I am once again taken aback by Gary Horton’s ambivalence about our country’s history (commentary, May 6). It is becoming apparent that the longer you are involved in academia, the greater your ability to distort history and politics and current events.
Being entrenched in public education, it seems Mr. Horton feels that public education must be the best solution for our children. He goes to Finland for solutions for “one of his Americas.” That would be: 1) A largely homogenous society with minimal ethnic immigration that does not assimilate; 2) A majority of two-parent families where a minority of children are born out of wedlock; 3) Maybe most important: parent participation in the education process.
Santa Clarita is an isolated oasis of success in public education. We are surrounded by public school systems that are failing their students miserably. It is no wonder that families will take second jobs and make huge sacrifices in order to provide their children a better educational experience. My three children attended public schools in the Santa Clarita Valley a few decades ago. Even then, there was a clear distinction between kids whose parents were invested in the education of their kids, and others who were not involved or cared. My kids wanted to take honors classes. Not for the harder work, but to avoid being in classes with kids who learned, “If my parents don’t care, why should I?”
Education is available to all who work for it. Wisdom is given to those who desire to seek it. Those who are content to just show up and get passed on — they got what the public schools consider as “good as they can provide.”
Mr. Horton decries the necessity of “non-public” schools as creating an upper class of society. But isn’t it more accurate to say that our public schools are churning out a much larger under-class?
When I was a young man, a college degree was a sign of an educated person with the knowledge and ability to handle greater responsibility and challenges that professional life would demand. In my lifetime, the inclusion of everyone into higher education has lowered the outcome so that “everyone is stupid enough to get a degree.” Today, those individuals who are entering the “trades” — which were looked on with disdain by those with degrees — are more successful, have little debt, and live much more rewarding lives than the underclass herds being processed by academia.
Mr. Horton, ZIP codes do not matter in regards to educational success. Look at our Supreme Court — how many of those justices, both conservative and leftist, came from privileged ZIP codes? How many overcame significant obstacles? Finland is a beautiful, remarkable country. But if you think that Finland should be one of our Americas, I am afraid that your education may have failed you.
Jim Scott
Santa Clarita
