Kenneth Ellman

October 14, 2014, Kenneth Ellman Comments on The Economist article “ Book Banning and Education Standards. A Black Eye ”, Email:ke@kennethellman.com, Box 18, Newton, New Jersey 07860. Don’t Worry About a Book You Won’t Remember, Worry About Letting Them Learn. Copyright 2014, Kenneth Ellman, All Rights Reserved.
This is a terribly repetitive subject. Not because it is unimportant. On the contrary, education and basic skills taught to our children is one of the most important subjects. I would go further and say that education and skills or lack thereof taught to adults is of the greatest importance. Knowledge empowers to solve problems. We want problems solved. We also want our citizens of all ages to know their legal rights and responsibilities that so many suffered to obtain. We want our children to be educated to participate in the body politic and the scientific and cultural opportunities that surround us. To not be afraid to speak. To be able to learn and advocate about the problems facing our community, science and civilization. There is not room enough here to write about this subject.

Books, that incredible pathway in the distribution of knowledge is at the heart of the civilization we have created. As spoken by Professor Bernard Knox: ““There is a sort of general feeling among radicals that the whole of the Western tradition — and the Greeks are the heart of that tradition — is something that has to be repudiated,” “I feel appalled. God knows what the world would be like if we were all brought up on the stuff they’d like us to read. “

So I see some pay attention to the decisions of a local community to limit access to certain books in the educational facilities of the young. I have never heard of such access restrictions for books on Algebra, Physics, Medicine, History, Astronomy, Engineering, Electronics, Biology, Socratic Dialogs, Law, Supreme Court Decisions, Ken Burns Documentaries, Teaching Company or Math Tutor DVD, LLC videos, Arithmetic, Geometry, Calculus, etc. Nor for Shakespeare, John Milton, Dante, Winston Churchill, Max Learner, Einstein, Newton, Prof. Morris Klein, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, the Bible, Homer, Herodotus, Aeschylus, Thucydides, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plato, Lucretius, Virgil, Livy, Ovid, Tacitus, Marcus Aurelius, Charles Darwin or the tens of thousands of other authors and commentators who left something behind worth reading or learning. You know, the old ones, the adults and parents amongst us are supposed to guide and show the young a way of life. Sometimes I think we are afraid to do that, perhaps because some are afraid to show they believe in anything.

In reality everyone makes choices, each and every day, not just local school boards. Those choices reflect what you want in this world. Those growing up will take your place and make their own choices when you are gone. The problem is not that local public education is administered by and to some extent determined by local communities. Nor is the problem that on a Federal level in the United States, we sometimes have strong encouragement to raise the basic skill standards. I wish we had more of that encouragement and more local interest in education. Nor are we faced with trouble due to a local school board trying to encourage certain education. After all if someone really wants a title they can order it on Amazon.

What I find frequently missing in the discussion is the admission of the obvious need and necessity to competently provide the teaching and learning opportunity of fundamental knowledge and analytical skills, coupled with opportunities of real life experience. And to provide it in safety, for free, without restrictions for the entire population of all ages.

How truly wasteful and destructive that we charge our adult citizens for education or have unsafe schools for our children with limited equipment, opportunity but great danger. Those who choose to go to a classroom and learn or work independently and submit papers for evaluation or submit themselves for testing and evaluation after diligent study, must pay for this?? We want to restrict this? Why do we want their money?? We should desperately want their brains and loyalty!!

Don’t worry about some book that won’t be remembered put aside for sensitivity reasons in a child school. Worry instead about why we have not learned the importance of lifelong free education from fundamental skills to advanced professions, for all our people. We have way more books of value for them to master, then there is time in this world. Give them that chance, free of charge and let them show what the human mind can do. Kenneth Ellman, Email:ke@kennethellman.com, Box 18, Newton, New Jersey 07860.

This Comment can seen at: THE ECONOMIST