EDUCATION
The first big breakthrough for anti-hero doctrine was the idea of value-free education. There is no such thing as value free education! Education is the preservation, refinement and transmission of values from one generation to the next. Let me quote again from educator George Roche:
“Where anti-heroism pretends to be value-free, education is value-laden, and, in the end concerns nothing but our higher nature and moral purpose. Education seeks truth; anti-heroism denies its existence. Education seeks meaning in human life, justice in human affairs, dignity in human aspirations; anti-heroes deny all human purpose save evolutionary survival.”
The only real question regarding education, then, is whose values do we teach? Either hero or anti-hero values will be taught in our schools, and at the present time, anti-hero doctrine is winning. The anti-hero doctrine is egalitarian by nature. Gary Hull Ph.D. defined egalitarian as:
“An egalitarian wants equality, not under law, but in all practical consequences: equality of income, of praise and blame, of rewards and punishments. He derides, as elitist and individualistic, all rankings, evaluations, and competitions.”
Richard Rodzinski, executive director of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition said:
“We must stamp out the concept of ‘better.’ It should always be understood that we’re not saying number one is better than number two.”
Mr. Rodzinski is like many egalitarians who are so worried about kids developing inferiority complexes that they refuse to keep score.
Henry Link, a well known 1930’s and 1940’s self development psychologist, in his book, “The Rediscovery of Man” said:
“A sense of inferiority, we find is not a disease. I have told hundreds of complaining parents: ‘You should be thankful that your child has a sense of inferiority. The children to worry about are those who always think they are smart, who know better than their elders, who see no reason for painful practice or humble effort. The child, however, who feels inferior, can usually be trained to develop abilities which in time will make him truly superior. All genuine superiority grows out of a sense of inferiority. The person, who admits his inferiority and then does something about it, develops superiority.’”
A great modern day example of this is Michael Jordan, who was not only cut from the varsity team as a sophomore, but lost to his older brother Larry in their one-on-one basketball wars in the backyard. Michael said it was losing to his brother consistently that helped him to develop his incredible drive to win.
Schools need to teach that there is a difference between high achievement and lackluster results based upon the effort put forth. If we want our children to improve, then parents, teachers, and coaches should teach them self-discipline. Our children must be taught that the only way to tell if you are improving is to keep score. Gary Hull said:
“The egalitarian’s hatred of excellence has metastasized throughout the culture. In order to level everyone down to the lowest common denominator, egalitarians sacrifice the achiever. Nowhere is this more dramatic – and tragic – than in education. High Schools on both coasts are dispensing with award honoring to seniors. They don’t select ‘the most likely to succeed’ or the ‘most talented.’ These schools no longer offer class ranking, nor do they select a class valedictorian. In today’s age of achievement-hatred, it is okay to spend millions on playground psychopaths. But it is considered morally low to honor a bright student. If you have ever wondered why the number of great artists, intellects, and achievers has dwindled you should blame egalitarianism.”
Our Education system has decided not to recognize the budding heroes; therefore it does not develop the drive in students to become heroes. This must change!
