Kindergarten: Behind Chain Link in Diapers

I didn't go to kindergarten as a child. It wasn't offered. I don't think I've suffered for the lack of it, and I regard it as just another step by government to get children away from their parents as early, and for as much of the day as possible.

One of the reasons I think this is that some statist "educators" are pushing to start kindergarten even earlier, at the age of four or even three. They've also begun "free" breakfast and lunch programs at some districts so that the kids come earlier in the morning and don't leave to go home for lunch.

Parents can do what they want, as far as handing over their children to strangers to raise and indoctrinate, my only issue, other than a general sense of wonderment as to why they went to all the trouble of having kids if they don't want them, is that they're gleefully forcing me and other dissenters to pay for it.

A couple who are dear friends of mine send their kids to a government children's prison, then spend untold hours trying to undo the damage caused by the (large amount of) pro-government propaganda when they come home. Commendable. They say that the government school their kids attend is of very high quality and has an excellent academic standing.

Let's consider this.

Government "education" is so all-encompassing that it effectively eliminates any attempts at innovation. Even if a private school or a religious school sets its own curricula, it has to follow government approved methods, restrictions and even lesson plans. No one can legally attempt any serious innovation in education without running afoul of government regulations.

So, how can we possibly say that even the best schools are really anywhere near as good as they could be? The top-drawer institutions in the country are held to standards enforced by the ultra-mediocre members of teachers' unions and government drones. How can any critic possibly consider any school high quality if the best that exists is mediocrity?

We've all heard the stories of super successful individuals, a large number of whom dropped out of school early to improve their education. Or, as it's more often phrased, school is too boring. I hate to hold myself up as an example; I doubt that anything I've done or will do is going to change the world for better or worse, but I emerged from high school with no knowledge of mathematics beyond being none-too-adept at the four functions. After my hitch in the Navy, I took a private course in which I learned math through basic algebra, analytic geometry and trigonometry, including principles of surveying, in a little over a year, studying on evenings and weekends.

Standards in education have been slipping downward for decades. I recall looking at some of my dad's high school homework. It scared the crap out of me. My son went to high school in the early 1980's. After a teacher-caused hard disappointment in the prep program, he got disgusted and floated through in the general ed program, which seemed like an eighth- or ninth-grade education by the standards of the high school I attended.

I really hope that parents will withdraw their sanction from government children's prisons, "keep their kids off-book," and teach them at home. Today's computers being what they are, parents can find everything they need to educate kids to college level and beyond--and perhaps learn a little themselves in the bargain!

Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A Better Children's Prison?

This blog article is worth a read. While I still think that education should be separated from the state by a titanium wall thirty feet thick, and while I think regimentation and enforced conformity is a huge mistake, these children's prisons seem to be getting results.

Wolf Howling: An Educational Revolution In California?

You can learn, or you can leave.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Waste

I always feel a little twinge when I hear that some young mind, 'pon taking his BA degree, announces that he's going on to law school. Of course, any intellectual endeavor isn't a bad thing--learning is always useful--but.....law school?

Law is a growth industry, which is why so many students choose the discipline. Legislators (mostly lawyers) continually create more laws, assuring plenty of work for practicing attorneys. It must look very good to the grad, seeing hundreds of thousands of lawyers, in nearly every area of American life, all becoming wealthy helping resolve disputes among men.

I won't begin by saying that the law profession is a negative factor in American society, even though in many ways it is, but I will say that the law profession is largely wasted time.

There are far too many laws. Attorneys create laws for everything. Then, they create laws to fill loopholes in laws. They create laws that contradict other laws. They create laws that cover the same ill (real or imagined) using different verbiage.

They do it largely to make work--hence to make more money as many more hours are needed to sort, separate and identify which law applies to a situation while the opposing attorney finds laws that contradict the case of his opponent.

Wasted time: not wasted time for the attorney, of course--it's cash in the till, but wasted time for the litigants who, in a healthier place and time, might simply discuss the matter, come to an agreement and shake hands to do business together on another occasion.

Why is the idea of doing real work; discovering and applying knowledge gleaned through research, inventing and building useful things, going to new places to explore to find phenomena never before known, and other constructive endeavors gone so completely out of fashion? Why do only a relative few study engineering, physics, medicine--in short, areas of study that will actually lead to something beneficial?

Government has regulated these disciplines to the degree that many of those who might take these studies are apprehensive about the conditions under which they'd have to work. The possibilities presented by the study of law must appear very attractive to the student who sees the uncertainty that exists in the future of, say, medicine.

Don't murder, don't steal and don't lie. These three laws are all that's needed. An unequivocal affirmation of each man's right to his life and property and his right to use and disposal as he sees fit.

Then, and only then will there be freedom for each to be a creative individual to the extent of his ability and potential.

Not many attorneys are needed for that.

From each according to his ability to each according to his ability.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

We Don't Get No Education.....

I' ve had numerous conversations over the years with parents about the perils of sending your kids to the government children's prisons--my term for government schools, and a more accurate term than those used by the government or the media.

Some tell me that the academics at their kids' school are better than the ones we hear about all the time. Maybe so. Maybe not. Maybe the parents are actively involved, helping the kids learn their school work and even going above and beyond.

What only a relative few parents realize is that, since the federal government has ignored the US Constitution and gotten involved with education, all schools are standardized to a very high degree, in many respects. Even the much touted exceptions--the magnet schools.

Magnet schools started well after my kids graduated, but I'm given to understand that they actually are superior academically to "ordinary" schools--the ones that are inflicted 'pon the poor kids. The ones in which seem to tolerate muggings, rapes, shooting, gangs, knifings and all manner of mayhem except learning.

All these government children's prisons, though, have one thing in common: they are propaganda mills. Well, two things--they're also indoctrination centers. Run largely by leftists, they continually bombard the kids with statist propaganda and indoctrinate them in every sort of leftist cause imaginable, from global warming to fear of weapons and self defense to government can do no wrong and many, many more.

The real reason government school fascists hate home schoolers is that parents won't inject the students with the "proper" indoctrinations and keep them physically restrained in those little desk-chair combos where the only actions that are not forbidden are shut up and listen.

Any child who shows any spunk, of course, is declared ADHD and doped up. We can't allow any initiative or enthusiasm to disrupt the rest of the child-zombies, can we?

Schools try to take moral and philosophical education away from the parents and in many cases, seem to be trying to separate kids from their families and demonize parents who aren't toeing the "proper" leftist line.

All of this is bad enough, but it gets worse. They do this stuff during time when they should be teaching academic subjects. Hence, academics suffer. Kids graduate school unable to read well, unable to perform simply math and with no concept of the history of the country and the world.

But, it's ok. Your kid did well on the standardized tests. They're fine.

No, they're not.

Government has made up standardized tests--nothing new, it began decades ago--that are supposed to tell a number of things, including whether the student will perform well in college and how well he's learned what the primary and high school purports to have taught.

It actually tells how good the student is at rote memorization, and not much more.

At no time does the government children's prison system attempt to teach students effective uses of their rationality. Nor does it attempt to teach critical thinking. The history they offer is stunted and distorted. Economics, if offered at all, assumes the need for government intervention and the market's inability to regulate itself.

Government children's prisons teach sex education, something better left to the child's parents--or even to the child himself. The philosophy of sexual (never romantic) relationships, shifts like the desert winds from various degrees of abstention to "here's how; have fun!"

My son's high school had day care, fer cryin' out loud! For students with children!

Government children's prisons have generally eliminated the practical tech classes, such as wood, metal and auto shops, home economics, music and art classes (not to be confused with the nonsense pottery-making and basket-weaving baloney sometimes offered.

And then, there are the various and sundry "Zero Tolerance" rules for various, mostly politically correct actions. Zero Tolerance is more accurately termed "Zero Intelligence" on the part of school officials. They don't want to, or are unable to consider whether a given action is dangerous, or even worthy of note, or not.

Zero T for drugs includes bringing aspirin from home for a possible headache, or a cold pill to minimize coughs, sensitivity or congestion, or sometimes even prescription meds, unless you get approval from the jack-booted school nurse.

Zero T also forbids students from bringing anything more pointed than the digits 'pon their sticky little hands. Not to allow a boy to carry a jackknife in his pocket is part of the emasculation process, as well as a denial of American heritage. No self-respecting lad in the 1960's or earlier would be caught without a jackknife. Yet, somehow, we avoided killing ourselves or each other.

There are Zero T rules for speech, action, and even thought. A school in Connecticut recently announced a Zero T Policy against any form of touching of one student by another. Teachers can't touch students, although strangely, in some LA schools, students hitting teachers goes unpunished.

Face it: government children's prisons are child abuse.

The 10-year-old will learn more practical knowledge on a three-day camping trip with his parents--or a few days at work with a parent, or a few days working in and around the house--than in a full semester in a government children's prison.

Kids go to school with a great deal of enthusiasm, at first. They want to learn. It usually takes only three or four years for the children's prisons to beat that out of them.

Government children's prisons are hazardous to your child's mental health. Keep your kids out of them!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A Legend of a Different Sort

My dad, who passed away a few years ago, and whom I think about often, was a lifelong railroad man. I've already chronicled a couple of my railroad adventures and will undoubtedly write about more of them in the future. Railroads played a big part in my youth.

When I was, I suppose twelve or thirteen years old, I discovered magazines. I was selling the Grand Forks Herald in the streets of downtown Grand Forks and East Grand Forks and making decent money for a twelve-year old. Fifty or so cents a day could keep an adult alive in those days, if he didn't mind living in a camp down by the river.

At times, after I'd sold my papers, I'd walk down to the train station, to a very well-stocked newsstand across the street. I liked to peruse Hot Rod and Rod & Custom magazines, take a look at Argosy and some of the other men's adventure magazines. Mechanix Illustrated was one of my favorites. I still remember Tom McCahill's road tests of the various new cars, in which there was his signature photo of himself, a big man, or his (large) dog Boji, lying in the open trunk of the car he was reviewing to indicate the adequacy of the storage space. Of course, the technology fan that I am today has its roots in these magazines, as well as Popular Science and others.

There were the science fiction monthlies, the horror magazines (whose names fade into obscurity), the crime magazines and, of course, the girlie mags.

Kids my age weren't supposed to wander to the far end of the magazine racks. The little "over 21" sign was supposed to keep kids away from the fledgling Playboy and the many others at the end of the racks.

I didn't let it stop me. The clerks were usually busy helping customers, working on stock or just reading a magazine. Some probably just didn't care. Occasionally, I'd step a couple of feet beyond the limits and leaf through this girlie magazine or that. The curiosity of a twelve-year-old boy is a very real.

Scantily-dressed women will always attract the looks of young boys and men. From the girls with torn dresses, shrinking in horror from the long, curved fangs of a bug-eyed monster on the cover of a sci-fi pulp to the women in red or black lingerie posed in the girlie magazines, to the now almost forgotten nudist camp magazines, only one name survives to this day.

Bettie Page.

Her photos have appeared in several issues of Playboy magazine, including a feature as Playmate of the Month in the January, 1955 issue, and had hundreds of photos published in various men's magazines in those few years. Photos in and out of then very risque lingerie and in poses suggesting both kinky sex and pure feminine beauty.

Bettie Page, at this writing, is still alive, but just. She was being treated for pneumonia, was about to be released when she suffered a sudden heart attack that's left her in critical condition in an LA hospital. This according to a DenverPost.com story, here.

Bettie is 85 now, and has lived in relative obscurity for decades, until granting some interviews in recent years.

I, of course, wish Bettie a full recovery.

But, I've outgrown all that stuff now. Like hell, I have!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Addendum: Ms Page passed away yesterday, December 11. Rest easy, Bettie. You'll be remembered for a long, long time.

Nation of the Flies

I often wonder what the world will be like a century from now, or even twenty years along. I'm observing that the government children's prison system and the media are seem to be doing everything they can imagine to keep children from full adulthood--by de-emphasizing the need for personal responsibility and critical thinking, and many other activities to which man (in Dirty Lab lingo, man is an abbreviation of human, which is a species of critter that has a female sex--woman--and a male sex--man--and is inclusive) must attend if he's to even begin to fulfill his potential. One can only conclude that the individuals who operate these institutions want to see mankind stunted and mentally/psychologically crippled to remain a sort of world of children throughout their lives.

Another trait these elitists are trying to destroy is that of defiance. As I've mentioned in the past, the only reason for this is that the elitists want a subdued, compliant populace to follow quietly along the elitists' path toward a new feudalism. Most of us are already in the mindset of serfdom already, after decades of conditioning and propagandizing. We can see it wherever we go.

Since the children's prisons seem to be teaching mainly compliance and subservience. Any teaching of that which is necessary for children to become adults must come from the parents. In addition, it has to be hoped that there's some spark of individualism left with the parents, they already having been bathed in humanity-robbing propaganda during their own school years. One bit of evidence that young people are failing to reach adulthood is the relatively common phenomenon of adult children living in their parents' homes well into legal adulthood--presumably with their teddy bears.

The failings of many of today's parents include the inability or lack of desire to:

• Teach their children the work ethic.
• Teach critical thinking.
• Teach time management.
• Be parents.
• Teach children to dress properly.
• Teach children common courtesy.
• Teach them to defend themselves.
  

Many parents fail to allow their children to learn for themselves by:

• Never allowing them to be alone.
• Never letting them set their own goals.
• Never letting them achieve their goals on their own.
• Never letting them achieve self reliance.
• Never letting them have adventures.

Or even:

• Letting them walk to the places they go.
• Letting them go to a public rest room by themselves.
  
• Letting them go to summer camp without their cell phones.
• Letting them find work, earn money and spend it as they will, on their own.

I became a streetcorner newsie when I was ten. It was wonderful, having my own money.

Years ago, I had a job in which I hired kids. I'm not sure if that could still happen today. I tried to instill in them responsibility and pride in a job well done. I tried to teach them to make change properly--something the children's prison hadn't done. We didn't have cash registers with pictures on the keys in gas stations back then.

They'll have kids of their own by now. I hope a little of what I tried to teach stuck.

The road to serfdom is all downhill.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Got Pennies?

On one hand, it was a prank. Students in Readington Middle Children's Prison were upset over the shortness of their lunch period. To give voice to their plight, several students thought of a very clever way to dramatize the problem. They paid for their lunch with pennies. According to EdgefieldDaily.com:

"Got pennies!" It's plastered on their shirts and these eighth graders wear it proudly because on Thursday they pulled a prank at the Readington Middle School, paying for their lunches entirely in pennies. "At first it started out as a joke, then everyone else started saying we're protesting against like how short our lunch is," student Alyssa Concannon said. In fact, the penny prank has earned 29 students two days of detention. "There was no rule in the rulebook about it," student Sarah Henschel said. "It was just unfair. It's U.S. currency."

The New York City news station WCBS-TV expounds a bit more about the sordid tale here.

I've always been a supporter of peaceful student protest, and am very impressed by the inherent cleverness of this one. Were I the principal of the school, I'd have to find a way to reward the young minds behind this stunt. "50 points for Griffindor!"

The event that seems to have caused the punishments was basically the laziness and lack of wit in the persons of the cafeteria workers. The complaint was that the counting of the pennies caused some students to miss lunch, because of the slowness of the lunch line--the lunch counter workers had to count the pennies(!).

The lowly penny has indeed been getting a bad rap in recent years. The US mint even devalued the penny by starting to make them from copper-washed zinc instead of a real copper alloy, back in 1980. How many of us actually pay for our cash purchases to the penny, these days? Every day we empty our trouser pockets to find between ten and thirty pennies along with the other change. What to do with them? Put 'em in a jar.

Eventually, the jar gets full. Then what? The bank doesn't want them. Laziness seems to hit bank tellers, as well. I used to actually roll up my accumulated change and take it to the bank periodically. They no longer accept it, or will charge a 7 or 8 percent fee to accept it. More often, bank tellers direct you to a change machine, into which you can dump your coins and get a cash voucher, minus a 7 to 8 percent fee, which can then be deposited (after waiting in the interminable bank line yet again).

In my youth, a penny would buy a piece of Bazooka, or a bit of sugary liquid in a wax "Coke" bottle. Today, people simply throw them away. A handful of pennies won't buy anything. One has to wonder why they're still made.

Back to the point. Pennies are still around and theoretically still have value. They're still legal tender. Since the New Jersey children's prison accepts cash to pay for lunch at the cafeteria, one has to wonder on what grounds the staff imposed punishment for the use of pennies. No one disputes the students' assertion that there are no rules prohibiting pennies. If not, then what?

It's a fine method the New Jersey Children's Prison system has for teaching youngsters: making up the rules as they go along. Very typical of the same kind of idiots that impose "zero tolerance" programs to prohibit things that prison staffs find might cause them to actually have to (shudder) think!

Returning to all fours.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Hey, Rube!

Just the other day, I started getting Turner Classic Movies Channel on my cable. I really like old movies, and with AMC moving toward newer movies and other programming, I wasn't getting my fix. I've wanted the station for a long time, and finally called the evil cable company to get it (there are easily twenty-five channels I'd give up for that one--hands down).

The other night, I watched an old romantic comedy, Road Show (1941, Hal Roach) a kind of obscure movie about a rich playboy who, afraid of marring a gold digger, has an attack of catatonia. He wakes up in a loonie bin.

Unable to talk his way out, he soon runs into a resourceful manic with whom he escapes to a down and out travelling carnival. They work at the carnival while our hero and the young blonde carnival owner fall in love. It was a nice, if light and predictable movie.

What all this leads to is the recollection conjured up by this movie, of a traveling carnival that came to my town, many, many years ago.

I grew up on North Dakota. While we were all aware of tv, and wished we had one, there was not yet a broadcasting station close enough to send a signal we could receive. Thus, there were no tv's in our town.

Dad was a telegraph operator for the Great Northern Railroad. He was still paying his dues at the time, so we moved from one town to another from time to time. I went to second and third grade in a little farm town called Larimore, North Dakota.

We kids were pretty free, in those days, to run around and get into any trouble we could. One summer day, I was walking on a street near the edge of town, I noticed some unusually frantic activity. There were several trucks being unloaded by more than a dozen men, and a few women. Huge stakes were being pounded into the ground, in an orderly manner.

Interested, I moved closer to watch.

It soon became apparent that they were erecting a huge, colorful tent. There was also a row of booths going up alongside and much other activity, the nature if which I didn't understand. Turned out, it was the midway, through which you had to pass to get to the big top. There would be attractions, such as games of chance and sideshows along the midway.

A short, chubby man saw me and waved me over.

"Kid, I'm Oscar." I told him my name. "This is a carnival. You want some free tickets to the show?" "Sure." He took me over to a big tank in the back of a truck. "Here's a bucket, here's a dipper. Fill the bucket with water from this faucet and carry it around to the men, so they can get a drink." "Ok." "Don't get too close to the work, and watch the hammers."

I carried the bucket from one work area to another and let the men drink, refilling it as it emptied. The men were kind of rough, but friendly, as were the women. I worked for two or three hours, all the while watching the big tent go up. When the tent was finally up, Oscar stopped me and said that was good enough. The workers were going to break for dinner.

Oscar handed me a handful of tickets. "Give these to all your friends, and one for yourself. They're for the show tomorrow night at seven. And here's a dollar for your work."

Now, at the time a dollar was a lot of money. I left there a happy kid.

I now know that the tickets were a ploy to get us to bring our parents, who would have to buy tickets, and that was ok with me. It was a good show (though not nearly to Barnum & Bailey standards, as I later learned), with a trapeze act, horses, a couple of elephants and a lion act. There were clowns and acrobats, etc.

My friends and I had a great time. I think I spent the whole dollar there in the midway.

The carnival was called "Little Oscar's" and I've never heard of it since. I've seen the big circuses several times but, even though they were bigger and slicker, none has been quite as exciting as Little Oscar's.

That time.....is past.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Addenda:

After thinking about my memories of this incident, I spent a little time pondering. I haven't thought about it in a really long time until the viewing of this film brought it back.

Freedom. This was a time when you could travel freely about and ply your trade without needing permits, licenses and permissions. Presumably, the principals of the carnival paid taxes and chatted with the local police in each town, but I suspect that the only permission they needed was from the owner of the field 'pon which they planned to set up.

The roustabouts probably came and left as they pleased, hooking up with a carnival as they needed money. Because this casual kind of work is no longer available, many of these are among those we currently call "the homeless." Carnival owners probably picked their schedule strictly according to where they thought they could make money--subject to a sort of coordination with their competitors.

These carnivals could never exist, given the nature of local government corruption and intervention--not to mention the evil and unConstitutional Homeland Security thugs.

Thoughts on my personal danger: In the 1950's midwest, harming children was unheard of. It was for New York and other big cities. My recollection of detail is sketchy, but I recall some of the men were pretty rough and rowdy. It was, though, broad daylight in the middle of a wide open field.

Today, parents would shudder over such a thing.

This is one of many recollections that make me think I grew up in the best possible time in history.

The Declaration of Independence

Today is Independence Day. We celebrate Independence on July Fourth, as the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the thirteen American Colonies.

The fight for independence from the British Crown was initiated by a resolution presented by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. He presented a resolution proposing a Declaration of Independence on June 7th, 1776. The resolution follows:

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.

That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

The Declaration of Independence was actually adopted by the Continental Congress on July 2nd, 1776. The final text of the Declaration, as written (primarily) by Thomas Jefferson, was adopted on July 4, and off we went.

The interesting thing about the full text of The Declaration is that it details a large number of grievances against atrocities committed by the British Crown against the Colonies. What makes it even more interesting is the fact that every one of these atrocities has been perpetrated against the people of the United States of America by the various layers of our own government.

It's a sort of backward tribute to America's children's prison system that the vast majority of the public has been dumbed down to the extent that they not only aren't aware of government's disregard for their rights, but are utterly apathetic about that disregard. In fact, a significant minority of Americans aren't even aware of their loss of freedom and the way their rights are being trampled by an out-of-control government.

I've though for many years that we're due for a second Declaration of Independence--a declaration that today's several layers of government have rendered Americans slaves to a system whose oppressiveness is only diminished by its ponderous incompetence. Unfortunately, a general apathy on the part of television-mesmerized America leaves me in the role of Lone Revolutionary.

All I'd really like to see is that those in government who fail to uphold their Oath of Office--you know, the one in which the appointee/electee promises to uphold the Constitution of the United States--are removed from office for failing to do so, and are replaced by individuals who will.

I'd also like to see any government employee, convicted of lying during the performance of his duties, face a mandatory public execution for his crime.

These are some of the things I think about while pondering the meaning of Independence Day each year. I'm at once thankful for the bravery and uncompromising desire for liberty of the individuals involved in attaining independence from the British Empire, and angry that we've let it largely slip away.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Elizabeth Caldwell! Paging Miss Caldwell!

Diving way, way back into ancient memory files, I occasionally recall a girl for whom I felt a degree of juvenile fondness. I've stumbled across many of my childhood friends, in recent years, thanks largely to Algore's Internet, but Miss Caldwell still manages to elude my efforts.

It was she who was the seventh-grade science fair whiz about whom I wrote here.

I was in the same class with her in 5th and 6th grades at West School in Grand Forks. I was just beginning to realize that girls were just possibly worthy of our attention. In junior High, both of us attended Valley, and I had a few "dates" with her. The dates consisted of my visiting at her home in the presence of at least one of her parents. Since I was a very naive young lad, and utterly ignorant of the ways of the world, I found this quite satisfying.

Elizabeth had dark, nearly black hair and very light skin. I though she was beautiful and, in my mind's eye, I still think so.

We had a date or two in high school and had a couple of classes together, but her path was toward the university and an academic life; mine was more technologically bent. She did science projects and played the French horn and I made mischief and worked on my car. And drove it.

Elizabeth graduated early, at the Senior mid-term, I graduated at the end of the Senior year. Two weeks after graduation, I joined the Navy, and completely lost track of her and all my other hometown friends--except those few who also joined the Navy.

On occasion, I've asked some of my friends what happened to others. I've located many of them. All I've learned about Elizabeth is that she went to University of North Dakota, and later I heard that she was a French language professor at Valparaiso. Since I don't know of her marital status, I don't know her surname.

Other than idle curiosity, I'd like to learn more about her because she was the individual, among all my friends and classmates, who seemed like she'd go the farthest.

Or, maybe she's just shrugged.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Child Prodigy or Child Abuse?

I think the conversation started with regard to Donald Trump and the Miss USA Pageant, and the controversy surrounding Tara Conner's recent antics. The point was made that Miss USA is simply a beauty contest. I suggested that it could be termed a high-priced wet t-shirt contest, for which I was pelted painfully with peanut M&M's.

Then someone observed that in the Miss America Pageant, the contestants compete on the basis of their ability to entertain, as well as their beauty and poise, and their desire to help achieve peace on earth.

Somehow, the conversation turned to the late JonBenet Ramsey. Someone repeated the oft-mentioned opinion that poor JonBenet was being victimized (before her untimely death, of course) by her parents for training her so rigorously for these pageants, from such a young age. What kind of childhood could she have? Or could she have had, but for her tragic murder?

We used JonBenet as the example because her case happens to have been running through the news in the past couple of months, and we spoke of her in a manner of projection, as if she had not been murdered, and were still following the plan set for her by her mother--a past contestant and pageant afficionada.

JonBenet would have faced a childhood of dance training, tutoring in poise in front of audiences, as well as child pageants. She would graduate to cheerleading and teen pageants, and go on to the adult pageants, if all had gone according to her parents' plans. One has to guess that JonBenet found all this enjoyable as well, since she appeared to be enjoying herself and appeared to be applying herself.

Where she would've gone from there as she reached adulthood, would've been up to her.

Most media people who've spoken to this issue and this case, all the way back to the time of JonBenet's tragic murder when her story rose to prominence nationally, have spoken from an assumption that hers was to be a tragic life of all work and no play. The tone seemed to be (without anyone having actually said so) that her death was a merciful release from a projected unfulfilling life.

Some of my friends seemed to lean in that direction. I emphatically disagree.

No one can see the future, but we can make projections based on the lives of others and on the lives of those in analagous life paths.

Wayne Gretzky started skating at the age of two. He drilled and trained and played hard throughout his childhood. He played youth hockey on local teams with boys years older than himself. He went on to Canadian Major Junior hockey and finally, into professional hockey at the age of seventeen.

Gretzky had a full career as a professional hockey player, is considered one of the game's premier stars of all time, and continues his career as an owner of the Phoenix Coyotes National Hockey League club.

Two of his brothers also had professional hockey careers. Brent, the youngest, still plays in an east coast minor league team.

I cited the Gretzky family because of my knowledge of their careers, but I might also have cited any of a host of olympic athletes--gymnasts, figure skaters, skiers, etc, not to mention musicians many others.

It's almost always true that the best at any endeavor is the individual who began learning it in his childhood, who loves it and continues to refine his skill throughout his life. The parents' job in this area is to teach the child the need for goals and how to select them, then to help the child select goals, guide and help motivate the child toward what appears to be his early goals, and see that he has the tutoring, coaching, equipment and encouragement to allow him to achieve these goals to the best of his ability.

In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I have to assume that this was what the Ramseys were doing with JonBenet, prior to her death. Admittedly, I didn't follow the story closely at the time, and there might be details I missed in the news coverage, but my opinion stands: when a child shows promise and aptitude in any reasonable endeavor, one ought, as a parent, to give all possible aid and encouragement.

Teach your children well.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Tomorrow's Engineers, Today

When I first arrived in wonderful California in 1965, as a mere lad, I was stunned by all that seemed possible here. There were clean, pleasant cities with wonderfully bizarre-looking buildings and wide, well-maintained streets and freeways, good-paying jobs and the widest variety of types of terrain/scenery one could imagine. There were beaches, mountains, deserts, rivers and lakes, all close enough for a weekend outing, at most.

Cities were similar, yet different, and all jammed together so that it was hard to tell exactly what city I was in at any given moment, while driving. There was also air I could sink my teeth into--that would sometimes burn my eyes and catch in my throat.

A price worth paying, I thought at the time.

I found a job quickly: there were many jobs available. After the first year, I'd left the first job for a higher paying one. Finally, after a little over a year, I got the job I'd been after: a surveyor-apprentice with what was then known as the California Division of Highways. I was involved in building freeways!

One thing I've remembered for all these years: every one of my employment interviewers commented that I had an incredible advantage, having gotten my schooling outside of California. Even back then!

The photo with this entry comes from The Orange County Register, September 1, 2006. It leads a story about California's government children's prisons. The headline: "More Schools Meet Federal Goals," and is a mostly self-congratulatory story apparently written, or at least coached, by a member of the state's Dept of Education, about the improved scores "achieved" by Orange County's children's prisons. Seems they've generally improved a bit over last year.

Pardon me while I hawk up an expression of doubt.

Since the mid-seventies, I've had the opportunity on numerous occasions to interview prospective employees and make hiring decisions regarding these individuals. Though I have no formal schooling in personnel matters, I think I'm a better than middling judge of character. I'm generally happy with the decisions I've made. The one common thread I was able to observe, though, was that high school graduates seem incredibly under-educated to me. On the other hand, the two college grads I had a hand in hiring seemed far better. They were graduate geologists that worked in my lab for a couple of years, then moved on to jobs that made better use of their education and talents.

The high school grads I dealt with, while intelligent lads all (or I wouldn't have hired them), seemed to be deficient in the knowledge of stuff that ought to be taught them in school.

Which brings me back to this newspaper article. The photo shows a quite atrocious construct that looks to me to be a kindergartener's work. I guess it's supposed to be a bridge. In the photo, it's falling over under a load. Good thing the photo's caption tells me this, or I'd never have guessed.

These are sixth graders!!

When I was in seventh grade, lo! these many years ago, we had a science fair at Valley Junior High School in Grand Forks, North Dakota. No science maven, I, so I had no entry in the science fair. A girl for whom I felt fondness at the time was, however, so I attended the science fair.

The recollection that has relevance here, is the fact that one of the thirteen-year-old exhibitors at the Valley Jr science fair built a bridge out of popsickle sticks, string and Elmer's glue that not only looked like a real bridge, but was able to support the weight of the HO-scale cars, trucks and miniature people figurines which he placed 'pon the bridge.

Today's kids aren't stupid--I know some of them. But, they're being horribly shortchanged by the children's prison administrators and teachers.

And here, in spite of the criminally poor job they're doing, they have the gall to congratulate themselves on having improved minutely over the period of a year. They ought to be ashamed!

Why aren't these sixth-graders reading Aristotle? America's Founding Documents? Ayn Rand?

Why aren't they working in algebra? Geometry? Trig?

Why can't they diagram sentences? Why, for cryin' out loud, can't they, any of them, spell?

Why can't they make change? Write a check? Balance a checkbook?

I fear for the Republic.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Teach Them Spanish And Teach Them In Spanish

M.E.Ch.A. is an organization, mostly of college students, I guess, in the Southwest. Although a number of individuals who were members of the group in college retain their membership as they meander along their career path.

One such member is Cruz Bustamante who, after a career in California politics, is the current Lt Governor of California. A leftist Democrat. Another is Antonio Vinaigrette, El Alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles.

'Tis of El Alcalde I wish to write today.

El Alcalde is now lobbying the Governor's office to make hin Czar of the behemoth Los Angeles Unified School District. Having been trounced soundly by LAUSD officials and the evil California Teachers' Assoc, he has retreated to a position of desiring an advisory role over the district, its budgets and operations.

I don't know if el alcalde will actually change anything, but I'm pretty sure he'll try to inject more diversity programming into the classrooms. He'll find a way to increase the amount of M.E.Ch.A. doctrine into the programs of those Los Angeles schools in heavily Latin areas, and increase tolerance for it in the others. He'll be a force to lessen the ability of Latins to fit into the American economy. He'll be a force to lessen the amount of classroom time devoted to academic studies in favor of ethnic studies.

It's hard for me to make suggestions as to how to improve government childrens' prisons, since I really don't think they can be improved much, and I don't think that's the way to go. Parents should do whatever's necessary to get their kids out of these prisons and into a program of real education. Individuals need to find a way to get out from under the yoke of the confiscatory taxation that finances these wasteful and harmful organizations--and that will be a much more difficult task, but with great financial rewards and rewards in additional personal freedom.

The best thing that can happen to Antonio Vinaigrette, el Alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles is that he should be rendered El Alcalde de Nada.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Rights of Passage

It looks like I was right all along. According to the California Department of Education, the only requirement on California youngsters to achieve a high school diploma is the fact of attaining the age of eighteen years, and have their butts in the seats a certain number of times a year for twelve long, endless, boring years.

After some parties actually interested in seeing California kids get something resembling an education, pushed for the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Examination), and it was finally adopted, there was an expectation (among some) that California kids might actually finally begin to benefit from government schools.

The first crack in the dike appeared when high school teachers left off (to some extent) teaching the curriculum and started coaching for the Exit Exam.

Now, what I've heard termed a fifth grade-level exam, is just too tough for many poor and disadvantaged students. A lawsuit has been filed, and one of California's many utterly unqualified judges has indicated he plans to place an injunction against the test based on "equal protection" concerns.

I've written many times that I regard government-operated schools little more than children's prisons (observe the architecture of newer school campi), designed to warehouse children to keep them off the streets, and to indoctrinate them in political correctness and compliance with social(ist) norms far more than to actually teach them to reason, to be creative, to learn the 3 r's, to have an historical perspective and a real appreciation of the arts.

In short, government schools are child abuse.

The CAHSEE is irrelevant. If a youngster wants to learn, he'll learn. Try and stop him! Actually, it seems that the California Department of Education is trying to stop him! With all the time and opportunity available in school, most kids should exit in twelve years with an education well beyond that we normally expect of a Bachelor's degree. Today's schools actually do more to inhibit learning than they do to facilitate it.

Fast food outlets have for years now replaced the digits on cash registers with pictures of the food items! Who has time to figure out those incredibly difficult Arabic hyroglyphics, anyway? Many high school grads are unable to make change or to balance a checkbook.

Aside from accelerated and college prep curricula (which are a little better), most kids are kept down to the level of the slowest in any given class.

Many teachers are unqualified to teach the assigned subject. One youngster about whom I have personal knowledge was "taught" algebra by a football coach. When he found the subject difficult, and started asking questions, the "teacher" got angry, told him to study the book, do his homework and the problem would clarify itself. The boy dropped, went into a basic math class, and slid out of the college prep curriculum. The lad did graduate high school as scheduled, has yet (after several years) to take on the challenges of "higher education."

As it turns out, were he in high school today, he would have to do nothing to get a diploma but show up each day.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

No Child Left Alone

I'm a man nearing retirement age, though still healthy and enjoying my career, I could quit if I wanted. Some could call me a dirty old man, but they'd be wrong. I wash occasionally.

As a more than mature guy, I often take a walk around the neighborhood; a walk somewhere between a stroll and a power walk, to augment my sporadic exercise program. It was during one of these walks that the following event occurred.

She was a cute little girl, about six or seven. She was playing in the front yard (planter) with a toy shovel and bucket. Pretending to garden like her mother, I suppose. As I walked along the sidewalk, she looked up at me. I said, "hi!" and smiled.

The little girl dropped her toys and ran screaming around to the rear of the house. "Mmmmommmmy!!!" I shrugged and continued walking without further event.

Later, I thought about the incident. How sad that a friendly greeting from a stranger, just passing by, should frighten this child so.

I guess I can't make light of the fact that parents are worried about child abductions, sexual abuse and/or murders. It happens, and parents need to care for their kids. It saddens me though, that this has to mean that children are made to be closed and fearful of all people they don't know.

Years ago, when I was ice skating, I'd often be approached by children--sometimes small children who wanted me to teach them how to do certain skating moves. I know, I'm not that great a skater, but I look pretty good to those who can't skate well, e.g. kids. So, I often worked with them a little.

I don't do that any more. I don't think I'd like having the jack-booted thugs show up and start questioning me about why I, a grown man, am playing with little kids. I have, on a couple of occasions, taught little kids to skate backwards or do hockey stops, etc, but only if one of their parents are there and I've spoken to him/her.

It's sad. I like kids.

There's something rotten in the world, and I think I'm just beginning to figure out what it is. There's way too much government and religious forgiveness of individual failings that injure others. People are very often not held accountable for their transgressions. They may be fined, even jailed, but the punishment doesn't directly connect to the crime. Criminals need to pay the victim back entirely to help them understand the magnitude of what they did. In short, there's a problem connecting actions to consequences.

In addition, parents have to teach their children to deal with danger. Themselves. The sooner the better.

Many views of the future include hardship and strife. Some include life-and-death situations on a daily basis. The governments of the world, including ours, are pursuing a path that must include some kind of forced direction change, possibly soon. Social Security faces a serious crisis, quite possibly in my lifetime. Foreign military adventures, which seem like they'll intensify rather than diminish, will drain our productivity and impoverish all of us. The welfare state penalizes productivity and rewards sloth. Government controls over individuals and business approach and sometimes surpass Soviet levels prior to the fall of the USSR.

It's scary.

Parents have to teach their kids to be able to defend themselves, in every way possible. Kids need street smarts and they have to be able to recognize evil and react to it. They need to learn to recognize danger and evaluate it and react with an appropriately measured response. They have to be able to tell friends from foes, sometimes in an instant.

They can't just go running to mommy.

They've killed Freedom! Those Bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Pounding Them Into a Single Mold

The evil and corrupt Barbara Kerr, Fuhrer of the California Teachers Assosiation (CTA) has hit the news again today, this time stumping against Props 74, 75 and 76. These are three of the new referenda put together by Guber Terminator in what he mistakenly hopes will actually make California schools better.

Prop 74 purports to make it harder for substandard teachers to get tenure. It'll make it easier to dismiss a poor teacher. (S)he can be let go after two successive unsatisfactory evaluations. Of course, that means the kids have to suffer under a bad teacher for two years. Do we hear the huzzahs?

Prop 75 requires that union members specifically allow unions to use their dues for left wing political purposes. I don't think it lessens the extortion payments if you don't allow it.

Prop 76 seems to limit increases to government schools by the state. It's more than I care about to try to figure out how. I still haven't been able to figure out why local schools need any involvement by state, or for that matter, federal government. Government schools once were wholly operated by the locality. They were better then.

Ms Kerr has been sliming the Guber's office since Ahnold was elected. One of her favorite tag lines claims that teachers help students to be able to succeed "....And no child succeeds alone." I can see it all now. No child can "succeed" (undefined) without government schools, and she plans to keep it that way.

Except that it's even harder to succeed under the handicap of a government "education," as opposed to the kinds of alternative kinds of schooling advocated by many. Among those is simple home schooling, provided by loving parents. Another is the Montessori method.

How about we take government out of the equation and leave parents with their rightful power and responsibility to care for their children, to make decisions as to the methods of rearing and education (and paying the costs of these things) of such children as they decide to have.

Incentives would be for teachers to improve their knowledge and skills rather than to vegetate in dead end government jobs. Parents would be empowered to to bring their kids up according to their own principles.

Barbara Kerr would have to go looking for a real job, and I won't have to listen to her polluting the airwaves any more.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California