James Phillips, PhD, my ninth grade civics teacher (1961-1962), taught me three principles that have helped shape my life. First, love the constitution. Second, love education. Third, pay attention to what is happening around you.
Dr. Phillips was a dark-skinned teacher. He would not have called himself African-American, because no one had coined that term yet. He may have used the term negro, but it made no difference to him or to me. He was, quite simply, the most passionate, intelligent, articulate, and motivating public school teacher of my K-12 years.
Remember, I am talking about pre-Civil Rights Act of 1964, pre-Martin Luther King, and far before today's slave-minded, left wing African American spokespersons. Dr. Phillips, with a PhD, able only to teach ninth grade in an inner-city public school, never let color be a barrier.
He knew his constitution well, and made sure we did, too. Our class tore it apart, clause by clause, line by line, word by word. Then we wrote our own. I believe I served on the Preamble committee. Why focus on the constitution? Because in it, Dr. Phillips found freedom, hope, and a future.
Since 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court has often turned the constitution on its head. Landmark decisions that seem transparently at odds with the definition of words, the culture in which they were created, and the purpose for which they intended to serve, were tossed aside. The Court's attack on the constitution began long before Dr. Phillips began my enlightenment, but since then, has often spun out of control, leaving us with little ability to have confidence in the document.
Dr. Phillips second admonition was to be educated. Actually, I believe he meant to keep on being educated. As Charlie "Tremendous" Jones said often, "Life is about learning to be learning, so that in learning, we can learn that we need to be learning."
The high school student holds a tiny seed in his/her hand that, with proper nourishment, will continue to grow into a solid, strong, tall tree of learning. But without nourishment, it will wither and become of little use. Eventually, it dies.
Life comes alive through ongoing learning.
Third, pay attention to what is happening. Perhaps this admonition is the reason I wrote a paper on creeping socialism for Dr. Phillips - in ninth grade. Phillips read five newspapers every day. TV and radio news helped shape one's knowledge of current events, but could not begin to compete with the in-depth reporting and commentary available through newspapers.
Today, I teach a class titled "American Government-For Real." My lesson today is on the media, and its impact on our system of government. My 30 students are bright, healthy, eager to learn, and pretty much ignoring what is happening. They may have never seen a newspaper, do not listen to radio, can not tell me what time TV news is broadcast.
On the other hand, my students are serious about study, and work hard at academics. But they are doing so in a vacuum, without contemporary context.
Their "media" is designed to entertain and distract them from the mundane [important] nature of life. A make believe world of villains, heroes, personalities, tragedies, but seldom tied to real life.
My students have had the "Phillips" treatment on the constitution, and they have bought into being educated. Now, the challenge is to get them to pay attention to the world around them. Constitutionally based citizens that are motivated to learn, who pay attention to what is happening makes a powerful force to move our country forward (and a bit more to the right).
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