with a slap on the hand or behind to prevent unruly behavior has taken its toll on all of us.

The war against parental rights continues. California Assembly woman, Sally Lieber, a 45 year old, unmarried woman with a cat but without children, has proposed a law making it illegal for parents to spank a child under 4 years old. A law-abiding parent could be incarcerated for a year for tapping a child on the behind. This would potentially make criminals of 90% of our parent population.

Ms. Lieber and her ilk obviously believe the state is superior to the family in raising American children. They want to ban centuries of time-tested child rearing methods of training toddlers replacing it with nothing except psychobabble. This line of reasoning would totally destroy the family, cause the child to lose his parents and be placed in the infamous state foster care system.

Moderate spanking is not abusive. Even one of the most extremely liberal universities in the nation cannot find any evidence to support the ridiculous notion that moderate spanking is detrimental to children. Diane Baumrind and Elizabeth Owens from the University of California at Berkley in a 12 year longitudinal study of 100 middle class children found no negative effects on cognitive, social and behavioral skills with mild to moderate spanking. R. Ballie, "Spanking Gets Big Play in the Media", Monitor of Psychology, Vol. 32, #11, Dec. 2001.

Infants and toddlers cannot understand lectures from adults. They are concrete in their thinking. When “no” is stated, with a tap on the hand or behind, they know to stop immediately. Parents are responsible for teaching their children to survive. Running into traffic, putting keys in an electric socket or not coming when called or stopping when a child is told are things toddlers need to learn for their own safety.

The fear of the state intervening in the life of a parent is paralyzing. Parents are no longer performing their difficult responsibility of raising children. This relinquishing by the parent of reprimanding their child’s misbehavior verbally or physically is abusive to the child. Young children are not being taught there are consequences for doing the wrong thing. Discipline is love. Love is discipline.

There are already ample child abuse laws on the books. This no-spanking law will not stop criminal abuse. Criminals do not follow the law. In the same way making guns illegal does nothing to prevent criminals from using them. It will only frighten law-abiding parents to be neglectful of their responsibility. Banning parents from using reasonable corporal discipline will make those who properly discipline their children criminals.

The Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Cuba and numerous African and Latin American dictatorships have proven that the state cannot effectively replace the family. When government interferes with the rights of parents to fulfill their duty it crosses over into totalitarianism. The intervention of bureaucrats into the family has proven to be more disastrous to children than the average family.

We cannot stand silently by allowing ignorant, self-serving politicians to lead us down a worn path that ends in the annihilation of the freedom of the individual and society. To prevent this from going any further we need to take the following stand:

• Vote out representatives who limit our freedom to perform our duties as parents.
• Have the courage to discipline children appropriately in our homes.
• Inform the child who misbehaves in public that he will be given consequences for misbehaving when you get home.
• Speak out against advocates of the escalation of governmental intervention in the family.

When parents are prohibited from disciplining their own children everyone will suffer, in the grocery store, on airplanes, everywhere. The one who will suffer the greatest abuse is the child who will grow into a dysfunctional adult.

American "Princes" and "Princesses": Valet Parents and Parasitic Children

Neither long lines, price nor time matter in getting one’s child the Playstation III, WII or “TME Elmo”or whatever is the latest fad. Many of our children are showered with whatever they want without earning it.

These children are today’s princes and princesses. Their servants are their own parents who chauffeur them around, feed them whatever they desire, do their homework, their chores and provide everything possible to make them happy. It is the responsibility of the parent to orchestrate the state of childhood blissfulness. The child’s only requirement is to express pleasure that allows the parents to know they are servicing the child well.

Today’s parents are encouraging their children to do only what they want to do when they want to do it and disregarding anything they find distasteful. They are setting their children up for a life of disappointment.

We are producing dependent-instant-gratification-parasites. These ungrateful, immature and unhappy children are becoming the norm. They are not equipped to function in the real world.

Laziness is epidemic. It is not due to faulty genes but to a lack of motivation to do anything. The more their appetite for expensive items and activities is fed, the more dissatisfied they become. They care little for others except to manipulate someone into satisfying a momentary whim. “Getting over” on an authority figure is a fun game that takes no physical effort and little mental effort. Any enthusiasm is sparked in the child from passively receiving whatever they want not by contributing to others.

Modern children recognize the attitude of looking down on others is seen by their peers as acting “cool”. Their brand name possessions and gaming skills, not their abilities, are the way they define themselves. They are preoccupied with acknowledgement from their friends, not with winning favor from adults in order to join the mainstream world.

The lifestyle of today’s children is like a perpetual “all inclusive resort” where the dedicated adults function to fulfill the members desire. The logos, jewelry, iPods, the latest video, money and most importantly having adults who are willing to provide them with riches and place them on a pedestal gives them a false superior attitude. Everyone and everything is beneath them. They cannot get any satisfaction.

The more despondent they act, the more their loved ones are supposed to bribe them with the next diversion. The greater the lack of enthusiasm for being alive the children demonstrate, the more they are coddled by their parents .

The problem with being lazy occurs when the “parent valets” stop doing for the child what he should be doing for himself. The lack of preparation in doing simple chores, organizing his time, setting goals, working towards them and learning perseverance leaves the child helpless and often hopeless to become a successful adult.

In our modern culture, it is cool and easy for children to be lazy. There is no reason for any person to want to be industrious if their every wish is met by their command. Children are conditioned by doting parents to appear they are working hard when they are hardly working.

The adage telling that “if you want something done, give it to a busy person” not to an idle one is as true today as in the past. Parents, teachers and all authority figures can assist children to become doers instead of fakers. Moving a child from a lazy state to an enthusiastic, live state can be accomplished by the following:

• Stop negotiating with your child.
• Recognize you are acting like a servant to your child and tell them “I did this when I was your age so it is time for you to do it now.”
• Assist your child to become a self- competent, independent person.
• Increase your expectations for your child to motivate them to complete the checklist of things necessary to become an adult.
• Enforce time limits for homework and chores.
• Demand your child always act appropriately, greet everyone with a cheerful demeanor and be a contributing family member.
• Institute a policy of the child earning everything he gets.
• Teach the child to delay gratification and increase frustration tolerance by encouraging them to solve their own problems with as little help as warranted.

Encourage your child in every way to grow up. Teach your children to help themselves rather than doing everything for them. This will allow them to outgrow their debilitating laziness that has become fashionable in our affluent nation.

It is not Your Fault: Ignoring it is

Modern parents are under the misconception they should have a perfect child and they feel any problem their young child exhibits is their fault. They have been led to believe their offspring should be perfect so as not to reflect poorly on them.

To maintain this idyllic illusion parents are pressured into concealing their child’s misdeeds from the eyes of others rather than correct the child to make him better. Each transgression or physical imperfection of the child is glossed over or denied in order for the child to appear flawless.

Children are a work in progress not a brilliantly formed diamond. The uniqueness of each child with his positive or negative traits and tendencies possesses a challenge that must be addressed not hidden.

This shielding of the child from the consequences of his own behavior is done by the parents until the child becomes so obnoxious as a teenager they can no longer tolerate him. This usually does not happen immediately. It gradually builds until the parent does not want to even be around the child. Often the grown-up child refuses to leave the parent’s home overstaying his welcome as an adult.

Obviously something is wrong when modern parents are supposed to allow the child to do what he wants and provide whatever he desires. Modern permissive materialistic parenting has failed to help the child become a full functioning adult.

Too many modern parents are under the misconception that children are like beautiful flowers who unfold naturally. Any imperfection in their child is interpreted by the parents that they did something wrong in pregnancy or in the early years. Maybe the mother ate incorrectly during pregnancy or did not relax in childbirth. Maybe the father did not spend sufficient time bonding with the child or worked too much. It is this guilt of not being a perfect parent that paralyzes parents into doing nothing when their child misbehaves.

The confusion for modern parents is that on one hand their expectations are unrealistically high while on the other hand they are being propagandized by the child rearing experts, They say to permit the child to smooth out his own rough edges with little intervention from the parents.

This unrealistic notion of the natural unfolding of the child prevents parents from doing what is best for him. As the child ages he no longer is “cute”. The child’s unchecked negative tendencies, when not tempered as a youngster, result in the teen becoming out of control. The child the parent saw as “cute” is now seen more accurately as trouble. He is ill prepared to function as an adult.

To get back to child rearing that works parents are required to accept children will have physical problems, do many things wrong and understand it is their responsibility to correct them. Parents can assist their children to reach their full potential by continually moulding their behavior. The difficulties of a particular young child are an opportunity for the parent to correct negative tendencies before the child is too set in his ways.

To reverse blaming oneself for normal child behavior and to stop ignoring or reinforcing bad behavior, parents should do the following:

• Refuse to feel proud or guilty for a child’s positive or negative attributes as an infant. This is genetically determined not something for which a parent can take credit or blame.
• Encourage and listen to all feedback concerning your child without taking offense to the messenger. This information will help you to determine what to do to help your child.
• Accept your child for who he is. Shape your child’s responses through thoughtful consequences to help the child become better balanced.
• Encourage your children to learn for themselves to overcome their limitations.

All children are blessings who are loaned to us for a finite time. Parents are responsible to do the best they can to help their children become the highest functioning people they can be. We humans can choose for ourselves and help our children choose to minimize shortcomings and maximize strengths. This takes constant effort not the effortlessness of closing one’s eyes.

"Free School" Mentality is Corrupting Public Education

Kids love to “do their own thing.” It may be studying to be a movie director in the sixth grade, talking or entertaining their friends, playing video games or chess, watching horror movies, reading Harry Potter or pretending to be an actress or the next “American Idol.” It has again become fashionable for educators to believe that students should be given the power to create part of or their entire curriculum to maximize their motivation. These notions date back to the “Free School” movement of the 1960s.

Free Schools have been encouraging children over the past 40 years to pursue their own interests. According to the proponents of this approach, by children doing what they desire, following their momentary passions, a high level of learning takes place. These schools empower students to have decision making powers on an equal level with administration to set policy through democratic meetings. Increasing student’s involvement in the administration of the school is supposed to create school harmony. Traditional grading cannot and does not have a purpose in this fluid learning environment. Students are the evaluators of their progress pleasing them and their parents.

These Utopian concepts have been accepted into the public school sector. In the Soviet Union children were placed in specific areas of study for the good of the state. Now in Florida and other states children in middle school are being required to choose actual majors of study before reaching any particular level of competency. This is done to try to increase student motivation.

Students are often encouraged by teachers to go in front of their local school boards to demand a relaxation of already pathetic dress codes or to support teachers who have been disciplined for their lack of fulfilling teaching obligations. Too many times students are informing their teachers what and how to teach with the tacit approval of the administration. Students have more power now than they have ever had in the public schools.

Appeasement of students and parents seems to be a guiding principle of many public schools. Since grades are difficult to assess and thought to be a means of motivation, schools have elevated them to make students and parents happy. Parent’s complaints of homework being a burden on their free time has resulted in schools cutting back on homework requirements.

Academic standards in reading, writing, spelling and math have been diluted. The milestones of memorizing times tables, grammar and historical facts have been ignored or postponed because it is difficult for children to endure the work of rote memorization.

Instead of focusing on skill development children are encouraged to live in their fantasy world. Required courses in history, geography and civics, knowledge required of citizens in a republic, have been dropped. This is to allow time for impressionable students to choose their latest fad career majors like those highlighted on TV such as CSI.

Educators have a primary responsibility to prepare students to be successful adults who are able to contribute to society. This means they have to have the necessary skills to compete successfully in life. Many necessary skills are not learned from natural fun seeking behavior of children but through tedious concentrated effort.

Success breeds success. As students master a certain level of competency in a certain area they are motivated by their success to go on to the next level. Reading, writing and arithmetic are basic skills that are not optional. They must be learned before one can realistically go on to higher education. Possessing these basic skills is necessary to continue the process of life long self-education.

In the short run children may be happy “doing their own thing” or being allowed to run the asylum (school). Although in the long run helping delay their instant gratification urge will enable them to function in a modern complex society. Students learning material that they cannot immediately appreciate is the antidote for young adults suffering the depression of dysfunction.

America needs strong, solid citizens who have the strength of character to face the challenges and sacrifices of life while contributing to others. It is the responsibility of our educational leaders to develop school environments fostering student competencies for the good of the individual as well as the good of a strong, honorable nation.

Public schools pandering to students by encouraging them to “do their own thing” is a prescription for a weak, pleasure-seeking and declining nation.

Demoting Homework

Our culture is in a constant state of flux. Eggs, beef, coffee, coconut and chocolate were staples in our diet then they were bad for us. Now they are back being good for our health. Pharmacological companies push a particular miracle drug only to replace it with a different one as soon as it kills a number of people. Heroes of the past such as Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, General MacArthur and even Santa Claus have lost their glow in an environment prone to revision. Now the virtues of homework are being undermined.

“Cultural facts” rapidly change in our nation depending on the agenda of the group in power. Even after a Duke University review by Harris Cooper of sixty research studies on homework between 1987 and 2003 "concluded that homework does have a positive effect on student achievement".

Yet many experts are espousing in the media that homework should be decreased. The reasoning is that students are under immense stress from school, extra-curricular activities and maintaining relationships. The additional pressure of homework would only overwhelm them and their parents. According to this reasoning it makes sense not to add homework.

This sells well with harried parents. Getting a child to do homework is much more difficult than chauffeuring him from one activity to another. Marginalizing homework allows modern parents to maintain their hectic, materialistic lifestyle without guilt.

Unbelievably these anti-homework experts have the audacity to cite this Duke University study to defend their counter intuitive position that homework is bad not only for the stress produced but for academic success.

The title of the Duke study is “Homework Helps Students in School: As Long As There Is Not Too Much”. These experts emphasize the “too much” making all homework tainted.

Too much homework is undoubtedly bad but so can too little homework be detrimental. It is the amount of homework that is the question not eliminating it all together. The “too much” argument is a juvenile means of dismissing the benefits of supplementing learning at school.

Homework is necessary in the learning process. It assists in making certain educational processes automatic in reading, writing and math. It is necessary in the memorizing of important facts. The more a student studies the better he does.

“With only rare exception the relationship between the amount of homework students do and their achievement outcomes were found to be positive and statistically significant,” according to the Duke University study.

Giving too much homework to very young students who need to get out and play after school and irrelevant homework to older students are glaring causes of the “rare exceptions”.

The Duke study suggests the ten-minute rule for each grade. A third grader should be expected to do about 30 minutes of homework. The time needed and value of the homework depends on material studied at home and the maturity of the student. A high school student should want to and be required to do more homework than a student in elementary school.

Parents need to use their common sense and their own life experience when listening to so- called “educational experts”. Homework should not be a torture for their child or for them. The parent should not do their children’s homework for them to make the children’s and the parent’s life easier. It is the child’s work not the parent’s. Once the child sees it as his responsibility it will become a source of personal pride and accomplishment.

Guilt on the part of the parent for the child’s unwillingness to do his homework will disappear when they accept the child is able to do it on his own just as they did when they were his age.

The child’s acceptance of the importance of diligent and timely completion of his homework takes effort. The parent should monitor that the child is concentrating and completing the assignment by having him in eyesight instead of letting him go to his electronically enhanced bedroom. The game of spending hours doing a half-hour task can be eliminated by stopping the child after a reasonable length of time. The consequences for the child at home for not doing his best will make the game a losing one for the child. The child’s study habits will shortly improve relieving the guilt and pressure on the parents as well as on the child.

Let us reject pseudo-scientific lies that homework is no longer significant in education. Promoting meaningful homework, not demoting it, will lead to higher achievement and academic success.

Worldwide Jihad Good for America

America has lost its historical moral bearings that guided us to be the world’s superpower. We are a nation morally decaying from within. All of us can see this including our enemies.

The Islamic Fascists are right. Western civilization is weak from worshipping materialism. It is self-destructive and immoral on many levels. It is ripe for defeat.

America as the leader of the world needs to learn from our enemies or lose it all.

Believers in God, regardless of their religion should be grateful to these terrorists. Not for the evil of killing innocent people, most of them followers of Islam, but for pointing out the moral decay to which we have become oblivious.

Deceitfulness has come to permeate our society. We are exposed daily to false advertising, fine print in contracts to weasel out of implied responsibility, and politically correct speech that censors our thoughts and beliefs and confuses what we are trying to say. Parents lie to children, children lie to parents, pedophile priests to parishioners, politicians and even the president lies to the people and the media lies to us all.

Lying is no longer a defect of character or a sin. It has become acceptable. We are becoming numb to immorality. We heard ex-governor McGreevy of New Jersey and Ted Haggard of a mega church of 30,000 members publicly describe their secret, immoral and sexually transmitted disease life style in front of their humiliated wives and children.

There is no shame on the part of our leaders obliterating the standards of right and wrong directly influencing their follower’s lives. In spite of their attempt at apologizing the damage is done.

President Clinton, ten years ago, Senator Mark Foley, recently and teachers and ministers continuously are using the power of their office to satisfy their carnal desires and hurting those they are supposed to protect.

The abuse of illicit drugs, alcohol, gluttony, spending addictions and the inhumanity of abortion are rampant in our nation. This must be addressed or we will implode as a society.

No honest and rational American can deny the truth of many of the terrorist’s observations of the decadent state of western civilization.

The people of the USA have a choice. We can be tolerant of our immorality, continuing the slide into the decline and fall of our civilization. We can continue to live self-centered materialistic and uncaring lives not focusing on our commitments to our children, family or nation. Expecting our military to win the war on terrorism without changing our self indulgent, corrupt life styles is naive. The increasing debauchery gives us a limited time before these fanatics get their wish, bringing mankind back to the 7th century.

The alternative choice is to listen and respond to our enemy’s accurate appraisal of our true vulnerability. According to the terrorists, our Achilles heel is not our powerful military. It is our moral corruption that has weakened our commitment to expect and maintain dignified behavior from others and ourselves. The terrorists are relying on the lack of our citizen’s strength for self-preservation. This will ensure their victory and our defeat.

Standing up to demand our children, teachers, businessmen, political and religious leaders but most importantly ourselves, do the right thing is the way to preserve the sovereignty of our nation and civilization.

The vast majority of Americans are decent people who can no longer be silent. We are self-righteously demanding the overwhelming number of peaceful Muslims risk their lives against fanatical murderous terrorists while we remain passive against our own moral disintegration. This is unfair and wrong.

All Americans must raise their voices in unison to clean out the corruption in our country or waste the wonderful inheritance of our forefathers. We must reestablish a “black and white” standard of morality and reject moral relativism.

This worldwide war will be won or lost not by military technology but rather by the moral strength of our people. The battles that will lead us to victory over terrorists will be courageously fought daily in our own souls, families and communities. Returning to a high standard of moral exceptionalism is the answer to jihadists and evil doers within our nation.

American Idol: A Reflection of Our Dishonesty

Our modern culture is producing dishonest people who are especially dishonest about themselves. When young people can go in front of an audience of 37 million people without any shame of how pathetic they appear, something is radically wrong. Apparently many teenagers have been cheated out of their ability to see themselves realistically.

It is we who are mean, not Simon Cowell, one of the hosts of the “American Idol” show. Mr. Cowell, at times may go “over the top” saying degrading things which are not helpful in critiquing the contestant. He probably does this to be obnoxiously “cute”. Although for the most part, he is doing the difficult job of “separating the wheat from the chaff.”

Parents seem to have lost the understanding of how to prevent their children from being ridiculed by others. We are no longer teaching our children to be self-critical. The unwillingness of loved ones to confront children with negative reactions to their often outrageous behavior is creating delusional freaks.

In our politically-correct child rearing world of only using positive reinforcement, our youngsters have become victims. We have lowered our standards at home, school and at work while handcuffing parents, teachers and employers from demanding better results. Our children have interpreted these phony positive comments from authority figures to validate their delusion.

Modern children believe they only have to think it, to make it real. This is obviously not true but no one has been kind enough to teach them the fallacy of their thinking.

Our dishonesty is mean, not Simon’s curt dismissal of nauseating displays of behavior that are far off the mark. We laugh or cringe in disbelief that this is not a “put on”. These youngsters are not acting, they believe in their fantasy of being a super star when in reality they are buffoons. They have not learned to see themselves as others see them.

It is not healthy for people like Paula Abdul to feel sorry for these fools since it increases their ability to lie to themselves. In fact it is beneficial for wannabee celebrities in the long run to appraise them honestly in order to encourage them to improve or abandon their naïve dream. This will allow for the pursuit of a more realistic career.

Good teachers, coaches and parents are often strict appearing to be mean when in reality they are telling the truth. They are teaching us the skills to create the habits that lead to success. Anyone who loves another and wants the best for him cannot be fearful of giving honest feedback.

American Idol’s popularity highlights a societal problem. We are producing too many people with high false esteem who are destined to live a life of disappointment, depression and anger.

The Paula Abduls of the world are not doing our children any service. Regardless of our intentions children cannot forever be shielded from reality. By coddling we are only delaying the inevitability of an incident bursting their bubble..

In order to correct these destructive trends where people tell lies so they do not hurt others feelings we need to do the following.

• Give honest, concrete and clear feedback on how to improve.
• Instill a sense of pride in children by demanding they do their best.
• Upgrade your expectations in order to foster optimal growth.
• Stop defending your child’s inadequate performance at home, in school or on the job.
• Thank your spouse, teachers and employers for giving honest and critical evaluations.

Forty years ago “American Idol” never would have become a phenomenon. Children were taught not to embarrass themselves or their families. The fear of honest peer feedback kept most of us straight into the adult world. We learned to be realistic about what it takes to be successful.

In this modern culture things have been reversed. Most people act sympathetic to the loser freaks in front of them while laughing at them behind their backs. For the most part adults and peers are doing little to assist unrealistic children to turn away from their delusional dreams before the inevitable crash with reality.