Can We Get Back to a Classical Education Now?

Tired of young adults running around in the streets rioting, looting, murdering, and burning?

You are not alone.

A K-12 curriculum based on the United Nation's Agenda 21, Common Core, and Social Justice has destroyed our educational system. Young minds now believe in the opposite of sanity, which has led to having adults who have no idea which way is up. Chaos has become the norm.

Some say that corruption was by design. Some do not know anything about such insinuations. Nonetheless, Americans can see the results.

It is time for us to have a conversation about what Americans value in public education. Do Americans value social justice, revisionist history, comprehensive sexual education, and activism? Not really. Most of these topics are age inappropriate to childrens' ability to absorb, weigh, and analyze them.

Would you give your kindergartner a bottle of booze, a cartoon of cigarettes, and the keys to your car? How about your eight year old? Or, a ten year old? A twelve year old? Most people would not even give their licensed sixteen year old that combination.

Yet, educators have decided to "adult" children with mature content in their classrooms. Anyone who is thrust into adulthood without an adult mind would be piles of dry timber ready to combust. And boy, are these fire starters on a rampage. That is educators' fault.

Children view adults as authority figures. When these authority figures betray young minds, how would those children know the difference? Most adults cannot; so we cannot ask it of our younglings.

We need a counterbalance to negate the irresponsible education Americans are seeing in our public education system. We need to lay down some common sense and agreed upon tenets for pedagogy:

-Mathematics
-Physical Education, Health
-Science
-Social Science
-Foreign Languages, Culture
-Geography
-History
-Art
-Music, Band, Orchestra, Choir
-English, Literature

With an outline of what curriculum should not present to students:

-morality
-religion
-activism
-social justice
-criticism
-sexuality

Educators have overstepped their bounds and decided to become other people's children's parents, religious advisors, and life coaches. Instead of education, our children were indoctrinated by authoritarians. 

Life is our morality play. Each day with each interaction, we learn what is acceptable in our society and what is not. For most people morality is based on their religious upbringing. That is where parental guidance in such matters is of the upmost importance. 

Social justice and activism have been brought into the classroom. Why? Children are unable to vote. Until eighteen, children are in studying and learning mode, not direct action. Action is what is being modeled by teachers. Students are taken to the side of the road in order to protest. That is irresponsible and out of bounds. Children have no business being taught this behavior or modeling it for adults. Hate is a learned behavior and we have young people who are executing this behavior as programmed drones setting fires. 

Dissection of a subject is an advanced skill. This coursework is usually taught in graduate studies. Critical analysis is for the seasoned student. Yet we have children learning critical theories without the knowledge base to scrutinize and assess such complex topics. This skill is age inappropriate for its intended young audience. 

Comprehensive sexual education is also inappropriate in K-12 education. First, children's bodies are immature and their undeveloped brains are unable to make much sense out of this subject. If a child is too young to go to a PG-13, or rated R movie by themselves, then why are educators pushing NC-17 on them? Some mature knowledge is just that: for mature audiences only. Children do not have context for what is being displayed to them and has become the grounds of pedophilic-type grooming behavior by teachers.

The underlying issue is that we have an educational system geared toward "adulting" children. That in itself is morally and ethically abhorrent. The educational system is not the parent. Teachers are not the parent. The child's mother and father are the parents. It is about time America reconciles this notion and snap back to reality. 

American exceptionalism is not about egotism. This educational path is about knowledge and the application thereof. Americans learn the combustion engine: we build cars and highways. Americans learn the filament: we have lighting in all our houses. Americans learn science: we go to the Moon. That is how knowledge coupled with imagination and integrity works. 

The United Nation's interpretation of education has led American children to become incompetent, ignorant, and incompatible with reality. Arson anyone? 

Americans should be setting the example of what humans can do if we set our minds to it. 

Speaking of which, Americans should demand that our National Curriculum should be based around a Classical Education that gives age appropriate knowledge, real world application, and fosters the imagination. 

Children should learn the classics: Latin, Greek, as well as literature, history, and mathematics. These items are missing in education in order to promote over-emotionalism. Empathy has to be balanced with knowledge and ability or the emotive qualities of altruism becomes magnified and distorted as we are seeing today. 

Our individual skills, abilities, talents, and accomplishments should be highlighted and encouraged over group work and group think. A classical education that is reminiscent of Socrates and other great philosophers and educators would propel American ingenuity forward by leaps and bounds. 

So now the question becomes: who wanted to stifle American exceptionalism? 

And parents should ask: why did our educators follow this downward spiral without question? How have the standards plummeted math and reading scores? Just where should the blame be placed? 

Then how can America clean up our academic standards to promote American exceptionalism and eliminate American nihilism from our educational system? 

"You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant" -Harlan Ellison

The answer: getting America's educational system back to the classics and leave the indoctrination to authoritarian regimes where free thought is frowned upon.  

Because learning from the greats should be fearless.

 

Ogham, Ancient Celtic Language, and Roben Hode

Ah, research. 

Writing is about reading, investigation, and fact finding expeditions. The internet has given writers a one stop shop to look up history, science, and even science fiction. When writing a historical character, a write needs as much in depth knowledge of that era as possible. 

In the case of Hode, Roben is a modern version of the mythical persona. So the legend is more of a set of guidelines than rules. However, supporting characters like Marian can have ties to the past as much or more than a modern retelling's protagonist. Marian in the first novel states she has family ties to the old Celtic ways of magick as a priestess. These characters usually have tattoos or brands, one of which Roben notices on Marian. 

So what does a writer do for the second novel? Well she researches the Ogham. Ogham is a series of lines that equate to the phonetic alphabet. We write in English which is denoted in Latin characters to convey our message. Lines like Runes and the Ogham did the same thing when reading and writing was less necessary or available to the public. 

But I like taking the concept to the next level. I not only translated my character's information to Ogham, I looked up the Ancient Celtic word for the item I wanted translated.

So in modern vernacular, Blood is fuil in Gaelic. Fuil is this set of marks in the Ogham: 

Will this be of use in the next novel, I hope so. Research takes hours and sometimes days/weeks to complete on something as simple as an ancient word and its non-Latin transliteration. 

Luckily research into the past can be done online instead of in a room full of musty, dusty tomes. 

 What research have you conducted to create depth in your character's backstory or plot point?

Sources: 

Ogham translator

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Latin to Live By

I like learning things. Anything, really. 

So I was looking up how to say something in Latin... here we go. I clicked on a link to MIT. There, I got to learn Latin phrases, some funny.

So let's read what we can use in public: 

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat.
It's not the heat, it's the humidity.
Di! Ecce hora! Uxor mea me necabit!
God, look at the time! My wife will kill me!
Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?
Is that a scroll in your toga, or are you just happy to see me?
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
The designated hitter rule has got to go.
Sentio aliquos togatos contra me conspirare.
I think some people in togas are plotting against me.
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
If Caesar were alive, you'd be chained to an oar.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

 and more...

Sona si Latine loqueris.
Honk if you speak Latin.
Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes
If you can read this you're over-educated
Sentio aliquos togatos contra me conspirare.
I think some people in togas are plotting against me.
Vidi Vici Veni
I saw, I conquered, I came
Vacca foeda
Stupid cow
Mihi ignosce. Cum homine de cane debeo congredi.
Excuse me. I've got to see a man about a dog.
Raptus regaliter
Royally screwed
Si hoc signum legere potes, operis boni in rebus Latinus alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes!
If you can read this sign, you can get a good job in the fast-paced, high-paying world of Latin!
Gramen artificiosum odi.
I hate Astroturf.
Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione.
I'm not interested in your dopey religious cult.
Noli me vocare, ego te vocabo.
Don't call me, I'll call you.
Nullo metro compositum est.
It doesn't rhyme.
Non curo. Si metrum non habet, non est poema.
I don't care. If it doesn't rhyme, it isn't a poem.
Fac ut gaudeam.
Make my day.
Braccae illae virides cum subucula rosea et tunica Caledonia-quam elenganter concinnatur!
Those green pants go so well with that pink shirt and the plaid jacket!
Visne saltare? Viam Latam Fungosam scio.
Do you want to dance? I know the Funky Broadway.
Re vera, potas bene.
Say, you sure are drinking a lot.
Utinam barbari spatium proprium tuum invadant!
May barbarians invade your personal space!
Utinam coniurati te in foro interficiant!
May conspirators assassinate you in the mall!
Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant!
May faulty logic undermine your entire philosophy!
Radix lecti
Couch potato
Quo signo nata es?
What's your sign?
O! Plus! Perge! Aio! Hui! Hem!
Oh! More! Go on! Yes! Ooh! Ummm!
Mellita, domi adsum.
Honey, I'm home.
Tam exanimis quam tunica nehru fio.
I am as dead as the nehru jacket.
Ventis secundis, tene cursum.
Go with the flow.
Totum dependeat.
Let it all hang out.
Te precor dulcissime supplex!
Pretty please with a cherry on top!
Magister Mundi sum!
I am the Master of the Universe!
Fac me cocleario vomere!
Gag me with a spoon!
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.
Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?
Is that a scroll in your toga, or are you just happy to see me?
Prehende uxorem meam, sis!
Take my wife, please!
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Nihil est--in vita priore ego imperator Romanus fui.
That's nothing--in a previous life I was a Roman Emperor.
Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!
Stand aside plebians! I am on imperial business.
Vescere bracis meis.
Eat my shorts.
Sic faciunt omnes.
Everyone is doing it.
Fac ut vivas.
Get a life.
Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!
Let's all wear mood rings!
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.

And that is our funny Latin lesson for this adventure. The universe only knows what I will find next on the internet and bring here to entertain and educate.

Have a great and wonderful day!

Source: MIT