by Sanford Aranoff

Created on: February 24, 2011   Last Updated: February 25, 2011

Saturday morning we watched the show on CNN discussing the violence of teenagers in Chicago. People discussed what parents, police, and community leaders should do. What was seriously missing was talking about what teachers should do. CNN should show the world what high schools in Chicago are like. CNN should show us how teachers educate youth to understanding rational thinking, communication, and morality. We need documentaries about high schools in South Chicago. We also need documentaries about schools in Afghanistan.

The solution is to directly fight the teachers' union and the federal government's control over education. President Bush was wrong in saying we need to test students to determine how well the schools are doing, and so No Child Left Behind must be scrapped. The way to test the schools is to look at results. If school children kill, the school is failing, and I do not care if the school is in Chicago or in Afghanistan. We must teach and discuss the evil of murder both here and abroad. We will never win the war on terror without changing the educational systems over there. We will never have security in South Chicago without firing the teachers and administrators and replacing them with knowledgeable citizens. There are so many people looking for "jobs". Let them teach high school, even without the requirements set by the unions and the corrupt governments.

Forbes magazine had an article (10/19/2009, "YES To Billionaires), discussing high schools supported by people like Bill Gates and others. We can do the same in Chicago, without the vast sums of money Gates is putting forth. We simply have to have public schools in Chicago using the YES and KIPP models.

The point is that if we are concerned about murder, we must discuss it with children, just as we discuss AIDS and other topics.

Chicago's approach of disarming the good citizens is not working, and let us hope that the Supreme Court changes this stupid approach.

No one talks about what students are learning. We must discuss this, and discuss this often. We must talk the approach to rational, creative, independent thinking in religious schools everywhere, for no one can solve problems without rational, creative, independent thinking.

A popular Hamas children's program that usually gives advice to youngsters, such as instructing them to listen to their parents, aired a call for the "slaughter" of Jews in Israel late last month, according to Palestinian Media Watch. This news item should be paramount in our media and in our political discussions.

The bottom line is that we must be rational thinkers, and properly introduce rationality in our schools. See the new book, "Rational Thinking, Government Policies, Science, and Living". Rational thinking starts with clearly stated principles, continues with logical deductions, and then examines empirical evidence to possibly modify the principles.

See also "Teaching and Helping Students Think and Do Better".

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