C. S. Lewis

                In recent days I have been immersed in remembering President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.  Yes, I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news.  My day had been an ordinary day until the news flash came over the television that President Kennedy had been shot – and then another flash saying that he had died.  I did not know until this week that two other famous people had also died on November 22, 1963, C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley.  I do not know much about Huxley, but I have read books written by C.S. Lewis and decided to make him my VIP for this week.

                The man who is known to the world as C. S. Lewis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis was born Clive Staples Lewis on November 29, 1898, in Belfast, Ireland.  His parents were Albert James Lewis (1863-1929) and Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis (1862-1908).  His father was a solicitor, and his mother was the daughter of a Church of Ireland (Anglican) priest.  His paternal grandfather was Richard Lewis who had immigrated to Ireland from Wales during the mid-19^th century.  His brother was Warren Hamilton Lewis, who was nicknamed Warnie.  Lewis’s mother died when he was a boy, and his father was “distant, demanding and eccentric.”

                When C.S. Lewis was four years old, his dog Jacksie was killed by a car; soon afterwards, the boy announced that his name was Jacksie and he would answer to no other name.  He later shortened his name to Jack, the name by which he was known to family and friends for the rest of his life.  He was seven years old when his family moved into his childhood home, “Little Lea”, in the Strandtown area of East Belfast.

                 Lewis learned to love reading as a child and was blessed to live in a home filled with books.  He “had a fascination with anthropomorphic animals” and fell “in love with Beatrix Potter’s stories; he “often” wrote and illustrated “his own animal stories.”  Together with his brother Warnie, Lewis “created the world of Boxen, inhabited and run by animals.”

                The Lewis boys received their first education from private tutors and then were sent to the Wynyard School, in Watford, Hertfordshire.  Warnie had been attending Wynyard for three years when Lewis was first enrolled in 1908, shortly after their mother died from cancer.  From Wynyard, Lewis went to Campbell College, which was located about a mile from his home, for a few months before leaving due to respiratory problems.  He then attended a preparatory school in the health-resort town of Malvern, Worcestershire.  The school was named Cherbourg House but called “Chartres” in his autobiography in the health-resort.

                While Lewis was attending Cherbourg, he abandoned his childhood faith and became an atheist interested in mythology and the occult.  He later enrolled at Malvern College for a few months before studying privately with William T. Kirkpatrick, his father’s old tutor and former headmaster of Lurgan College.  He received a scholarship at University College, Oxford, but he was conscripted into World War I before he ever attended classes but returned to his studies after the war was over.  His war experiences confirmed his atheism.

                During his army training, Lewis shared a room with another cadet named Edward Courtnay Francis “Paddy” Moore (1898-1918).  The two young men, according to Paddy’s sister Maureen, “made a mutual pact that if either died during the war, the survivor would take care of both their families.  Paddy was killed in action in 1918 and Lewis kept his promise.”  Introduced by Paddy, Lewis (age 18) and Jane King Moore (age 45) became good friends after Paddy’s death.  This friendship “was particularly important to Lewis while he was recovering from his wounds in hospital.”  Lewis lived with and cared for Moore until the late 1940s when she was hospitalized.  He referred to Moore as his “mother” in letters and introduced her to friends and associates as his “mother.”  Some people believe there was more than a mother-son relationship between the two of them.  In her later years, Moore suffered from dementia and was eventually put into a nursing home, where she died in 1951.  Lewis visited her there every day until she died.

                Lewis, Warnie, Mrs. Moore, and her daughter Maureen moved into a house together in 1930, and “they all contributed financially to the purchase of the house.”  When Warren died in 1973, the house passed to Maureen, who by then was Dame Maureen Dunbar.

                C.S. Lewis was a novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, and Christian apologist.  He held academic positions at both Oxford University (Magdalen College) (1925-1954) and Cambridge University (Magdalene College) (1954-1963).  He is famous for his fictional work and his non-fiction Christian apologetics.  His most famous fictional works are The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and his most well-known non-fiction Christian apologetics include Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.  His works have been translated into more than thirty languages and have sold millions of copies.  The Chronicles of Narnia books are the most sought after and have entertained on television, radio, and cinema.

                Lewis was close friends with novelist J. R. R. Tolkien.  “Both authors served on the English faculty at Oxford University, and both were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the “Inklings”.  When he was 32 years old, Tolkien and other friends apparently influenced Lewis to return to the Anglican Communion, where he became “a very ordinary layman of the Church of England.  His faith had a profound effect on his work and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim.”

                Lewis married American poet and writer Joy Davidman Gresham (born April 18, 1915, in New York City, NY) in 1956.  She was seventeen years younger than he and was a divorced mother of two sons.  Joy was referred to as a child prodigy and earned a master’s degree from Columbia University in English literature in 1935 (age 20).  She was of Jewish background, a former Communist, and a convert from atheism to Christianity.  When she met Lewis, she was separated from her alcoholic and abusive husband, the novelist William L. Gresham, and moved to England with her two sons, David and Douglas. 

                Gresham was “an agreeable intellectual companion and personal friend” when Lewis agreed to “enter into a civil marriage contract with her so that she could continue to live in the UK.”  The marriage took place on April 23, 1956 at the register office.  Warren described his brother’s relationship with Gresham thusly:  “For Jack the attraction was at first undoubtedly intellectual.  Joy was the only woman whom he had met… who had a brain which matched his own in suppleness, in width of interest, and in analytical grasp, and above all in humour and a sense of fun.”

                Three years after the marriage, Gresham complained of a painful hip and was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer.  By this time the relationship had reached the point where they decided to have a Christian marriage.  Even though she was divorced and the Church of England frowned on divorces, the ceremony was performed at her bed in the Churchill Hospital on March 21, 1957, by the Rev. Peter Bide, a friend.

                Gresham’s cancer went into remission, and the family (including Warren Lewis) lived together until her death on July 13, 1960, in Oxford, UK.  Prior to her death, the couple traveled to Greece and the Aegean, Lewis’s only crossing of the English Channel after 1918.

                Lewis reared Gresham’s two sons after her death.  Douglas is a Christian, and David became Orthodox Jewish in his beliefs.  The brothers are apparently not close but have email contact.  Douglas is involved in the affairs of the Lewis estate.

                C. S. Lewis died of renal failure in Oxford, UK, on November 22, 1963, one week before his 65^th birthday and three years after the death of his wife.  On the fiftieth anniversary of his death, November 22, 1963, Lewis was honored with a memorial in Poets Corner, Westminster Abbey.

                A Huffington Post article about Lewis states:  “Many Christians are first introduced to Lewis, a philosopher, theologian, professor and author, at an early age with `The Chronicles of Narnia,’ a place where it is `always winter, but never Christmas.’  For adults, his most influential work was `Mere Christianity,’ where he argued that Jesus was either a lunatic, liar or Lord.  

                Lewis’ writings still retain cultural currency – perhaps more so in death than they ever had in life....”  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/22/cs-lewis-50-year-death_n_4325358.html

Amending the Constitution

                The topic of discussion on this Constitution Monday comes from Article V, Section 1:  “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution .... shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof ….”  This provision means that the Framers of the Constitution understood that changes might need to be made to their document in future years.

                “James Madison stated that the Founders hoped their successors would `improve and perpetuate’ the Constitution. 

                “Madison knew the Founders had accomplished a tremendous task but that their polished formula for a divided, balanced, limited government could be mutilated by careless, amateur meddling.  In praise of the Founders he said:  `They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society.  They reared the fabrics of government which have no model on the face of the globe.  They formed the design of a great Confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate.’” (See W. Cleon Skousen in The Making of America – The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution, pp. 644-645.)

                Trent England and Matthew Spalding of The Heritage Foundation wrote, “The process of amendment developed with the emergence of written constitutions that established popular government.  The charters granted by William Penn in 1682 and 1683 provided for amending, as did eight of the state constitutions in effect in 1787.  Three state constitutions provided for amendment through the legislature, and the other five gave the power to specially elected conventions.

                “The Articles of Confederation provided for amendments to be proposed by Congress and ratified by the unanimous vote of all thirteen state legislatures.  This proved to be a major flaw in the Articles, as it created an insuperable obstacle to constitutional reform.  The amendment process in the Constitution, as James Madison explained in The Federalist No. 43 was meant to establish a balance between the excesses of constant change and inflexibility:  `It guards equally against that extreme facility which would render the Constitution too mutable; and that extreme difficulty which might perpetuate its discovered faults.’

                “The Virginia Plan at the start of the Constitutional Convention called for amendment `whensoever it shall seem necessary.’  The Committee of Detail proposed a process whereby Congress would call for a constitutional convention on the request of two-thirds of the state legislatures.  After further debate, the delegates passed language proposed by Madison (and seconded by Alexander Hamilton) that the national legislature shall propose amendments when two-thirds of each House deems it necessary, or on the application of two-thirds of the state legislatures, to be ratified by three-fourths of the states in their legislatures or by state conventions.  (See The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, pp. 284-285.)

Gratitude Brings Blessings

                It is Thanksgiving time again, a time to say thank you for our many blessings.  When we sincerely give thanks, we are grateful, at least for a short time, for the blessings we enjoy.   In fact, when we are grateful for what we have, we prepare ourselves to receive more blessings.

                “And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

                “And as he entered into a certain village, there [he met] ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

                “And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

                “And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew [show] yourselves unto the priests.  And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

                “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

                “And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks:  and he was a Samaritan.

                “And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed?  but where are the nine?).

                “There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

                “And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way:  thy faith hath made thee whole” (Luke 17:11-19).

                The Savior was of course disappointed that only one leper out of ten was grateful for the great blessing of being healed from a horrible disease.  What about the other nine?  Did they not recognize that they had been blessed?  The Savior’s last words to the healed leper make me wonder about the lasting effect on the nine.  He told the grateful leper, “thy faith hath made thee whole.”  Is being made “whole” different than being healed?  Was the healing of the nine a temporary healing?  Did the grateful leper receive a greater blessing?

                Referring to the above scripture, Elder Howard W. Hunter stressed our need to thank our Heavenly Father for all the blessings that He give to us:  “Of the ten men who were healed, only one returned to express appreciation.  This must have been a disappointment to the Master, but there are many who receive blessings, many who are endowed with good things in life, yet never take the time or go to the effort to show gratitude to the benefactor or express appreciation to God.  Happiness and joy from blessings are never complete until there is a deep feeling of gratitude within oneself which moves an expression of appreciation” (in Conference Report, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden Area Conference 1974, 27).  

                The Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith, “And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more” (Doctrine and Covenants 78:19).

                President Thomas S. Monson, a man who goes about helping others, spoke about the connection between gratitude and service:  “We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude.  If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues.  Someone has said that `gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others’” (“The Divine Gift of Gratitude,” Ensign, October 2010).  

                I believe that my feelings as a parent and grandparent are similar to what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ feel for us.  I appreciate being told “thank you.”  I love to receive little notes from my children and grandchildren thanking me for something I did for them or gave to them.  I do not expect any “thing” in exchange for my gifts to them, but I certainly do appreciate a showing of gratitude.  I remember a time when I purchased a small toy or something that my youngest child really wanted.  She thanked me profusely at the time I gave it to her.  She came back again and again to thank me.  In fact, she was still thanking me for the item several days later.  I knew by the number of times she offered thanks that she truly was grateful for the item.

                This experience with my child made me think differently about the blessings that Heavenly Father gives to me.  I am no longer willing to quickly say “thanks” and then go on my way.  When I am truly grateful for a blessing, I return again and again to say thank you; in fact, sometimes I return to give thanks months and even years later when the memory of the blessing arises once again.

                We can receive more blessings by simply being grateful for those we already have.  One of the blessings we can receive is peace.  Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “In some quiet way, the expression and feelings of gratitude have a wonderful cleansing or healing nature.  Gratitude brings warmth to the giver and the receiver alike….

                “Gratitude, expressed to our Heavenly Father in prayer for what we have, brings a calming peace, a peace which allows us to not canker our souls for what we don’t have.  Gratitude brings a peace that helps us overcome the pain of adversity and failure.  Gratitude on a daily basis means we express appreciation for what we have now without qualification for what we had in the past or desire in the future.”

                I find it fairly easy to be grateful for blessings, but I find it more difficult to be grateful for trials and difficulties.  Elder Marion D. Hanks shared the following story about a boy and his mother, who understood the importance of expressing gratitude in every situation.

                “I sat at a stake conference where a returned missionary bore his testimony.  He had but a short time and he chose to use one idea.  He thanked God for a great, humble mother, and gave his reason.  He said that as a high school boy, he [had] been sorely tried by the illness and then death of his little sister whom he had loved greatly and who had been the darling of the family, being the last of them.  Their father had died.  The little girl grew ill, and in spite of prayers and administrations and fasting and much concern, worsened and died in the night.  The boy went into his room, locked the door, and sobbed out his broken heart to the walls because he was not willing to do it to the God whom he could not now honestly approach.  In his rebellion and anger at a God, if there were one, who would permit such a thing to happen to them, he cried out in rebellion.  He said he would never pray again, would never go to church again, and could never have any confidence again in a God who would permit this to happen.  And in his immature but sincere sorrow, he made some rather serious covenants with himself.  He stayed awake the rest of the night, apprehensive about an experience he anticipated.  It was their custom, as it is in so many, though not enough, Latter-day Saint homes, to kneel morning and evening with the children around the mother, to thank God for the goodness of his blessings.

                “He waited for that moment, knowing what he had to say, but fearing it.  When his mother said, `Come, children,’ he said, `No.’

                “She said, `Kneel down, son.’

                “He said, `No, I will not kneel down, and I will never kneel down again.’

                “She said, as I remember his words and I was deeply touched as were we all, `Son, you’re the oldest child in this home.  You are the only man in the house, and if I ever needed a man, I need one now.  You kneel down.’

                “He knelt down, still rebellious, but because his mother, the idol of his heart, needed him, and he began for the first time to think in terms of her broken heart and her sorrow.  So he knelt, but he said to himself, `I wonder what she’s going to thank God for this morning.’  And his mother, knowing as she must have, the questions in his mind and the minds of the other children, taught them the gospel on their knees that morning.  She thanked God for what the family knew, for the blessing of eternal ties, for direction and purpose and guidance and convictions as to the future.  She thanked God that they had been blessed with this wonderful, angelic child who had brought so much to them and who was to be theirs, always.  And out of her mother’s heart, knowing the desperate, critical nature of the moment, taught her own children what there was to thank God for under conditions of such stress.

                “As the boy stood, a successful, dedicated Latter-day Saint who had filled an honorable, difficult mission, he thanked God for a mother who was a heroine” (Heroism, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [25 Mar. 1959], 3-4). 

                Even in the midst of much tribulation we have much to be thankful for.  I have not had the experience of burying one of my children or grandchildren -- and I am very grateful for this great blessing, but I have endured trials and tribulation of other types.  When I am in my deepest despair, I return to the basics, and I thank God for the warm sunshine, clean water, fresh air, a warm house, food to eat, clothes to wear, good health, my family, etc.  I may not feel gratitude for the difficulty at the time, but I do realize and am grateful for the growth that comes from enduring well the trial of my faith.

                I am grateful for the blessings that I have right now, today.  I know that I am very blessed and have received many, many blessings even though I may not have received all the blessings I desire.  I trust Heavenly Father to bless me as He sees fit because I know that He knows what I need much better than I; I also know that He will not withhold any needed blessing from me if I will but serve Him.  I am most grateful for my knowledge and testimony that God lives and loves each one of us; I am grateful to know that He has a plan for my happiness as well as a plan for the happiness of all His children.  What are you grateful for today?  

Safety in Our Day

                Families, communities, and nations are strengthened when parents teaching the rising generation the importance of staying strong in turbulent times.  We live in a world that becomes increasingly wicked as time passes.  Actions that were seldom seen or even discussed in my youth are now openly supported.  We must teach our children and youth how to survive these times.

                The Apostle Paul described our day in a letter to his friend Timothy:  “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

                “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

                “Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

                “Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

                “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:  from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

                President Boyd K. Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, spoke about our world today and said that all the conditions listed by the Apostle Paul are currently present.  He also said that Moroni, an ancient American prophet, spoke of the wickedness of our day and left us a warning:  “When ye shall see these things come among you … ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation….

                “Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved” (Book of Mormon – Another Witness of Jesus Christ, Ether 8:24, 26).

                President Packer gave counsel about how we can be safe in these “perilous times” (Paul) or “very precarious times” (President Packer).  “Parents today wonder if there is a safe place to raise children.  There is a safe place.  It is in a gospel-centered home.  We focus on the family in the Church, and we counsel parents everywhere to raise their children in righteousness….

                “The scriptures hold the keys to spiritual protection.  They contain the doctrine and laws and ordinances that will bring each child of God to a testimony of Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer….

                “Make scripture reading a part of your regular routine, and the blessings will follow.  There is in the scriptures a voice of warning, but there is also great nourishment.

                “If the language of the scriptures at first seems strange to you, keep reading.  Soon you will come to recognize the beauty and power found on those pages. 

                “Paul said, `All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness’ (2 Timothy 3:16).

                “You can test this promise for yourself.

                “We live in perilous times; nevertheless, we can find hope and peace for ourselves and for our families…. Righteousness is more powerful than wickedness.

                “Children taught an understanding of the scriptures early in life will come to know the path they should walk and will be more inclined to remain on that path.  Those who stray will have the ability to return and, with help, can find their way back….

                “Paul and others warned about the trials of our time and the days yet to come.  But peace can be settled in the heart of each who turns to the scriptures and unlocks the promises of protection and redemption that are taught therein.  We invite all to turn to the Savior Jesus Christ, to His teachings as found in the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.

                “I bear certain witness of the scriptures as a key to our spiritual protection….”  (“The Key to Spiritual Protection,” Ensign, November 2013, pp. 26-28).

                I have quoted the words of several prophets and apostles on how we can survive well in these “perilous times.”  I encourage parents everywhere to pay attention to their counsel and provide safety for themselves and their children in these “precarious times.”  Our nations, communities, and families will be strengthened as we strengthen the rising generation.

Truth and Freedom

                The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is the simple fact that our freedom depends on our government telling us the truth.  We are capable of governing ourselves and making good decisions only when we know the true facts.  When we know the truth, we can make the choices that will keep us free.

                Jesus Christ taught the importance of truth to freedom when He made this simple but true statement:  “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

                The Obama Administration has done nothing but lie to us.  We can name any scandal under this administration and find the lies they have told.  After terrorists attacked an American consulate in Libya and killed our ambassador and three other Americans, we were told for two weeks that the attack was a spontaneous reaction to a video about Islamism.  When the IRS targeted conservative groups prior to the 2012 election, we were told that it was some rogue employees in Philadelphia.  Remember when the jobs numbers miraculously improved and unemployment dipped below 8% about a month before the 2012 election?  We now know the numbers were fabricated.  Recently Barack Obama said in a telephone conference that “100 million Americans had signed up at Healthcare.gov in the first month.”  We know this is an outright lie because we have been told by other sources that fewer than thirty thousand signed up.  Obama apparently says whatever he wants to say – and gets away with it.

                The administration does not just lie to us.  They change the meaning of words, rules of procedure, and laws in order to take freedom from us.  For instance, the term “ObamaCare” has become poison; therefore, the health care reform is no longer referred to by the Obama Administration as “ObamaCare” and the term “Affordable Care Act” is now used.  The administration is now claiming that the health insurance “cancellation notices” sent to millions of Americans in recent weeks were not statements of cancellation but were “renewals with improvements.”

                One of the best statements I have ever read about truth and freedom was written by Glenn Beck entitled “Lies Cause Great Pain.”  “That’s why we put such an emphasis on truth, because we know lying leads to another lie and another lie, and it all causes pain, pain to the person on the receiving end and ultimately sooner or later even greater pain to the one dishing out the lies and everyone along the line.  But what defeats lie?  Truth, the truth sets you free.  It’s the most powerful weapon you have.  Empower the truth.

                “Play your cards face up on the table and you’ll be able to stand with courage.  Keep things hidden, and you will cower in constant fear of being exposed.  … Lies hold us hostage.  Lies keep us enslaved.  Lies tear us apart.”

                Beck wrote about two different Americans destroyed by lies.  One of those people was a woman known as Tokyo Rose, a Japanese-American caught in Japan by World War II.  She was actually a patriot, but the media and our government painted her as a traitor.  She was imprisoned for several years, and her life was ruined.  It is an interesting story.

                Jack Welch’s reputation was destroyed more recently.  When Jack saw the unemployment figures that came out just before the 2012 election, he tweeted:  “Unbelievable jobs numbers… these Chicago guys will do anything … can’t debate so change numbers.”  He did not “see anything in the economy that says these surges are true.”  The figures were not true, but Jack was called “a crazy old man, an unemployment rate truther, an insane crabby lesbian,” and he was labeled “Conspiracy Jack.”  Jack was once one of the most respected businessmen in America, but his reputation was destroyed by lies.  This is another interesting story for Americans to read. 

                How do we survive in a society of lies?  We tell the truth.  Good will defeat evil in the long run.  We need to choose the right path and do the right thing – and let the chips fall where they may.  Now is the time when we must choose truth over lies because only truth will bring freedom.

Common Core Curriculum

                If you think ObamaCare is a disaster, wait until you see the results of Common Core Curriculum!  Nine parents of seventh- and eighth-grade students at Evergreen Middle School in Hillsboro, Oregon, do not care for the newly adopted Common Core standards.  They pulled their youth out of math class for one hour each day to teach them at home.  Their reason for doing so was a sudden drop in grades and performance.  Students who had always been “A” and “B” students were bringing home “Ds” and “Fs”.  It seems that the “Common Core math standards call for fewer numbers and formulas and more word problems and real-world scenarios, along with more group work.”

                Some Catholic scholars critiqued Common Core standards and issued a statement, which reads in part:  “Promoters of Common Core say that it is designed to make America’s children `college and career ready.’  We instead judge Common Core to be a recipe for standardized workforce preparation.”  The critique also stated:  “Common Core adopts a bottom-line, pragmatic approach to education.  The heart of its philosophy, as far as we can see, is that it is a waste of resources to `over-educate’ people.”  

                That is a very powerful statement – but there is more!  U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is blaming the opposition to Common Core standards on “wealthy white mothers upset to learn their children are not as bright as they thought.”  According to the Washington Post, Duncan told a group of state school superintendents, “It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who – all of a sudden – their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary.  You’ve bet your house and where you live and everything on `My child’s going to be prepared.’  That can be a punch in the gut.”

                The best argument against Common Core Curriculum may have come from a high school student.  Ethan Young, a senior at Farragut High School in Knox County, Tennessee, took his case to the school board recently.  There he “issued a brief and incredibly insightful address on the problems with Common Core standards” about “why he believes the school district should drop the new national education standards.”

                Young opened his case by stating that the guidelines “were never voted on by Congress, the Department of Education [or] by local or state governments.” He said, “The president essentially bribed states into implementation via `Race to the Top,’ offering $4.35 billion taxpayer dollars to participating states, $500 million of which went to Tennessee.  And much like No Child Left Behind, the program promises national testing and a one-size-fits-all education, because hey, it worked so well the first time.  If nothing else, these standards are a glowing conflict of interest and they lack the research they allegedly received.”

                This extremely bright young man recognized that the Common Core Curriculum show a “mistrust of teachers.”  “I stand before you because I care about education, but also because I want to support my teachers.  And just as they fought for my academic achievement, so I want to fight for their ability to teach.  This relationship is at the heart of instruction, yet there will never be a system by which it is accurately measured.”

                Young argued that “standards-based education is ruining the way we teach and learn.” He said that legislators and administrators are telling him “that’s just the way things work;” then dared to ask “Why?”  He did not wait for someone else to answer his question but answered it himself:  “Bureaucratic convenience.  It works with nuclear reactors; it works with business models, why can’t it work with students?  I mean how convenient, calculating exactly who knows what and who needs what.  I mean, why don’t we just manufacture robots instead of students?  They last longer and they always do what they’re told.”

                The intelligent young man explained the problem:  “education is unlike every other bureaucratic institute in our government” because the “task of teaching is never quantifiable.  If everything I learn in high school is a measurable objective, I have not learned anything.  I’d like to repeat that.  If everything I learn in high school is a measurable objective, I have not learned anything.”  He understands that “creativity, appreciation, inquisitiveness” cannot be measured even though they are the “purpose of education.”

                This young man understands more than many adults do.  You can hear more of his “lecture” here. 

                Do we want our children and youth to become “robots” that are able to spout information at any given time?  Or do we want them to rise to their potential as sons and daughters of Heavenly Father that are prepared for whatever challenge is in their future?  I believe that Common Core Curriculum “dumbs down” the education of our students in order to have more control over them.  Many of the people who voted to give Barack Obama a second term in the White House are low-information voters.  If we allow Common Core standards to remain in our school, we will have generation after generation of voters who know nothing important.  I agree with Ethan Young:  “Somewhere our Founding Fathers are turning in their graves – pleading, screaming and trying to say to us that we teach to free minds.  We teach to inspire.  We teach to equip.  The Careers will come naturally.”

Lincoln at Gettysburg

                Today marks the 150^th anniversary of the address that President Abraham Lincoln gave at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863.  Only a few days after the Battle of Gettysburg, plans were made to establish and dedicate the first military cemetery.  Apparently, David Wills of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was tasked with finding a speaker.  He chose Edward Everett, the former president of Harvard University, to give the main address.  After Everett had agreed to speak, Wills asked the President of the United States to “give a few appropriate remarks.”

                Everett spoke from memory for two hours and eight minutes about the history of the battle.  As he spoke on and on, the crowd grew restless.  Finally, he was quiet, and Lincoln stepped forward.  His speech was short and to the point.  He spoke for less than three minutes, and his talk consisted of 272 words.  His speech was a handful of lines with carefully chosen words, and it quickly spread through the media.

                President Lincoln spoke his words slowly and meaningfully.  Please read the following address slowly in order to have the appropriate appreciation for his words.  President Lincoln wrote and spoke his words for an important purpose, the survival of our nation.  His words meant something to him.  What do they mean to you and me?

                “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

                “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.  We are met on a great battlefield of that war.  We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

                “But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground.  The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.  The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.  It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.  It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure or devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

               

                The Heritage Foundation’s Morning Bell called Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg “the greatest speech in American history and reminded us that “Lincoln urged the fractured nation to dedicate itself to the `unfinished work’ of the battle.  In only 10 sentences – 272 words in all – he made clear the far-reaching implications of the Civil War:  `that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.’

                The Morning Bell continued their article by reminding readers that the Progressive movement emerged in America in the late 19^th century and likened the Progressives of that time to the liberals of our day in their “paradoxical relationship to democracy.”

                “On the one hand, they championed democratic reforms, like the referendum, the ballot initiative, and the direct election of Senators (liberal today favor the popular election of the President).

                “On the other hand, the Progressives -- again like their liberal heirs – harbored a deep-seated distrust of the unwashed masses.”

                Liberals today try to convince Americans that everything they do is “for the people” because the people are not smart enough to choose their own food, light bulbs, or health care.  “Liberalism has in effect redefined democracy along paternalistic lines:  enacting, through whatever means necessary, what the people would vote for – if only they were enlightened enough to know what’s best for them.

                “This, of course, is not democracy….  Simply claiming to be for the people does not make a government democratic.  As Lincoln taught us in his Gettysburg Address, it must also be of and by these people.”

                Our nation is now greatly divided over many issues; one of those issues is race.  Barack Obama campaigned on being a person who could unite our nation; instead he has done more to divide us and make matters worse in almost every area of our nation.  Even though Mr. Obama read a version of the Gettysburg Address today, he is a far different President than was Abraham Lincoln.  If we want to have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, we must look to leaders like Abraham Lincoln and not Barack Obama.