Editorial

We know it’s hard to believe. The summer that began with so much promise is quickly ebbing away. The official end of the season is a mere four weeks away, but already things are starting to transition from summer mode into more normal patterns. The biggest manifestation of that transition is the return of the city’s more than 6,000 school children to classes, beginning Monday.

For those children, it has to be a jolting bit of reality that what seems like only a few weeks ago was the beginning of summer vacation. In short order, the summer is fading and the return to class means ten months of study, tests and extra-curricular activities. Indeed, it was a short summer – or at least seemed to be. Before we know it, the leaves will be turning various shades of color and then falling to the ground as we get into colder weather.

To those students, we offer our hope that the new school year will be one of self-growth, intellectual curiosity and personal satisfaction. There is no substitute for the study and hard work needed to master a given educational discipline. Whether it is mathematics, or grammar, language learning or art class, one can only excel when one has the awareness there are no free passes. One does not get on in life very successfully by choosing to take an easy or uncommitted path.

While we discuss this, we cannot but help to worry about what our children, not only in West Haven, but elsewhere. The last 50 years in education have been ones of upheaval, social experimentation and downright horrible pedagogy.

In many subjects, particularly history and English writing and grammar, politics has taken the place of good, solid subject matter. We see it all around us with the iconoclasm that has hit the nation in the last two weeks. A brutal and unrealistic view of history has superimposed the political fads of today onto the events of the past.

The nation suffered through a civil war more than 150 years ago, and the underlying problem was one of slavery. Getting rid of slavery was a long and arduous road. The Founding Fathers, some of them, were desirous of forming a new nation and their instincts were to rid the nation of slavery. However, reality – the reality that besets most historical moments and events – meant they had to worry about forming the nation first, and attempt to change the attitudes on slavery later.

We must remember slavery was an institution pervasive in all cultures, and the trade of slaves had many constituencies, not only Europeans, but African tribes and Muslim war lords. We seem to have forgotten that.

We must also remember it was a white, Christian society that began to alter the attitude concerning slavery, not only in Protestant lands, but in Catholic ones, also. Our own Constitution forbade the slave trade after a certain date, and counted three-fifths of slaves not only to preclude slave states from having more political power, but also to allow non-slave states to pressure future events leading to the demise of the institution.

It took the blood of more than 600,000 to rid the nation of slavery, but to try to pigeonhole everyone as a modern-day racist and then rid their influence in history by some Cultural Revolution is wrong-headed. Wrong as they might have been, many were honorable men and women, who were products of their time. Context is everything in life and in history.

Meanwhile, in the realm of letters, we see the educational elites trying to highlight ideas over clarity. As we have said in this space on numerous occasions, grammar begets clarity. Knowing how to write and write well is important, using proper syntax and usage. It is not “racist” to demand that students learn how to speak and write properly. The real world is not going to allow bad speech and bad grammar. To allow this in the classroom is bigotry itself, saying youngsters of a certain racial or ethnic mix cannot master proper English.

We worry for our students as they enter the classroom next week. The adults in many corners have gone mad, and many of the lunatics are leading the educational establishment.