A One-Room Country School

This evening our President expressed his concern that our Congressional leaders are not really working together for the best interests of the nation. Now that seems really shocking, doesn’t it. For years we have watched, and cringed, when Congress gets together and decides that the nation can pay for another wonderful program—whether or not the program will help the American nation. It makes a person just want to slap someone up the side of the head. But none of that! We can’t expect Congress to learn overnight that they are going to be put on a budget. Yes, you heard it right. CONGRESS on a budget! And term limits! And accountability! And laws that make sense! And no automatic retirement benefits! What job in our society provides retirement after only two or four years!

Now for education, we expect every city to find a decent teacher or two to work with a room of children and teach them to read, to do basic math, and to write comprehensible sentences and essays—just like the old one-room country schools. No child will suffer from lack of knowledge or lack of technological prowess. And each child will be able to walk no more than a block or two for classes. Children in inner city areas will be escorted by two male parents both to and from school. Children promoted by their one-room schools will be allowed the option of home schooling with visiting teachers or attendance in public schools with class sizes determined by subject and the availability of teachers. No class will have more than twenty students at the junior high and high school level.

Employment for any teenager who does not want to continue in school will be mandatory and provided by each city. Jobs will be appropriate to the strength and abilities of each young person. All nursing homes will be staffed by teenagers who will ‘shadow’ a nurse or appropriate care giver. All parks and recreation programs will be staffed by other teenagers. All public programs will staff any available positions with teens who do not continue in higher education. Any business that will hire a teenage helper for two years and train the young person, will be tax exempt for the amount of wages offered to the young person. All parents who prefer to home school their children to avoid having those children go to work in public programs must prove that their children attend some kind of classes or otherwise participate in helping others in the community.

Soon this dream will have to come to an end and I will surely wake up, but it is so good to think that children could actually be educated, that parents would be responsible for their children, and that Congress could make responsible decisions. Imagine personal responsibility as a basis for living in a community. Oh to dream…..