The Children Are Our Future

34 Replies to “The Children Are Our Future”

1. The video serves as further confirmation that we at war with Islam, and that the war will get bloodier as time goes on. When you have a situation in which these young girls are willing to act as mouthpieces and cheerleaders for the scum that oppress them, the task ahead of the West is only going to get more difficult.
   I have come to the conclusion that the real axis of evil in this world is not Iraq, or Afghanistan, or even Iran, but Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan is a good place to start, since these were the only targets at the time for which a consensus could be built. But no one should be under any illusion that the war will end in those places.

2. How can these two hostile worlds separated by our notional pane of glass coexist? What happens when they collide?
   I’ll bite. Either the west is able to contain this horror away from our borders, accepting as a given intermittent terrorist activity that doesn’t merit all out war, as we are doing now, until time and attrition makes them less lethal to us – OR – in an act of further insanity, the Islamists do something so craven and unthinkable that the west annihilates large areas of the ME.
   The ball is in their court. There really isn’t much the west can do until they burn themselves out or blow themselves up which is not to say Iraq is a waste of our time.
   Plato posed the timeless question: who teaches the children and what are the stories that we tell them? He has never been more relevant.

3. TELL THAT TO THE BLOODY LIBERALS, NDP AND THE INCONSEQUENTIAL BLOC HEADS.
   We have to wake up and realize what is going on in this Country, in our House of Parliament.
   The Opposition parties are flaming idiots, playing a dangerous game by siding with the Taliban terrorists over our own Military.
   WE SHOULD ALL BE WORRIED, WORRIED SICK. THIS IS ONE SICKENING TIME IN OUR HISTORY.
   WE HAVE TO HAVE AND ELECTION TO GIVE US CHOICE.
   IT’S TERRORIST SUPPORTERS OR CONSERVATIVES WITH A LEADER WITH A BRAIN.

4. Dennis; Read “Target America” by Yossef Bodanski.
   The real threat has been Iran since the Shaw was kicked out in 1979. They first began training and exporting terrorist armies/spies/agents in the early 1980’s. The west was too pre-occupied with nut jobs like Carter and Trudeau in charge to notice, in spite of the Beruit bombings and hostage taking, what was going on.
   There seems to be a parallel Jihad of at least 2 groups; the Shiite and Sunni, one headed up by Iran and the other Iraq. The Saudi’s support another group, the Whabbies who seem intent on using the “riot in their bazaar” method.
   Please forgive the bad spelling.
   If I’m wrong on any of this please feel to correct me; I’m going by memory which isn’t always the best

5. I would say that when the two collide, the nation that wants it more will prevail regardless of firepower.What use is our modern and capable arms if we don’t have the will to use them to defend our way of life?

6. Re the N.B. teacher. The latest from N.B. is that the pupils are all on his side and want him back. They even roughed up the offending pupil. This is an embarrassment for my Province. Check out the latest…
   http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/743180.html

7. I expect the Left to continue to do its damndest to facilitate the growth of Islamofacism, here and abroad, until it’s too late (I don’t expect them to wise up to the danger that looks them in the face, even when it literally IS looking them in the face).
   I therefore expect hostilities to break out between Left and Right when they are already underway between Islamofacist and Kaffir.
   It’ll be a mess. Hope I’m gone by then.

8. These two worlds, the fundamentalist Islamic and the modern civic industrial world, cannot co-exist.
   Indeed, the fundamentalist Islamic world cannot function, except by repressive force, within any large modern population. Islamism can only operate in a 7th century era.
   The reasons are basic societal structural dynamics.
   First, a population in the multimillions cannot exist within a peasant agriculturalism – and fundamentalist Islam, or ‘pure Islam’ is only operative in a peasant, non-industrial economy, with a medium sized population.
   A large population must be industrial – and industrialism requires free thought, independence of thought, innovation, science. Islamism rejects all of this.
   Notice the serious problems in Pakistan – over 50% of the population are illiterate. That means the rejection of, the inability to think independently, to develop knowledge, to become informed. Consider the infant mortality rates, which are about 68 per 1,000 live births; that’s extremely high.
   Consider that Musharref suspended the constitution in 1999.
   So- what you have is a society with a population that has no, or only a limited, middle class (that low literacy rate). The fact that the majority of the population are not able to participate in the economy in a progressive way – leads to fascism, which is a utopian idealism based on a faith in one’s ‘essential power’ that will, in the future, remake one’s world so that you do have a good life, and power.
   The fact that Pakistan is exploding within itself, with this violence is a GOOD sign. I mean that. This conflict – the rejection of the dev’t of a strong and robust middle class and the resultant movement towards an evangelistic fundamentalism (Islamic fascism) must be confronted WITHIN the host country. That’s what’s important – the conflict must be expressed WITHIN the host country, and dealt with by that host country.
   What the ME has done, was to export this conflict to the West, and the violence was expressed in the West, rather than in the host country. Now, in the ME, in Iraq, it is being expressed in the Host country.
   And, we have just heard the news about Saudi Arabia – where the conflict is being expressed within Saudi Arabia. Rather than the SA flying planes into New York towers. Good – it must be expressed within the host country and dealt with by them.
   BUT – dealing with them can’t be simply repression and flinging them into jail. These host countries have to develop, nurture and empower a robust middle class.
   Pakistan isn’t doing this – not with that literacy rate. SA isn’t doing this; it relies on a huge number of foreign engineers to run its oil wells. And, it relies on a repressive Sharia court. But it has a higher literacy rate (about 78%). So, I’d say that they are both problem areas, but Pakistan is a far more serious problem.

9. Re the teacher in NB who was disciplined after sending a student to the principal for not standing during “O Canada”:
   This is a little too close for comfort, as I’m constantly directing students to take their hands out of their pockets, stop leaning on their desks, take their hats off, STOP TALKING, sing the words, etc. when the national anthem is being played in the classrooms I teach in.
   ‘So little respect on the part of SO MANY students these days. We need civics classes like they have in the U.S.
   ‘Typical for the wimps in admin. to discipline the teacher for doing the right thing. Soon no one’s going to want to teach except rogues and ruffians, because when you do the right thing you’re more than likely to be told you’re being too rough on the students. ‘Wouldn’t want to offend the delicate feelings of the students and the entitled sensibilities of their worse parents, would we?
   No good deed goes unpunished.

10. Just read a clip from Danny Williams on the CBC news. I think Danny Williams has the same “foot and mouth” disease as Rosie O’Donell. Being a former Newfoundlander, I feel sorry for my relatives who still live there to have to put up with such “tantrums” from their “Leader”. They have far more now than they had when I lived there.

11. I read Peggy Noonan’s article via Drudge earlier today.
    She is articulating a problem I have mulled over for some time.
    One of the things about the problem she defines is that, like so many today, it can’t be neatly laid at the feet of the right or left.
    Like urban sprawl and illegal immigration, one can find profiteers at both ends of the political spectrum. In fact, sometimes I suspect that a good deal of free enterprise in the toxic areas really is just cynical opportunism that postures as a political position when it is to the financial advantage of the operator.
    I’m way past the age for this to matter, but I was struck by the realization that my feeling is that unless you are very well-placed financially, physically, emotionally, and socially, you’re not doing a kid any favor by bringing them into this world.

12. Not one Arab Muslim country has manufacturing, services or advanced technology businesses that export anything of significance to the world market. Turkey has similar problems.
    Compare that with China, India–and non-Arab Muslim states such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia.
    Those who conquered by the sword, and never learned how to earn a living while part of the ruling group, need to, er, adjust their Weltanschauung.
    Unless they finally succeed in conquering us. This happened just over 300 years ago.
    http://www.amazon.com/Siege-Vienna-Great-Between-Crescent/dp/1933648147
    Mark
    Ottawa

13. opening stages of the next big war . . . happening in front of those who have eyes to see.
    The Appeasers are having their say for now. Just like the the 1930’s.
    China is massively increasing their military budget. Russia is coming out of their loss-of-empire doldrums and have truckloads of energy money to re-arm. Iran is a complete frik’n land ‘o nutters who will shortly have nukes – they already have the rockets to reach the euros, Israel, the Paks & teh Indians.
    Africa is a 100% scary total mess. The Arab world is a screwy, fetid swamp with way too much money and wihabi lust for power.
    yup . . . its coming and we better be ready.
    At least we’ll have few modern tanks thnx to our new government.

14. batb, right on.
    The Charter culture in this country has equalized all the partners in education. Students=parents=teachers. The only problem is: a critical mass of students and their parents are hopelessly irresponsible. Most teachers are, in fact, responsible and are working harder than ever–with fewer returns– under harsh conditions that worsen by the minute.
    Most educational administrators have never seen a problem they care to acknowledge, much less solve. Therefore, they usually turn a blind eye to the problem, expecting teachers, with ever diminishing arsenals–they’re supposed to be “nice” all the time–to take care of it themselves. (During my career, I’ve suggested to a few administrators that duct tape and a gang plank with bungee cords could probably solve the worst problems in my class. Wouldn’t it be nice . . . 🙂
    This teacher’s “mistake” was to actually involve the principal who prefers not to be bothered, despite the fact that he/she probably makes over $100 000/year. Or, the teacher may have expressed some unpleasant or challenging words to this, no doubt, provocative repeat offender, who then said his/her feelings were hurt. That’s a real no-no. (Not what the offender did: what the teacher did!)
    Invariably, this student has no fear of going to the office or any respect for the administrative toadies, who tend to believe his every lie (as the teacher is second guessed and cross examined), while treating the delinquent–and his bullying parents–with kid gloves and the teacher with jackboots.
    Who’s definitely in the hot seat and the bureaucratic crosshairs? The teacher, while attempting to uphold the words and clear meaning of the Behaviour Code. (In this day and age of none to soft consequences for offenders and harsh ones for teachers, most Behaviour Codes aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.)
    It’s that bad. All day. Every day. Somewhere in most public schools. Here. In Canada. I’m not making this up.
    P.S. There are a few exceptions to this. However, as both the culture and the hoodlums we’re bringing up become more barbaric, the exceptions are very few and very far between.

15. I notice that the appeasement of the worst offenders by the educational establishment at the expense of its most valuable resource, the teacher, is a microcosm of the sell-out of the West by the Left, who are willing to grovel before a barbaric enemy who wants to see us in subjugation.
    What fools!
    Not a pretty picture, is it?

16. Pakistan has extended its borders to Canada. I work with a number of Pakistanis – all technically gifted and very nice people. In fact there are many Pakistanis in Canada working in advanced trades. All it takes is for some to export their expertise to the wrong people. All it takes is for Canada to let in their far worse co-religionists, the ones that would drag them down and then the rest of us.
    A large number of the “Toronto 17” live within a short bicycle ride from my house. Pakistan ain’t that far away.

17. Here below is the language of Don Martin of the Canadian MSM.
    This is vitriolic, despicable, hate-mongering by Martin; an incitement to violence: “neck severances”, “capital punishment”, “served on a platter”. These are more than metaphors. This is a call for the murder of the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister.
    This is the nadir/lowest point reached yet in the left-liberal propaganda war against the Conservative Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, and Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor.
    This is Muslim Islamist terrorist hatred spewing from Martin and the MSM.
    This is the image which arises: Islam’s crescent sword; the sword of beheading.
    This is an incitement to physical violence by Martin and his MSM bosses.
    Martin and his MSM bosses must be held/brought to account for this vile, evil tirade.
    …-
    O’Connor’s Head May Yet Be Served On Platter
    Federal opposition parties have sought half a dozen ministerial neck severances since the Conservatives formed the government 16 months ago, but the loudest and longest capital punishment campaign has been the several-times-daily demand for Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor’s resignation. (via national newswatch)

18. been around the block, lookout:
    For your I-complained-about-having-no-shoes-until I-met-a-man-who-had-no-feet-file, I presume you’ve heard about that delightful story in Amsterdam wherein a class of 9-10 years olds, mostly Muslims, totally trashed a classroom because of a discussion about pigs as part of a nature course. The nature course has been cancelled, naturally!

19. maz, what do you expect from Don Martin? He’s part of the parliamentry press gallery who are all pisssed off because Harper won’t grovel for them, and because the public doesn’t give a shittt that Harper ignores them.
    They’re also pisssed off that members of their own group go running to the Prime Miinister’s side like obediant little puppies when he calls them individually. (HA! So much for the big boycott, hmm?)
    Also, Martin is a complete, passed-out-in-the-gutter-pisssing-his-pants-puke-smelling DRUNK.
    How do I know? Up until a while ago I used to read his drivel until he started getting all whiney about Harper. Every second column it seemed he was making reference to drinking or bars. I thought, Holy shiitt man, I KNOW ALL JOURNALISTS ARE PISSS TANKS, BUT FUK, DO YOU **LIVE** IN A BOTTLE?

20. Greg in Dallas. I’ve read Peggy Noonan’s article too, and though I usually agree with her there are a few things I question in her article. Here’s a copy of an e-mail I sent to someone about our kids’ being scared to death and parents, presumably, not being able to “afford” to protect their kids:
    [Begin quote from Noonan’s article]
    “If you have money in America, you can hire people who compose the human chrysalis that protect the butterflies of the upper classes as they grow. The lacking, the poor, the working and middle class–they have no protection. Their kids are on their own. And they’re scared.”
    [End quote)
    My husband is in a helping profession…and our family–two parents and two kids–lived on his salary for almost 20 years, so that I could be home with our daughters to “compose the human chrysalis” to protect them from all of the items Noonan so articulately and accurately lists that are a threat to our children. (I had a couple of small businesses at home…to help make up the financial deficits of my husband’s modest salary.)
    It’s about priorities, not money.
    God knows, I’d love to experience what it’s like not to have to worry about where the next dollar is coming from, how to pay for the glasses, the dentist, the braces, the groceries, the car repairs, university bills…you get it.
    Both of us are university-educated (my husband has three degrees) and sacrificed a great deal for me to be home to be able to care for and protect our daughters: I was a vigilant mom and got it in the jugular from a host of “enlightened” folk, our girls’ radical feminist principal included, on a regular basis.
    So what? I knew what my kids were doing–and not doing, who they were with–and who I wouldn’t let them be with, what they watched–and what I wouldn’t let them watch…etc. I gladly picked them up at parties in the middle of the night, many kilometres away, because our rule was no drinking and driving. We often had our best conversations then, because they were a little giddy!
    Our biggest problem in North America is that we don’t make it a priority to invest in our children: Too many parents do not invest time in their kids’ upbringing, using making a salary as their excuse. It’s patently untrue that only the rich can afford to care for and protect their children. There are countless couples…who have made it their priority to have a parent home to care for the kid(s), but they’ve been treated like s**t by most of society–and certainly have been by the feminists, the MSM, and the Librano government, who value only women’s work outside the home. Of course, that’s because they know that the autonomous family is, deep down, subversive, and is unlikely to bend to the will of the State, and most likely to fight it tooth and nail…
    BTW, we joke, even though it’s not a joke, about “Freedom 85.” We don’t own a house and all of our furniture is second-hand. As a friend has put it, “none of your furniture matches, but it all seems to go together”! AND, we have a solid relationship with our children who, thus far, have managed to avoid a lot of the pitfalls of modern adolescence. No parenting is full-proof, but it’s not just money that determines whether our children will be nurtured, protected, and paid attention to. It’s parents’ determination and commitment to ensuring that they don’t neglect their children, whether the family is flush with cash or struggling to make ends meet, that makes the differenc.

21. ‘been around the block,
    I think you make a lot of good points, and I always find your posts to be interesting.
    It sounds to me as if you are really performing admirably when it comes to raising kids.
    Once we bring children into the world, if we are as responsbile as you and your husband seem to be, we hope and pray that our children support the right values, fight on the right side of the issues, and live their lives with integrity and with their heads held high.
    However, when you think about it, that’s quite a lot of baggage to saddle another human being with. It’s sort of like knowing that death and taxes await the newborn while they’re innocently playing in their crib.
    Today just about everything I grew up being able to believe in and expect has been challenged from every quarter. As an old VietNam vet, I absolutely believe in militarily taking on terrorism. However, if I were young enough to be contemplating having children today, I would find it very disturbing to have my son or daughter in an existence where death or psychological damage could be their fate.
    It’s just something an old guy thinks about.
    Pedophiles, rap, Islamic Nazis, communists, multi-culturalism, etc., etc., ad infinitum. It’s probably a good thing that most kids are beloved accidents, because if someone thinks of intentionally bringing someone into the world to navigate all these pitfalls when one would prefer that they not even begin to suffer as much as oneself, well… it’s daunting.

22. Maz, I share you frustration. Most MSM know nothing about foreign and defence policy. They are not that far removed from the faculty club thinking mode, divorced from reality.
    It’s a shame members of CF and their families are so demoralized by this spin garbage, and Martin et al don’t seem to care.
    It’s real nice to criticize from your comfy office chair, but the MSM has reach to guys and gals who are in an environment where people are trying to kill them.
    What do they read? Our mission is failing. Taliban accusations have more credibility than the professionalism of our soldiers. Our soldiers “might” be war criminals. Maybe if were nice to Taliban, they wouldn’t try so hard to off us.
    Frickin unbelievable, what bloody lack of ethics, putting selling newspapers and gaining political points ahead of our soldiers on the ground.
    Not every grunt knows Martin and his ilk are utter ignoramuses on Afghan or any other foreign policy issue. Life to these hacks is taking a blackberry scoop between rounds of golf or whiskey, not ducking RPG.
    They can’t fathom the loneliness and fear these brave people face every day, for the good of, they thought, their fellow Canadians. Their contribution to those efforts consists of poor research and judgement, biased and agenda based conclusions, and an appaling lack of empathy for what soldiers go through.
    This crap that people support the troops but not the mission has got to be challenged. Last time I looked, our troops were doing the mission, not Dubya.
    As for the Red Green Show and Layton, go for it – let’s have an election now. When Canadians hear what has just been said (they don’t pay attention between elections), there will be repercussions.
    But no, they would rather fight a paper war, grinding for sound bytes, while our guys and gals wonder where the next IED is, and why they are being used a political pawns. Shameful indeed.

23. if you are not prepared to take physical action against islam you, meaning us, will lose our society, our beliefs, everything that makes us who we are. talk will solve nothing when dealing with islam.

24. Just a comment on Pakistan – based on my take – and all the good comments here.
    Musharraf is bringing Pakistan into the 21st century – very scary to many Muslims. Their economy is growing at a fast rate now – and Musharraf has privitized most formally gov’t controlled industries and services. In fact they are being forced to do this because of India.
    However, we’re in big trouble if Musharraf gets a bullet in the head before his self chosen (read dictatorial) term in office ends.

25. I hear you, Greg in Dallas. I understand your concerns for our young people. What a world we’ve bequeathed to them.
    I had an e-mail from a young friend of one of my daughter’s yesterday in which she said, “Yes, I think our generation IS in a bit of a pickle, innit?? Not only are all those nasty baby boomers holding onto the jobs that are meant for us, but we are so media and image-saturated that it’s hard to even calm our brains down for five minutes! There’s no escaping being part of the Sesame Street, 30-second sound byte generation. It’s hard to get past the static radio buzz of vague thoughts and ambitions to find what is concrete, even within our own minds!”
    I think, for the reasons this young women mentions and for the reasons you list–why the world is such a bewildering, difficult, and even dangerous place to be growing up in–parents have to be extra vigilant and INTENTIONAL about parenting their kids. That’s what’s missing too often in kids’ lives and what moms and dads need to pick up on and do some remedial work on.
    Because, under the feminist dispensation of the past 30 years, there’s been this myth floating around that children can either bring themselves up just fine or that anybody can rear a child: ‘doesn’t have to be their own mom or dad.
    This myth was perpetrated to allow women to flood the workplace en masse, thus “fulfilling themselves,” and not feel guilty about leaving little Johnny/Janie with a babysitter or in daycare. Sadly, we’re seeing the fallout of one-step-removed-from-mom/dad parenting.
    And who’s benefitted from this social engineering which encourages children being removed from their families and often their homes to be taken care of? Big business, which now has a huge worker pool, and big government, which is raking in the buck$: Look at the surpluses the Librano$ were posting every year. That’s OUR money, which many families could have used. I know ours could have…
    I’m NOT saying that two parents working outside the home can’t be great parents. Many are wonderful parents, but they need to be extra-focused during at-home time, because there are only so many hours in the day. It’s much easier to be focused and intentional when you’re on-site, meaning home with your kids, rather than having to juggle workplace concerns with domestic ones.
    What I’m trying to say is, our children are too important to leave their parenting to random arrangements, in the hope that they’ll be OK in the end. Society has to find some way of being supportive and encouraging of INTENTIONAL PARENTING, something society and public policies haven’t been in the past few decades. You know the expression “mom and apple pie’? Well, that’s become a pejorative expression and one of derision.
    In the ’80s, when people, mostly professionals, found out I stayed home with my kids, they were largely dismissive. They thought I didn’t “do” anything. I found that it was full-time job monitoring my children’s reading and watching habits, keeping tabs on where they were and with whom, and what they were taking at school. The sex-ed curriculum was hair-raising: 10 years out of date. I’d never have found this out if I hadn’t had the time, first, to locate it (‘had to jump through 10 hoops)and, then, to go through it and annotate it.
    I also volunteered in my children’s school, and was one of the few parents ever able to accompany the class on field trips (much to the chagrin of my kids as they got older! I sat at the front of the bus, and they sat at the bac. LOL!)
    Parenting is hard work, if you’re being fully attentive to your children. That’s what I’m advocating. They don’t bring themselves up and a few generations are showing the wounds of neglectful parenting. Neglect is neglect, whether it’s benign or not.
    As a society, we need to rethink our ideas on parenting and for the sake of our kids, make a few intentional changes. ‘Not easy, but the cost of not doing this is too high for our children’s safety, health, and well-being.
    Thanks for listening! I always appreciate your thoughts, too, GiD.

26. Thanks, Me No Dhimmi, the little Dutch tale was very amusing;-) But this kind of barbarism is simmering in our own classrooms already and sometimes boils over. Then, rather than protect honour and the innocent, administration caves, grovels, and appeases.
    All the anti-bullying gurus say, “Stand up. Don’t be part of the problem!” As MeND has pointed out, the educational establishment is a major part of the problem. Yes, schools are safe–if you’re a bully. The chances of facing the music are pretty slim for the barbarians, while teachers and the rest of the students are fodder for their malicious misdemeanors.
    ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), and–wait for it, and NO, I’m not kidding–ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) are alive, well, and proliferating. (Think of all the $$ to pay for the drugs to “control” them!) The educational establishment falls at the feet of kids with these “diagnoses” and hides behind them to let the kids off the hook. (Guilty parents like that.)
    In my class, nearly half the boys have been “diagnosed” with these “disorders”. (Medical doctors, some of whom have shares in drugstores, make these diagnoses without either visiting the classroom or speaking with the child’s teacher. It’s quite the scam, supported by both the medical and educational establishment: more kids with more problems? More jobs and bucks for us and our cronies.)
    In my presence, these labelled kids display virtually none of the symptoms of their apparent “disorder”–they wouldn’t DARE! In my absence, BINGO! They “lose control” (my foot) and do the most preposterous things. Admin. says, “Hey, they’re ADHD. What do you expect?” Me: That they’ll adhere to the rules like everyone else and take the consequences. (What consequences? Usually a pat on the head and a tete-a-tete with some administrator who has secret ambitions to be a bleeding heart social worker. Pathetic.)
    These kids, to a one, are not ADD, ADHD, or ODD. They’re actually BP: BADLY PARENTED. And THAT should be noted on their records. (As I’ve said, such parents–“clients” to the board–are never challenged: they’re treated with deference and kid gloves. Imagine where that leaves the teacher trying to do his/her job.)
    I have a number of EAs in my class at various times during the day. All of them agree with my diagnosis. Most of these kids are just BP: spoiled, ill-mannered louts, just like their ignorant, bullying, self-satisfied, projecting–all problems onto someone else–parents.
    As I’ve said, a very unpleasant picture. Kids, indeed, are our future. Look out, Canada!

27. I’ve just read batb’s post: mine segues very well from hers.
    It’s the parenting! And, God knows, good parents (like good teachers) get small support from any quarter in this perverse day and age.
    As I’ve said, look out!

28. I saw a documentary about nanny cams a few years ago. The parents being interviewed stated they had nanny cams to protect their children from abusive nanny’s. Their statement was ‘our children are our most precious posession so we have to be able to see if the nanny is abusing them’. I asked myself at the time–most precious posession? I wondered if they would give their nanny their credit card?

29. Well, surprise, surprise: in The National Post today, on page one, is an article entitled, “Hollow halls of academe; New book chronicles the university’s demise”.
    The book, written by two University of Western Ontario professors, is called Ivory Tower Blues: A University System in Crisis.
    Although the article says the problem begins at high school, that’s dead wrong. Here are a couple of excerpts from the article:
    Now that so many of students don’t even pick up their marked essays, let alone accept positive feedback, the author of the article writes, “This growing sense of disinterest in learning is just one of the demoralizing trends that afflicts the modern Canadian university, and one of many that inspired him [Professor James Cote] to deliver a scathing indictment of the system . . .
    “In their forthcoming book Ivory Tower Blues: A University System in Crisis, Prof. Côté and his coauthor, Anton Allahar, sound the alarm about the demise of higher education, where many students are more interested in the piece of paper they get at the end of their programs than in the intellectual journey along the way, where professors are cowed into watering down courses and bumping up grades, and where universities are run like corporations hawking mass-produced degrees which are increasingly in demand but increasingly meaningless . . .
    “The book chronicles what happens when ‘fully empowered’ students arrive on campus well aware of their rights but with little sense of their own responsibilities. Accustomed to being coddled in high school and given good grades for minimal effort, they bring a consumer mentality to the classroom which leaves them indignant, combative and ready to complain when they earn anything less than an A — no matter how little they deserve it.”
    These kids sound eerily like the entitled, unaccountable nine and ten year old students I teach, whose “rights” are fully reinforced by the grovelling and appeasement of the bureaucrats who run the system (into the ground). The article also mentions the “helicopter parents” who hover over their children, running interference and reinforcing undeserved entitlement.
    The MSM will not touch this story with a ten foot pole: a real expose would be much too politically incorrect. The Pandora’s Box that would be opened is full of issues our elitist, PC driven overlords and ladies don’t want to dirty their hands with.
    Things educational really are a mess from top to bottom, bottom to top. And as usual, it seems–“While You Were Sleeping” would be a good title for a movie about this–Canadians are just too busy amusing themselves to get involved.
    Bad news for all of us.

30. Yup, George and lookout: We’d better be watching our backs when these BP kids are let loose on the world. Well, we’re already seeing the first wave of them, if not the second.
    Compound this problem, however, with MASSIVE DENIAL in our society, and we’ve got a volcanic eruption in the works. Parents deny their kids are little monsters (that might mean they’ve done something wrong: Who me? Who we?), and administrators deny the problem is as epidemic as it is–because then they might have to actually do something about it instead of appeasing entitled parents. Then social workers, psychologists, every other species of therapeutic helper, pharmaceutical companies and pharmacists, and medical personnel are laughing all the way to the bank as they “treat” these disabled kids.
    I totally agree with lookout that diagnoses of ADHD, ADD, and ODD are, at least two-thirds of the time, a crock. These kids have just never been disciplined and what they need instead of special classes, drugs, and appeasement is boot camp. That would straighten a lot of them out.
    Our whole society has gone soft on crime, soft on derelict behaviours, soft in the head. We need some hard-headed leaders to take us forward into a society where families, institutions, and goverment encourage and support responsibility, obligations, and accountability rather than “rights” (so-called) and “freedoms.”
    We’ve begun to reap the Maelstrom because we haven’t insisted that our young people be responsible, nor have we taught them how to be. ‘Gotta get our heads out of the sand and own up to our adult failure to socialize our kids–and this all goes directly to the heart of parenting: Are we doing a good job or getting a failing grade?
    ‘Time to face the music.

31. ET: I think that your literacy rates for Pakistan & Saudi Arabia are somewhat optimistic; for example, the following CBC link indicates that 42% of Canadians are semi-literate:
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/education/canada-shame.html
    ….and having spent time in both of the other countries I’d suggest that their percentages of illiterates/semi-literates are somewhat higher than ours.
    In Pakistan, for example, I believe the Koran is still taught, by rote, in Arabic, to non-Arabic speakers; they memorize the verses and are given Urdu interpretations by their instructors, and when their ‘education’ revolves primarily around Islam, evaluation of those that are considered literate must be tempered with considerations as to ‘what’ they are reading.

32. nemo2 – the literacy rates are taken from an extremely reliable source, the CIA World Factbook.
    I suggest that you ignore the CBC propaganda. I strongly doubt that almost half of the Canadian population is ‘semi-literate’ (whatever that means). The CBC is a shill for advocacy and activist groups – one of which is the useless Literacy Activist Group – whose funding was correctly cut by the Conservatives.

33. ET: From ABC Canada Adult Literacy Foundation:
    “More of a problem than many realize
    Four out of 10 adult Canadians, age 16 to 65 – representing 9 million Canadians – struggle with low literacy. (Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) Survey, Statistics Canada and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2005)
    Considering those adult Canadians with low literacy, 15 per cent have serious problems dealing with any printed materials; an additional 27 per cent can only deal with simple reading tasks. (Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, 2005)”
    http://www.abc-canada.org/literacy_facts/
    I am not familiar with this organization, and they may well be incorrect, but consider this from our government:
    “In Canada, 58% of working age adults (aged 16 to 65) scored at level 3 or higher. Level 3 is the minimum level required to succeed in the knowledge-based economy”.
    The operative word there is quite probably ‘working’….what about those who aren’t working?
    http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/hip/lld/nls/Resources/10_fact.shtml
    From personal experience, (countries visited), on more than one occasion it has seemed to me that the CIA Factbook’s evaluations are optimistic to say the least.

34. As Steyn points out the great war is demographic and we’ve already lost. Our society has 2 maybe 3 generations left and the children today may even see the end.
    We tend to think of progress as exclusively forward. We don’t think that maybe the Romans or the Greeks or the ancient Egyptians may have thought themselves equally perminent.
    We aren’t besieged by the barbarians as we let them in and we are going to let them take over. Once that happens, welcome to talibanistan but global.
    The dark ages followed the roman empire. The darker ages will follow the European/Anglo West.