One of our most precious guarantees as Americans is the “pursuit” of happiness: the striving, the effort, the longing to succeed and reaching deep inside until we find the will somewhow to perservere.  The passion for greatness;  for reward, be it material or not; the undying ambition to move forward - this is the foundation on which America is built.  That is how we got here, and that is how we’ll continue.

The following is a very serious letter from Mike S, a Friends of America contributor, and personal friend.  It’s not even my child and it makes me angry every time I read it.  In fact I’ve had to take several breaks while editing for that very reason.  It frighteningly demonstrates how the very thing that makes us great, our ambition, is not only being attacked with regularity, but being gradually squeezed out of us.

    My son, Joseph, is enrolled in the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program in the Clark County School district; specifically, he’s in the 3rd grade at Jo Mackey Academy of Leadership and Global Communication.  This is a magnet school, designed to attract the more intelligent kids from in and around the Las Vegas area. Also, because of the way it’s designed, it also serves the neighborhood of which it’s a part. It did, however, offer the promise of decent education for the students, which our neighborhood school lacked, so we enrolled him there.
    Near the end of September, we were informed that each third grader was to build a bridge and bring it in to class to share.  While I will admit that my family is a bunch of hyper-competitive over-achievers, the goal of this exercise was, to my mind, to learn about bridges.

Apparently, however, it was more a lesson in how to blend in with the crowd.

I had Joey research the different types of bridges that he could make. I had him make a determination as to which bridge he would like to make, and write a couple of paragraphs about why he wanted to use this type of bridge, and the advantages it has over other types. He chose a cable-stay bridge, like the ones in Boston, Dallas, and Rio. (They’re my favorite kind, too, incidentally.) So, paper written up, we drew out a plan. We figured out how tall we wanted our support pylons to be. We determined, mathematically, how long the cable would need to be that would support the platform. We decided what we were going to use as caissons. We determined the appropriate width and length of the bridge platform. A lot of work went into the planning. We went to Home Depot, purchased the appropriate hardware (3″ PVC pipe for the caissons, 3/4″ PVC pipe for the pylons, 1/4″ plastic-coated steel cable for the support cables, and a 4′ long board for the span. We carefully measured where to put the holes, drilled them, and fastened the cables through them. (What you see in the picture is one continuous cable, threaded like a shoelace, supporting the full weight of the bridge. It can hold several times its own weight, too.)

Here’s a kid who’s passionate about what he does, and takes pride in his work - and a Dad that’s committed to fostering the very best from his son.  That’s quality Father-son time right there, working on the science project together.  But if you believe “it takes a village” or that “fathers are only a coincidence” then this sort of thing infuriates you.

Joseph took his bridge to school, obvously quite proud of his creation.

His teacher then declared that his bridge was “overbuilt,” and that he “did not follow the spirit of the project.”

What exactly was the “spirit” of the project?  I thought it was to build a bridge? 

She asked the rest of the class if they thought Joey’s bridge was overbuilt, and they, whose bridges were suddenly completely overshadowed, agreed with her.

Reminds me of this incident earlier this year.

Joey started to cry, and agreed that it was overbuilt, so that the ridicule would stop.

That’s a heart-breaker right there: another dangerous young mind, fixed by the education system…

She gave him low marks on his bridge project, while giving a high grade to a kid who made a simple arch bridge out of Lego. (And, yes, it’s exactly what you’re thinking. Four small rows of Lego, then two rows spanning across to another column of Lego, 4 high. Total time to completion: 6 minutes if he had tried to color-coordinate them, which he didn’t.)

She then proclaimed that she was going to keep “the good one” to show the parents - a couple of popsicle sticks glued together to make the type of bridge you’d see when someone piles wood across a creek. It was most upsetting.

Joey, of course, was completely crushed. None of those kids learned anything about building bridges. None of them learned to really take pride in something, and see it to completion, and really put thought into it. And the teacher was the guiltiest of all.

We can add all sorts of commentary about this, but we’re going to let Mike sum it up:

I have discussed this with his guidance counselor. She admitted, directly, that the schools are more a form of babysitting for the children, and that mediocrity is what is taught. The kids who excel get squashed to keep them from getting too far ahead of the dumb ones.

They’re all taught just to go along and get along, because sheep are much easier to control than thinking individuals. The idiots in the room set the pace for everyone else, instead of being allowed to fail on their merits, and the smart kids are punished. (I remind you - this was in the GATE class, not just run-of-the-mill 3rd grade. The kids in these classes are all in 5-9th grade reading levels, 4-10th grade math levels, and are very, very smart. They are being kept back because some of the children of the crack whores residents in that neighborhood get to send their kids to that school, and they don’t differentiate out the classes by ability.) 

This story, unlike many other, will have a happy ending, because of a Dad who is a man not a pansy, a true American, and most of all who’s an actual Dad that cares about his kid(s) and wants what’s best for them, not what makes them feel good right now, but what’s actually best.

Joey is starting homeschooling with Nevada Virtual Academy as of January 5th.

Public school is nothing more than a feeding ground for leftist, feel-good propaganda (it doesn’t matter if you learn anything, the only important thing is that you *think* you’re special!), where they turn children into mindless cattle.

Joey's Bridge

(Comment from MikeS: Sorry the picture is of such poor quality. My camera phone doesn’t take great snaps. You can see, however, that it’s quite the technological marvel, based off of the cable-stay model. It’s 4 feet long, to give you an idea of scale.)

[Comment from Friends of America admin:  This is just the type of issue that the Friends of America was established to respond to; however this event took place prior to the founding of this organization.

Our typical response would be to contact the school principal and teacher and demand an explanation, as well as contacting local and national media to attract attention to this situation.

If you have, or know someone who has, a similar experience, please contact the Friends of America.  You can email directly dan @ thefriendsofamerica.org or direct message our spokesman via twitter]

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