Let’s all hope and pray Betsy DeVos has a plan. She sure as hell will need one if things in the nation’s education system carry on such as it is in our public schools. Each year Liberty Nation’s parent organization One Generation Away in cooperation with our other subsidiary, Roots of Liberty holds a national essay contest. The prizes are highly sought after, with a grand prize of more than $5K and total prizes of $15K.
Naturally, we receive tons of essays. In the first year of the contest, a young man from a Christian school came in first place. Last year a lovely young lady who was homeschooled in Arizona won. To date no public-school student has won the grand prize. The judges are blind in their evaluations; that is, they only see a generic number for each contestant and do not have the slightest idea who the contestant is or where they attend school.
The entries are judged on how the student answers the question in two key areas: the quality of thought as well as the ability to express themselves in writing. The contest is aimed at Advanced Placement (A.P.) students. In other words, these are not your average high schoolers but rather the cream of the crop.
This year’s question is:
In If Men Were Angels, No Government Would Be Necessary, law professor Stephen B. Presser argues that, “[f]or the Framers of the Constitution the practice of politics was all about how to distribute power within the government in order to preserve private property, individual rights, and the rule of law which secured both.”
Has the Constitution succeeded in preserving the interests of those outside the majority? If so how and why? If not, how and why? A thoughtful response will include at least one historical example (18th, 19th, 20th centuries) and one contemporary example (21st century.)
What follows are a smattering of phrases and sentences from the 2017-18 RootsOfLiberty.org contest. These are the genuine words that appeared on the contestant’s entry complete with the student’s spelling and grammar:
- Therefore, during their march from Selma to Montgomery they marched.
- Today, the U.S government has lashed their restraint on those who fail to stand during the national anthem.
- The hope for the future weighs on the hope of are nation coming together as one.
- These circumstances caused an out roar in minority groups
- Every government is made of people and people aren’t angles which makes it doomed to make mistakes.
- We see through out history big minorty victories have been accomplished such as civil rigts and the LGBTQ community.
- To start off with some facts why I think this is very beneficial for others is because with the constitution there will still be African Americans in slavery.
- Those outside of the majority are included as people that have their own opinions and act on their own behalf’s away from the how the government works.
- The constitution is not fare for the majority because it violated the fourth amendment strongly.
- It has been seen throughout history in countries that lack this immensely important key to a poise society that tyranny reigns supreme.
- When the U.S. constitution was made in 1739, it was made under the intent to protect anybody and everybody from when it was made up until today.
If there is anyone out there who can translate any of those sentences into something comprehensible then more power to you. But it wasn’t merely the inability to communicate ideas in a clear and cogent manner that is troublesome. There was a profound lack of basic knowledge regarding our Constitutional Republic. For instance:
- The Constitution of Independence is a document that ……
- Just moments after the constitution was drafted it had already become a hypocrite to the truth it was based on
- The Constitution of The United States was written by the founding fathers with many aspects of different ways of ruling in mind.
- Usually, if the Supreme Court feels like an issue is pressing they will pass a new law, regardless of whether it was stated or not in the Constitution.
- Since the beginning of the United States of America, the Caucasian man with some type of riches have been put above anyone else.
- When it comes to women the Constitution does not succeed in preserving the interests of those outside the majority such as women.
- There was something that Madison and Jay did not know about their fellow Publius writer, Alexander Hamilton. Simply put, Hamilton was either gay, or, more likely, bisexual.
One of our judges who is a lifelong educator noted,“And what is particularly heartbreaking is that each of these statements contains a (very) small kernel of truth, but that truth is just so terribly obscured by fuzzy reasoning and egregious syntax.”
Any which way you look at it, this is deeply disturbing and an indictment of the state of education in America today. ‘Tis a deplorable state of affairs. We have let our children and grandchildren down by not teaching them the basic facts regarding American History, nor the ability to sling together 500 words in a clear, logical and compelling manner. And the not-so-funny thing about all this is that according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) the U.S. outspent every single nation for primary and secondary education except for Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland.
Thus, we must hope and pray that Secretary DeVos has something up her sleeve to fix a defective education system that needs to be resuscitated quickly.
Ed ~ Liberty Nation will be publishing the winning essay on February 15th, so keep an eye out for our Grand Prize winner!
