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THE SPEECH EVERY AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL SHOULD GIVE |
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Written by Dennis Prager
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Thursday, 29 July 2010 |
To the students and faculty of our high school as we begin a
new academic year this September of 2010:
I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no
greater calling than to teach young people.
I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming
to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of
the ideas that have dominated public education in America
have worked against you, against your teachers and against your country.
First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I
could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white.
I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or
European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships.
The only identity I care about, the only one this school
will recognize, is your individual identity -- your character, your
scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will
care about is American.
This is an American public school, and American public
schools were created to make better Americans.
If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through
school, you will have to go elsewhere.
We will thus end all ethnicity-, race- and non-American
nationality-based celebrations. They
undermine the motto of America,
one of its three central values -- e
pluribus unum, "from many, one." And this school will be guided by America's
values.
This policy includes all after-school clubs. I will not
authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes
race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in
vogue in a society divided by political correctness.
Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not
blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just
cultivate narcissism -- an unhealthy preoccupation with the self -- while the
purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself.
So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and
glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry
and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being
interesting in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means
that little outside of yourself really interests you.
Second, I am uninterested in whether English is your native
language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school
speaking and writing English as fluently as possible.
The English language has united America's
citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this
country of immigrants has always come to be one country.
And if you leave this school without excellent English
language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be
prepared to successfully compete in the American job market.
We will learn other languages here -- it is deplorable that
most Americans only speak English -- but if you want classes taught in your
native language rather than in English, this is not your school.
Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor,
everything in this school will reflect learning's elevated status.
This means, among other things, that you and your teachers
will dress accordingly.
Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood
events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore,
there will be a formal dress code at this school.
Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on
this school's property -- whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic
events. If you can't speak without using the f-word, you can't speak.
By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal
Communications Commission, plus epithets such as "Nigger," even when
used by one black student to address another black, or "bitch," even
when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend.
It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you
will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the
elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.
Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school,
self-esteem will be attained in only one way -- the way people attained it
until decided otherwise a generation ago -- by earning it.
One immediate consequence is that there will be one
valedictorian, not eight.
Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward
academics and away from politics and propaganda.
No more time will devoted to scaring you about smoking and
caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more
semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual
relations as only or primarily a health issue. There will be no more attempts
to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male,
or not heterosexual or not Christian.
We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school
and does not consider him or herself inordinately lucky -- to be alive and to
be an American.
Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to
the flag of our country. For those of you who do not know the words, your teachers
will hand them out to you.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host.
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