True Education Produces Liberty – Buz Blog

Image by Kris from Pixabay

“Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

True education is the foundation of liberty. Our Founders were aware of that because they were very well educated themselves. Many had formal education, but all of them would supplement whatever education they had by reading the historians, philosophers and orator speeches from the Greeks and Romans right up to their own time. These founders acquired knowledge of past governments. They knew what worked in the past and what didn’t work. They debated each other in meetings and conventions and through letters.

Compare that to the education our children and grandchildren are getting now. Who hasn’t seen the “man on the street” interviews? What distressing answers are given regardless if the interviews take place on our city streets or college campuses. Although middle aged or older people do a lot better, not all of that demographic group do all that well. We cringe when a college student or adult American can’t answer simple questions such as, “Who did we fight in the Revolutionary War?” Or, “Who were the combatants in the Civil War?” Or, “On what continent is the country of Brazil?” Or, even self answering questions, like “Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb?” Or, “On what continent is the country of South Africa?”

Before President Trump and the DOGE team eliminate the Department of Education, (which they certainly must do), they need to send to each state a suggested curriculum and minimum graduation requirements for elementary, and high schools, to include math, English, history, geography and civics.

Until recently, there were three books that I considered essential for good citizenship and understanding why our country has been so successful. The first book is Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. To me, this book is a roadmap on how to maintain a positive attitude and achieve goals in even the most horrible circumstances.

The second and third books are both by W. Cleon Skousen who was a Constitutional scholar. The Making of America is a history of the founders and an explanation of that great document, from the Preamble through the 27th Amendment. It gives an easily understandable explanation of what each phrase means for each part of the Constitution. The third book is called The Five Thousand Year Leap. This book tells the history of how the Constitutional principles gave Americans the freedom to advance civilization 5000 years in just 200 years.

I recently listened to an audio book titled Torch of Freedom by George Guzzardo. This fantastic book gives the reader a history of those individuals who advanced freedom from the ancient Sumaria up to the Vietnam era. I was so impressed with the audio version that I bought the book. I plan to read and highlight the important passages and lessons.

Every patriotic American needs to be familiar with our founding documents so that we will never again let those who want to “fundamentally change” our country, can be stopped way before the level they reached under the Obama/Biden Administrations. With the new year and new administration in Washington, we can look forward to a Happy New Year.