Interview With Senator Wallop, Part Four
By Peter and Helen Evans (07/02/04)
Senator Wallop: The big problem we've got today is the educators don't know much about the Constitution of the United States, and even less about the history of how we got that Constitution, or what a privilege it has bestowed upon us as a people. Let's go back to the Founding Fathers. I believe it was Adams who thought that not every country in the world could be democratic, because democracy requires a couple of things that not every country has. One is morality, which we may be losing a little bit. Two, is a sense of community that allows you, in the process of thinking of yourself, not to forget your neighbor. However, the basic trait was morality, and we used to believe that that could be taught in schools.
Peter: It's now unconstitutional to teach morality in school.
Senator Wallop: Now, it's the idea of, "Who's to say what's right or wrong? Who are you to tell me what I'm doing is the wrong thing to do?"
Helen: So what do you think about this moral relativism?
Senator Wallop: It's a crisis. Sooner or later there has to be something called right and something called wrong. If there isn't... Well, let's go back to the defense of the homeland; there would be no reason for defense. If there is not someone, at some level, to say this is right or this is wrong, all you have is anarchy and chaos.
This even goes down to the classroom, where teachers who don't want to, or aren't allowed to, punish a student for disrupting the class, are just giving them license to steal opportunity from another in the class who does want to learn.
Helen: Didn't the Americans with Disabilities Act have something to do with that? We read an article by someone who teaches teachers how to shake their arm in a certain way to release it when students sink their teeth into it, because the students have to be treated as 'disabled,' or 'disturbed,' and needing 'help' rather than being reprimanded or punished.
Senator Wallop: I've heard stories like that also. The President of Boston University, a terrific guy, was telling me about a professor they had up there. The professor was just... disreputable; feeling women's bodies in elevators, stroking bosoms, etc. The university documented all these things and fired him. He sued them under the Americans with Disabilities Act because he claimed he suffered from "dis-inhibition." Just add "dis" onto anything and it fits under the Act. Believe it or not, the first court agreed with it and forced the university to take him back.
Peter: "Dis-inhibition!" That's just pathologizing a plain old lack of self-control.
Senator Wallop: The problem that arises from these concepts becomes clear when you observe what happens in classrooms today and see the lack of functional authority. You then have these crazy circumstances where there's no rational process that attaches to any rule. Some schools have "zero tolerance," so somebody gets kicked out of school because they had a little nail clipper in the shape of a gun. Clearly not a gun; just the shape of a gun. There is an endless enforcing of rules that don't make sense. And the problem with that approach is that, the more rules you have that don't make sense, the less credibility attaches to the rules that do make sense.
Peter: They are rules without underlying principles.
Senator Wallop: There's no common sense attached to them. Let's look at the grading system. Some schools are suggesting that they should be done away with because some students don't get as good grades as others and it may create 'humiliation.' They're not playing dodge-ball because one student is better than another.
Peter: It's "too competitive."
Senator Wallop: What has been wonderful about America is that we've grown up being competitive. It made a difference to us and, yes, some people won and some people lost. Some people weren't with me because I was better at it, but they were competitive at other things I wasn't so good at. That's the way we discover diverse talents.
Helen: It seems to me, the same people who say we have to defend the victims or the people who have these aberrant behaviors, are the ones who don't want to defend the homeland. It's almost as though they think we're defending the wrong things.
Senator Wallop: It's interesting, it's those very people, who cause the most commotion about not defending the homeland, who don't realize that the very freedom for them to make a commotion is why we're fighting. We give them the privilege of what is otherwise non-sensical and wouldn't be accepted in other countries.
Peter: We were discussing the sad condition of American education these days and the question came up, "well, what's the solution?" My thought was that there is not specifically a "solution," but people will do something about it when it becomes painfully enough obvious that something needs to be done. It seems we haven't quite gotten to that point yet.
Senator Wallop: Getting rid of the National Education Association would be a start; and short of that, hoping they might become education oriented..
One of the things that happen is that they are at pains to confront any suggestion of accountability. If a teacher isn't performing, as long as that teacher is showing up for class, it doesn't much matter; they still have a job. They have instilled that into the colleges of education around the country. By and large, the people attending these education colleges are not learning the subject-matter to teach, but rather processes and mechanisms. They should learn that part, of course, but if they don't know the subject they're supposed to be teaching, it doesn't matter what process they employ.
When I first came here, I was told that the Washington area Unified School District had not qualified even one child for the National Merit Scholarship competition. Let alone for a Scholarship! So, I didn't want my children going to school here. Then I got to thinking about it, and that situation was the obvious argument for school choice. Say you're a poor African American woman living in Southeast with two or three children and no husband; the one thing you want for your children is an education, so they won't end up with the same life you had. If you can't get it anywhere in the whole unified school district then school choice ought to be an obvious right. Most of those who opposed this in the Senate didn't send their children to the public schools here.
Helen: How did you teach your own children about the foundational principles of America?
Senator Wallop: We just talked about it. We were all interested in history. In some instances they were better at it than I was. They also went to schools that did teach it. I used to get a little cross with some current events classes where they talked about things in the papers, but would never relate them to the processes of liberty and freedom that we have in this country. History isn't being taught. I wasn't taught history well, but I just happened to love it and found other ways to learn it. The thing that occurred to me a lot in the Senate was the little sense of history many Senators have, including that history that they themselves had legislated. There was no sense of repetitive relevance. You know, "We've been here before with certain legislation and it worked, or it didn't work before."
Helen: Was it only because they wanted something in their name?
Senator Wallop: It's because they took the politically expedient way in each instance, and that could be quite contradictory from time to time.
Peter: Do you suppose that explains why Kerry seems to be all over the map in terms of consistency?
Senator Wallop: That's one of the reasons. He's a totally political animal and always has been. He doesn't seem to be one of those people who has any guiding light.
Peter: I've likened the two candidates - Bush and Kerry - as one man has a compass and the other man has a wind vane.
What do you think ordinary, concerned Americans can do to maintain the strength of the Union. We know you founded The Frontiers of Freedom, but most aren't in a position to be able to do that.
Senator Wallop: Other such entities exist and, just because you can't found them doesn't mean you can't support them. Those entities need the support of ordinary people. Sometimes if's hard for people to grasp why they should give money to Malcolm Wallop's Foundation, until we tell them why. But that's one way. Another is to get engaged in the processes of schools and local government. Defending your neighbor's property rights, for example.
[Note from Peter and Helen: Senator Wallop's Foundation is Frontiers of Freedom; check it out!]
Helen: Do you have problems with that in Wyoming?
Senator Wallop: It's a problem everywhere. I just came back from the Northern Neck of Virginia. It's fabulous country down there and I smiled all the way back thinking about it. It's so different from Northern Virginia. Here in Northern Virginia you have huge houses and tiny lots, there you have tiny houses and huge lots. But watching the logic of local government and confronting it is a good way to be engaged.
Recently Frontiers of Freedom confronted a local school teacher. His teaching method, of getting students to write "f---" 10,000 times a day to "de-sensitize" them, was the problem. The kid complained to his parents, who agreed with him and called the school. Sadly, the school agreed with the teacher. However, the parents of the student finally asked us to stop, because their child was being harassed and mocked at school by the teacher.
Helen: So sometimes it works when we confront and sometimes it doesn't. What do you say to those who can't stand up to the heat?
Senator Wallop: Well next time, we'd ask the neighbors to join us in the confrontation. Then the student wouldn't have to stand alone. Alot of people just don't know how to confront, but they can learn.
Helen: That's part of the reason we're writing this book. It's easy to say, "I don't know how to do that; someone else should take care of it for me." But if someone else takes care of it for you, it may not be done the way you want. So how can we get people involved in their civic lives?
Senator Wallop: You can't force people to do anything, but you can encourage them; show them the way. There are some elemental successes that are creeping into the public domain now, and that should encourage people.
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