Tyler graduated from high school this Thursday past – and I’m kinda glad for him (and for me –as I no longer have to pay child support for the lad) – but as we all know – an American H.S. diploma doesn’t say much about anything, and, Tyler’s high school career was a bit checkered anyway (what with continuation schooling and such).
When the old headmaster of Grey High School, Stanley Edkins, asked me what I thought the difference between an American education and the one I received at Grey H.S. was – I suggested that at Grey, we were taught “What” to think very efficiently, and in the U.S., I was taught “How” to think. Now 35-years removed from that moment-in-time, I have to completely flip-flop the aforementioned statement.
With American schools in abject decay – and most public educational institutions still putting out the cookie cutter Ugly American, I find that most every S. African I have met is able to conduct an intelligent conversation (not the rugger buggers, mind you) causing me to re-formulate those earlier sentiments with regards to the differences between my twin educations. The one constant I have experienced between S. African and American cultures is that any woman who is married to Jesus – is-a-pain-in-the-ass – no matter on which side of the Atlantic she resides.
Let’s shift gears for a moment…
I was taught to believe that communism was an effront to humanity – but I gotta tell ya, I just saw a power point of “The Bridges of China” – and they are most impressive. With a-billion-and-a-half people to service — China can’t tolerate a whole lotta liberal thinking. So…every Chinese schoolchild has to accomplish the set curriculum in very set fashion. And somehow, this very controlled educational environment produces very creative people (at least their resplendent bridges would suggest this [holding the West’s debt must also entail some sort of creativity as well]).
Let’s face it: the American High School Diploma is only useful for wiping one’s ass; and, the same can be said for the average bachelor’s degree. In liberal thinking universities – acquiring knowledge can become rather interesting in the graduate programs, but it is exceedingly rare to find an American who can think outside of a jingoistic box.
There are, however, exceptions to this aforementioned contention. I met a White, American, soccer Mom who began hanging out with African Americans before it became fashionable. She vividly recalled being spat at by White Folk as she sat with her African American, er, African Canadian friend. She relayed this story to me after I told her that just about every White South African I’ve talked to here in the U.S. agrees with me that the White-on-Black racism they witnessed here in the U.S. was far worse than anything they experienced in apartheid S. Africa. Hell! I just showed my juvenile court school class (African and Mexican Americans) the Disney film “Remember the Titans” – and they were quite stunned by Disney’s rendering of “racism in America.”
Let’s not forget the genesis of American public education, either – which was to warehouse wayward White Boys who had strayed too far from the farm: now the system is being asked to service anyone and everyone – small wonder that it is now little more than some assembly line producing illiterate Americans willing to stomach whatever the powers-that-be suggest they should.
I can no longer pledge allegiance…