During the period of 1787-1788 three men (Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison) penned a number of essays, known generally as the Federalist Papers (FP). These essays were in support of passing what is now our Constitution. In fairness, it should be noted that there was another group that wrote essays that were in direct juxtaposition to Federalist Papers.
A portion of, and a somewhat recurring theme, in the FP was dedicated to a discussion regarding human nature. These Founding Fathers described human nature as having two sides. One side was the low end of human nature which they called the Passions. They described the Passions as those people who were vindictive, overly ambitious and rapacious. On the other side of human nature, the high end of human nature, they described people who were logical and reasonable led by a high moral code and education.
Let’s explore the high end of human nature: We will start with Education- Our public school education system is an abysmal failure. Our children cannot pass the most rudimentary progress tests at any age level. They cannot read, much less comprehend what they are trying to read and their math skills do not exist. As of 2011, the failure rate of primary grades on the national No Child Left Behind test was 48%. Said another way, nearly half of all children in primary grades in public schools FAILED the national test. It has only gotten worse in the following years. With this as the foundation for additional learning in the higher grades, well, the middle school and high school grades reflect the lack of learning in the child’s early years in public education and, as a consequence, perform even worse than the primary grades. This is not surprising as the levels of learning all rely on what has been learned earlier. Math and science skills are completely dependent on these prior building blocks. Also, math is where a large portion of critical logic skills are developed. Logic and reason are hardly likely to exist in a person that cannot read, has little or no comprehension of what he/she is trying to read and has no logical skills. As for a High Moral code- There is plenty of evidence that ethics and morality are not a major consideration for a large segment of the population. Two examples of why the previous statement is true are the topics of abortion and lying. When people engage in recreational sex it is statically likely that there will be a pregnancy. Condoms, at best, only prevent pregnancy 98% of the time. If you engage in sex twice a week and use a condom for birth control, statistically, you will create a pregnancy twice a year…which, in turn, creates a moral and ethical dilemma. Lying is another word to describe the absence of truth. For the more discerning person who is capable of using his/her educational skills, moral standards and logic, he/she will be able to root out most lies and see them for what they are. However, the under educated will have little to no ability to recognize the lie from the truth and, consequently, will rely on emotion. It becomes even more difficult when the speaker of the lie adds spin to the topic. Spin creates the opposite impression from the truth, but, tragically, sounds like the truth to both the educated and uneducated. It is more than unfortunate that members of Congress, both houses and both sides of the aisle, use spin to create a false impression. It is overwhelmingly distasteful when members of the Congress who are also men/women of the cloth participate in this behavior. I am astonished by the lack of self-esteem reflected by politicians who out and out lie or spin…repeating the party line without concern for the truth. E tu Adam?
So, given this sorry state of affairs, how do we fix the mess in which we find ourselves? One suggestion would be to start our primary children in school at age one for at least 3-4 hours per day and, possibly for up to 8 hours per day. There are skills that preschoolers can learn before they get to kindergarten or the first grade…like homework. Send them home with a picture to color and bring to school the next day. The coloring might be awful, but the subliminal learning is the concept of homework. A by-product of this approach would be the ability for single parents to have jobs without having to pay for full day childcare. Two parent households would have the same advantage if one spouse is not already working. One argument against this idea will be the lack of infrastructure in our existing public schools, there is just no room for that many children. The counter to this argument is to involve churches, synagogues, etc. which are safe havens and, more than likely, already have programs similar to what is proposed. Undoubtably, there are other organizations that could also provide such services. Certainly, educational programs would need to be developed for this age group of children to prepare them for pre-K, K, and first grade. Attendance in schools is also an issue with nearly 30% of all students being chronically absent. School does not need to be a grind. It can be made to be fun during the learning process. That might require an entirely different approach by the teachers. Anyone who has successfully graduated high school will remember fondly those teachers who made learning fun. Also, curriculums need to be age appropriate focused on reading, writing, math, history and civics with each subject being taught in every grade beginning with the first grade.