Dear young man, and we can only assume you're a young man,
Saw your letter to the editor the other day over on the Voices page, where you said your schooling wasn't quite good enough, is inefficient, should be expanded or made more difficult, and is greatly in need of what you called credible content.
We're not sure how schoolwork can be inefficient, unless you're reading all of Moby Dick and being tested on only one chapter. Or how the subjects being taught could be more credible. (Do you not believe the history lessons?) Other than that, though . . . . That's the spirit. We think. May we assume you're in high school? Or perhaps junior high. Either way, it's refreshing, or at least unusual, to meet a young person so determined to improve his education, by which we mean himself.
Some of us have been out of high school for a lo-o-o-ng time. Our schooling was so long ago, there were no middle schools in our day. Only elementary schools and high schools. Neither did we have computers, cell phones or ways to instantly look up the answer to every question on the planet. And our pencil sharpeners had to be cranked--gasp!--by hand. In spite of such prehistoric conditions, most of us turned out okay.
A lot of our lessons were learned the hard way, and not necessarily in school. It won't be much different for you. As no doubt you've been told, life is what happens when you're making other plans.
Back to your desire for more, um, credible content. We have some suggestions and, especially, opinions on that. Opinions are what this page is all about. Maybe you noticed. If not, keep reading.
Yes, read. Everything you can. Years ago we once told a boss that we'd like to take more college classes to improve our education. This particular editor laughed out loud and said, "Boy, read a book!"
We confess to being fond of newspapers. The one in your hand, in particular, holds a special place in our inky hearts. The news is organized into the Really Important Stuff from Everywhere, aka the A section; the interesting stuff about our friends and neighbors, the Arkansas section; business and farm; the annals of sweat, or what the folks in the back of the office call "sports"; and the best section of all, the one with the comics. A guy can learn a lot about really important things, like humor, by reading the comics.
Other newspapers are fine to read, too. Try the Wall Street Journal, the bible of capitalism--free markets, free people--and its lively, informative and downright cranky opinion pages. Cranky is the best part. Other folks enjoy the New York Times, but its opinion pages are best described as somnambulant. (Building your vocabulary, young man.) For a good night's sleep, read two editorials. If you can stay awake to the second.
Magazines? Sure. National Review is a hoot, the conservative's thinker's guide to, well, thinking. For the opposite, try National Journal, the liberal counterpart. It's not a hoot. Call it attitude vs. platitude.
Richard Nixon--hope you know who he was--used to say he only read non-fiction books. Don't be like Richard Nixon. Read fiction, too. Mysteries are fun. So are westerns. And anything written by a man named Twain.
For a really good education, full of credible content up to your eyeballs, enlist. The Army would be fine, but there are other armed forces to choose from. In our day this was known as being In The Service, an expression not heard much anymore. Too bad, because it conveys something profound: in the service of the nation; in the service of its people. A lot of credible content can be learned in the service. We learned to type, wake up early, take responsibility for mistakes, grind through hard and sometimes useless assignments, put up with bad leadership, learn from great leadership, and operate as part of a team with an important mission, namely to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Keep that in mind, young man--and onward to a lifetime of credible content. Maybe even learning.
Editorial on 05/23/2015