Educating our Children to be Better Leaders

Better leadership will be a by-product of the Winding Spring Process of Education. We have so many bad leaders now that America is in a Leadership Crisis. We do have some examples of good leaders: Army Lt. Col. Paul Yingling and Lynn Turner, and they exhibit Confucian leadership principles. Read more in this blog posting: "Paul Yingling, Lynn Turner, and Confucian Leadership"

Robert

Texas Renaissance, Part 2

I mentioned earlier that we should expect a Texas Renaissance. There is power in education. We need to channel that power into our economy, our political discourse, and into our culture.

We must promote the arts, and we can expect the arts to add vibrancy and profit to Texas. The Dallas Morning News ran an article on April 16, 2007, Centralizing Creative Talent by Karen Brooks. This article described a community, Villa Muse, being constructed in Austin for artists: musicians, filmmakers, producers, and gamers.

Supporters of education talk too much about producing skilled workers. We can set our sights higher. Education will create many opportunities. Improved education will revitalize Texas.

Villa Muse, in Austin, is one example of how Texas can promote the arts and business simultaneously.

When we think about the arts or about business, we must remember that education is he key to our future.

Robert

Parental Leadership is Key to Success in Education

I have said in the Timeless Way blog and in the Hispanic Vision blog that fathers must be leaders in the family.

It is important that children know their parents believe in education. Fathers show leadership in the family by being actively involved in their children's education. The No Child Left Behind act of Congress dictates schools provide tutoring for children in academic trouble. Yet many of these children are in academic trouble because they know their parents do not believe in education. A bad attitude in the family towards education will ruin the efforts of tutoring just as that bad attitude put the children in the need for tutoring.

A father who does not lead his children towards success is leading them towards failure.

Robert

Why are we still hundreds of years behind in education?

The Chinese, during the time of Chu Hsi in 1200, were debating "teaching to the test." We are only now having this debate in America. This means we are 800 years behind the Chinese in the theory and practice of education.

When Horace Mann was promoting public education about 1840, he was promoting the Prussian education system. We are only now close to achieving the key elements of what the Germans had 200 years ago. We still do not have a national curriculum and we are still working to get qualified teachers in the classrooms.

How can it be that America is 800 years behind the Chinese and 200 years behind the Germans? Horace Mann could see we needed to emulate the Germans almost 200 years ago, but America did not completely embrace his vision.

If you have ever taught in the classroom, you would have met parents who truly did not care about education. Many parents do not really believe in it. That is a failing in America.

American leaders -- political leaders, leaders in education, and community leaders -- have never managed to get America to truly embrace education. The real reason children fail the TAKS test in Texas is that their parents do not care, and our leaders have not persuaded them to care.

Changing tests will not fix the problem of failing schools, but this is what the Texas state legislature is doing. This is proof that our leaders are still failing to persuade parents.

Will they still be failing a hundred years from now? Will they ever get it right? I do not think they will ever get it right until we the people provide the leadership our politicians cannot provide.

I encourage you to get involved!

Robert

America, Where is Our Plutarch, Our Seneca?

Seneca the Younger was a very wealthy citizen of ancient Rome known as much for his writings in philosophy and drama as his political career. He moved in the highest circles in Rome and manifested the highest achievements of a well educated man in his writings.

Since the days of our founding fathers, where is there an American Seneca? We have plenty of wealthy people. The richest people go the the most famous schools, but where is the evidence of their successful education? Where is there a rich man since our American Revolution who has manifested a great mind by writing anything of value?

Plutarch was a wealthy man in ancient Greece and one of the greatest minds in Western Civilization. Where is our Plutarch? With all the science and wealth at our disposal, why have we never had a rich American with a superior mind? The wealthy have access to our most famous schools, but they amount to nothing.

Is there something wrong with our rich that they are only good at making money? Is there something wrong with Harvard, Yale, and the rest of the Ivy League that the education they provide seems to make no positive impression on the wealthy?

Or is there something wrong with American culture that cannot see any merit beyond wealth?

I say it is time to demand better performance from the wealthy people that run America. They take over our politics with their money and give us shamelessly incompenent leaders, but we do not have to continue going down this road of failure.

We can turn off our TVs during the elections and ignore the political advertisements.

We can demand competence in our leaders.

And most importantly, we can better educate our children so we might yet have a Seneca or a Plutarch in America.

Robert

Texas Renaissance

Texas has made a conscientious effort to improve education, but the tone has been largely negative. There has been too much harping on the negative. We need to set a more positive tone. We need to start imagining the benefits Texas will derive from a better educated population.

I believe Texas can expect a renaissance in business, the arts, and politics.

We need to expect good results from good education, then we must make those good results come true!

Robert

Writing Style

We have all seen "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White, which promoted simple and direct prose. The famous educator, Jacques Barzun, penned a book on writing titled, "Simple and Direct."

A Chinese scholar made the same point long ago. Han Yu, 768 - 824 A.D., recommened this same type of writing style. He called it "guwen", where he recommended simple prose, unencumbered by elaborate style or affectation. "Guwen" translates as "classical prose", referring to the style of the ancient philosophers, like Confucius.

The Chinese have much to contribute to education.

Robert