"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way."

Thank you Mrs.Thornton, wherever you are. In eighth grade you assigned Fahrenheit 451 and changed my life.

The little line that serves as the title of this piece was used by Ray Bradbury to introduce this book, written by him in a college typing lab. I thought of it today while in a Facebook conversation about snacks sent to an elementary school.

One mother expressed exasperation because she made homemade snacks for some school function, only to find out that the school required all snacks to be storebought. Another parent said they made brownies, found out the same thing, and brought them anyway. The first parent said she was tempted to do the same, but was afraid that her daughter might learn that it was OK to break the rules.

That bothered me a little. Our country's entire history has been shaped by people breaking the rules. Some saw it as unfair to pay taxes when not represented in government. Others rebelled against Jim Crow laws and the earlier Fugitive Slave Acts. Tomorrow we may need a rebellion against confiscatory taxation, gun confiscations, or some other example of authority abused. One of our shining moments earned us the condemnation of the world; we deliberately ignored Hitler's instructions to all Olympic teams in Berlin in 1936. Our athletes refused to perform a Nazi style salute or dip our flag to the swastika. Hermann Goering told his furher "Americans dip their flag to nobody."

Perhaps elementary school snacks is a battle worth fighting, perhaps it is not. I strongly disagree with teaching children that rules ought always be followed. Sometimes you have to think about the rules, about who made them, where they come from, and why they are there. You may come up with the idea that the rules are unjust or foolish. At that point you must decide what, if anything, you have to do about them. What you should not teach, unless you are in the military, is that rules must always be blindly obeyed without question or thought.

Why Your Children Should Take the Day Off From School Tomorrow

Originally we were not going to run a column today. Events have directed otherwise.

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You saw it here last week and have heard about it on the news ever since. Obama will be speaking to children in class tomorrow, Tuesday, September 8th. Not only will he give a speech, children will have to rate the three best words in it, discuss how he "inspires" them, and write letters about how they will "help the president." The message itself is benign, but the assignments ram home the idea that the president is an objective truth giving authority, not a politician whose methods are always to be questioned. Obama fest in many areas will be cheered on by enthusiastic members of the teacher's union. At the very least this is creepy. At the worst it is quasi-facsist.

John F. Kennedy appropriately asked Americans to "ask not what your country should do for you, but ask what you should do for your country." He had his own cult of personality, but he did emphasize devotion to the United States that he fought for in World War II. Our children tomorrow are asked to express emotion for Barack Obama.

This is reminiscent of the oaths German officers were asked to take directly to Hitler. It also reminds me of the scene in Blazing Saddles where the gang of bad guys are asked to "pledge allegiance to Hedy Lamaar . . . that's HEDLEY!" Obama politically is more like Hedley Lamaar than Hitler, but it is still creepy. Organizations across the country are trying to organize a boycott by conservative and libertarian families.

Even worse, it has become clear that the US Department of Education wrote directly to school principals, bypassing elected boards and supervisors. As a response, many boards of education across the country have declared that since the activity lies outside the curriculum, they will not permit its showing in classrooms. It shows an attempt to get past the checks and balances established by a democratic people to establish an agenda in a manner usually followed by authoritarian regimes.

This is dangerous. No other president in American history has tried to fuse himself with the idea of the nation. Obama's speech combined with the activities suggested by the Department of Education does this. Some parents say that their children are smart enough to question and fight brainwashing. That's a good thing. However, left wingers will see even simple attendance as evidence that the people accept this unprecedented behavior. And we will see more of it until this scourge of freedom is gone.

That is why children should either not attend school at all next Tuesday, or they should be signed out by 11:30 to make sure that the statistics prove America does not accept indoctrination.

School Calendar Debate

To me the school calendar debate is somewhat overblown. Many have established an arbitrary number of 180 days as the gold standard. The weather and any other issues be darned, if students do not have the opportunity to endure 180 days of school, they have been somehow undeserved.

While debate has raged over the quantity of days spent in school, little discussion centers around the quality. Over consolidation and overcrowded classrooms affect the educational experience far more adversely than whether or not a school system has operated 180 days.

Let's be honest. Many days on the school calendar see both teachers and students less than motivated by the learning experience. Thirteen years of personal attendance, four years as a substitute, and sixteen combined years spent by my children in school tells me that any days spent during Thanksgiving week, any days during a week shortened by Christmas, and every day in June is nearly pointless. These are opportunities to show The Princess Bride or the movie about the Red Rider BB gun shooting a kid's eye out again.

It's not that I am complaining about these diversions for school kids, but we are fooling ourselves if we think that each one of those 180 days will be chock full of instructional time. And should they be? College students pack the same amount of learning into many fewer days.

It's time to debate the sizes of schools and classrooms, not the number of days. Shrink the size of schools and classes overall and you will achieve better results in 150 days of class time than you are now.

Big Schools Bad for Students

Ironically I maybe one of the youngest people in West Virginia to go to a one room school house. It was only for kinder garden and shortly after the county closed the school for a modern open class room design that went K trough 8. What I do remember most is everybody knew everybody else, and that is a great learning environment.

Now statistics support my kinder garden experience. Nearly every study ever done says small schools breed better students. Across the state you will usually find the highest average test scores in small schools. When a student is not a number, they have a better learning experience.

The state and county have to achieve a balance between the money they have for schools and the needs of the students. Unfortunately the money has been winning out for years. We have gotten large nondescript buildings that end up being more a place to warehouse kids that to provide them a good learning experience. As we try to compete in the modern global market place we must provide a better place to learn.

We know the solution to provide a better education. That answer is small schools where the students have more one on one interaction with their teachers. Learning problems and special abilities can be identified early. This allows special attention to be given when needed.

The excuse for building large schools has been economies of scale, but we must look beyond that. In many cases increase maintenance may lower cost by keeping our older schools in good shape longer. When it comes to educating our next generation our money should go into best education experience, not the most cost effective building.