My why.
As a man of faith, I believe every experience I’ve had good, bad or indifferent has ultimately proven valuable to me at some point in my life. After more than 20 years of network marketing, it finally dawned on me that being a good talker does not equate with being an effective salesman. I was around long enough to understand the mechanics of selling, did many trainings on the subject, yet when it came time to actually sell something, it was more miss than hit, so I started wondering where I could take my skills to earn a consistent paycheck and, as they say, those who cannot do, TEACH! As “luck” would have it, an opportunity to obtain a teaching certificate became very convenient. A school out of Lakewood called Georgian Court University opened up a satellite office in Woodbridge, where I live, and I applied. Nine months, a $23,000 loan and 32 education credits later and I’m a teacher!
Over my 14 years as a Math, Science, Special Ed teacher, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly in the education system. I’ve seen federal programs like No Child Left Behind moving kids through the system un- or undereducated to keep high school graduation rates high enough not to be considered failing by the feds. I’ve seen Bill Gates’ trillion-dollar common core standards which looked good on paper to a computer geek, yet failed to move the needle. And I have witnessed the indoctrination, fearmongering, social-emotional manipulations from climate change hysteria to gender change dysphoria foisted on students and parents and an anti-racism initiative which seeks and often succeeds in dividing and judging students by skin color. After decades of coddling and “esteem” building, I have seen bad behavior spike and the soft bias of low expectations produce an epidemic of learned helplessness and poor work habits. I saw the arbitrariness and politically driven Covid response and lockdowns including masking the little ones and pushing the vaccines on a population of kids whose mortality rates were infinitesimal. It was and is a travesty. Enough is enough!
In the summer of ’21, on a Zoom Calls of political allies, I met a guest speaker by the name of Dr. Elana Fishbein and liked what she had to share. I joined No Left Turn in Education the next day. While the title is catchy, I will not assume it is self-explanatory. We simply want politics out of the schools. There is a politic that directs these interventions and intrusions into local rule – it’s called Marxism. Marx instructed his followers to be ruthlessly critical of any of the structures they seek to dismantle – not seek reform, not retain what works, but to gut. Well, education has been hollowed out for decades now and rather than raise well-adjusted citizens engaged in the pursuit of happiness, government schools are raising grievance warriors in the pursuit of a special kind of justice called social justice. Equity, not equality is the buzzword of this brand of “justice”. I‘ll sum it up with a quote by the Russian political dissident, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. “Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, then they are not equal and if they are equal, then they are not free.”
Every student should enjoy equal opportunities to be educated in a manner consistent with their needs and desires, but outcomes, like capacities will vary! That’s why we need more trade schools, different pathways to success. If we can’t change the direction, the downward spiral the government schools are on, we must cultivate and demand alternatives. Charter Schools with a track record of better outcomes, Virtual Schools, many of which are faith-based, Learning pods and Homeschooling may make viable options for a significant number of early-adopting parents and, over time will come greater acceptance and a freer market in educational options will be birthed. It is said that it only takes 100 hours to transmit any subject to a willing recipient. It isn’t as complicated as the bureaucrats will have you believe!
Beyond turning the culture wars into a peaceful exchange of ideas where all sides are willing to set aside their differences and celebrate their humanity, what do I hope to accomplish in this lifetime?
· To be fully expressed,
· To win hearts and minds, and,
· To hear, “well done my good and faithful servant!”
Paul Lund, Jr.
NJ Chapter Director,
No Left Turn in Education
732.221.6700
https://www.facebook.com/groups/noleftturnnj/