Published By: All Right Magazine on March 12, 2010

By ROBERT LUTZ

I just couldn’t stand it any longer. Adults petrified at best, incompetent and apathetic at worst. Unskilled, socially inept, entitled kids in charge. A state and federal government growing by the hour, disturbing patterns and obvious correlations emerging…

What started out as a logical part-time gig (I tutored peers at 15) to support an acting/screenwriting habit has become a desperate crusade to save this country. If that sounds hyperbolic, refer to the tired cliché about our kids being the future. Granted, I’m perhaps more jaded than most, having spent ten years in the second worst district in the nation. But given the likelihood the same atrocities display themselves in and around every major city, infecting once safe neighboring suburbs; we’re raising a generation of youth widely suited for lower-rung jobs and incarceration.

If they land in the private sector, many will be forced to compete in a highly saturated labor market, where wages have been severely compromised due to our fear of being called racist. Never mind the fear of yet higher taxes and more crippling regulation stifling any economic rebound. And how much bigger can the pubic sector get? The latter has grown exponentially, such that the numerator is crushing the taxpaying denominator, scoring a burden ratio that will flatten us in “X” number of election cycles.

Where do we even begin? Waiting for gutless politicians to save the day guarantees a slow, excruciating death. The pathetic squeals demanding more money for the children, whether spewed from the polluting holes of our beloved six figure prostitutes, their dues-pilfering puppeteer pimps or any other exploitative advocacy make me wanna puke. And then go punch something. Reform will eventuate one classroom, one hallway, one campus at a time. And it won’t cost a dime. Step one is standing up to extortion. It’s not likely the money will even reach the classroom anyway.

It’s imperative we purge this putrid, pampering PC purgatory to which we’ve become so enslaved. Behavioral boundaries must be restored. Principals shall get the backs of teachers, and demand at least scant support up the paper clip chains of command. There will be litigation, in some cases collateral damage. But we will redirect our children from their would-be careers as civil rights attorneys back to being students.

That means showing up prepared (no more free pencils) and on time, with the right attitude. Shut up or get booted. A culture of obedience will reveal a healthy percentage of “fence” kids falling in line when the fringe percentage is shown the door. Moreover, a sane environment allows for the installation of a sound structure. The nuts and bolts of classroom procedure are amazingly basic. Hide the calculators. Dust off those grammar books. Tear up the contracts with anti-American publishers.

This book’s collection of anecdotes, coupled with my rants and commentaries—that frequently go beyond the classroom—are meant to infuriate you and make you laugh; hang your head in despair and give you great hope; tear your heart out and inspire the will to fight.

We have packaged compassion and wrapped it in hard earned wealth, yet where has that gotten so many but to a place where they require more compassion? Whether the result of good intentions gone awry or some insidious experiment, we find ourselves at the mercy of a multiplying government feasting on languishing human capital, our crippled youth providing its greatest sustenance.

We must resuscitate the fighting spirit that’s lain dormant in many of us, but especially our kids. They’re stronger than we give them credit for.

Robert Lutz is a substitute teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and author of the recently published tell-all, Crippled by Compassion: Public Education’s Model for a Whiny, Underachieving America.

Tags: Crippled by Compassion, Los Angeles schools, performance, public schools, taxes, Teachers, teaching

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