[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 165 (Friday, November 19, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2484-E2486]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE TRUE GOAL OF EDUCATION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES M. TALENT

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 18, 1999

  Mr. TALENT. Mr. Speaker, I insert the following eloquent speech 
entitled ``the True Goal of Education'' into the Congressional Record.

                       The True Goal of Education

                        (By Gov. George W. Bush)

       It is a pleasure to be here, and to join in marking the 
     chamber's Business Appreciation Month. New Hampshire is a 
     state of small businesses. Many of them here in the north 
     country are prospering, and this organization has played an 
     important part. I am honored by your invitation.
       I am an optimist, I believe that the next century will be a 
     time of incredible prosperity--if we can create an 
     environment where entrepreneurs like you can dream and 
     flourish. A prosperity sustained by low taxes, unleashed by 
     lighter regulation, energized by new technologies, expanded 
     by free trade. A prosperity beyond all our expectations, but 
     within our grasp.
       But this hope, in the long-run, depends directly on the 
     education of our children--on young men and women with the 
     skills and character to succeed. So for the past few months, 
     I have focused on the problems and promise of our public 
     schools.
       In September, I talked about disadvantaged children left 
     behind by failed schools. The diminished hopes of our current 
     system are sad and serious--the soft bigotry of low 
     expectations. Schools that do not teach and will not change 
     must have some final point of accountability. A moment of 
     truth, when their federal funds, intended to help the poorest 
     children, are divided up and given to parents--for tutoring 
     or a charter school or some other hopeful option.
       Last month, I talked about raising the academic ambitions 
     of every public school in America--creating a culture of 
     achievement. My plan lifts the burden of bureaucracy, and 
     gives states unprecedented freedom in spending federal 
     education dollars. In return for

[[Page E2485]]

     this flexibility, each state must adopt a system of real 
     accountability and high standards. Students must be tested on 
     the basics of reading and math each year--and those results 
     posted, by school, on the Internet. This will give parents 
     the information to know if education is actually taking 
     place--and the leverage to demand reform.
       My education proposals are bound by a thread of principle. 
     The federal government must be humble enough to stay out of 
     the day-to-day operation of local schools. It must be wise 
     enough to give states and school districts more authority and 
     freedom. And it must be strong enough to require proven 
     performance in return. The federal role in education is to 
     foster excellence and challenge failure with charters and 
     choice. The federal role in education is not to serve the 
     system. It is to serve the children.
       Yet this is only part of an agenda. Yes, we want our 
     children to be smart and successful. But even more, we want 
     them to be good and kind and decent. Yes, our children must 
     learn how to make a living. But even more, they must learn 
     how to live, and what to love. ``Intelligence is not 
     enough,'' said Martin Luther King, Jr. ``Intelligence plus 
     character--that is the true goal of education.''
       So today, here in New Hampshire, I want to make the case 
     for moral education. Teaching is more than training, and 
     learning is more than literacy. Our children must be educated 
     in reading and writing--but also in right and wrong.
       Of course, every generation worries about the next. 
     ``Children today are tyrants,'' said one educator. ``They 
     contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize 
     their teachers.'' And that teacher's name was . . . Socrates.
       Some things don't change. The real problem comes, not when 
     children challenge the rules, but when adults won't defend 
     the rules. And for about three decades, many American schools 
     surrendered this role. Values were ``clarified,'' not taught. 
     Students were given moral puzzles, not moral guidance. But 
     morality is not a cafeteria of personal choices--with every 
     choice equally right and equally arbitrary, like picking a 
     flavor of ice cream. We do not shape our own morality. It is 
     morality that shapes our lives.
       Take an example. A Massachusetts teacher--a devoted 
     supporter of values clarification--had a sixth grade class 
     which announced that it valued cheating, and wanted the 
     freedom to express that value during tests. Her response? ``I 
     personally value honesty,'' she said. ``Although you may 
     choose to be dishonest, I will insist that we be honest on 
     our tests here. In other areas of your life, you may have to 
     be dishonest.''
       This is not moral neutrality. It is moral surrender. Our 
     schools should not cultivate confusion. They must cultivate 
     conscience.
       In spite of conflicting signals--and in spite of a popular 
     culture that sometimes drowns their innocence--most of our 
     kids are good kids. Large numbers do volunteer work. Nearly 
     all believe in God, and most practice their faith. Teen 
     pregnancy and violence are actually going down. Across 
     America, under a program called True Love Waits, nearly a 
     million teens have pledged themselves to abstain from sex 
     until marriage. Our teenagers feel the pressures of complex 
     times, but also the upward pull of a better nature. They 
     deserve our love and they deserve our encouragement.
       And sometimes they show character and courage beyond 
     measure. When a gun is aimed at a seventeen-year-old in 
     Colorado--and she is shot for refusing to betray her Lord. 
     When a seventeen-year-old student, during a madman's attack 
     on a Fort Worth church, is shot while shielding a friend with 
     Downs Syndrome--and continues to comfort her, even after her 
     own injury. We are finding, in the midst of tragedy, that our 
     children can be heroes too.
       Yet something is lost when the moral message of schools is 
     mixed and muddled. Many children catch a virus of apathy and 
     cynicism. They lose the ability to make confident judgments--
     viewing all matters of right and wrong as a matter of 
     opinion. Something becomes frozen within them--a capacity for 
     indignation and empathy. You can see it in shrugged 
     shoulders. You can hear it in the watchword of a generation: 
     ``Whatever,''
       Academics like Professor Robert Simon report seeing many 
     students--nice, well-intentioned young men and women--who 
     refuse to make judgments even about the Holocaust. ``Of 
     course I dislike the Nazis,'' he quotes a student, ``but who 
     is to say they are morally wrong?''
       At the extreme, in the case of a very few children--
     lawless, loveless and lonely--this confusion can harden into 
     self-destruction or evil, suicide or violence. They find no 
     elevating ideals--from parents or church or school--to 
     counter the chaos in their souls. ``We laugh at honor,'' said 
     C.S. Lewis, ``and are shocked to find traitors in our 
     midst.''
       But something is changing in this country. Perhaps we have 
     been sobered by tragedy. Perhaps the Baby Boom generation has 
     won some wisdom from its failures and pain. But we are no 
     longer laughing at honor. ``Values clarirfication'' seems 
     like a passing superstition. Many states have instituted real 
     character education in their schools, and many more are 
     headed in that direction. After decades of drift, we are 
     beginning a journey of renewal.
       Above all, we are relearning a sense of idealism for our 
     children. Parents and teachers are rediscovering a great 
     calling and a heavy burden: to write on the slate of souls.
       We must tell our children--with conviction and confidence--
     that the authors of the Holocaust were evil men, and the 
     authors of the Constitution were good ones. That the right to 
     life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is not a personal 
     opinion, but an eternal truth.
       And we must tell our children--with clarity and certainty--
     that character gives direction to their gifts and dignity to 
     their lives. That life is too grand and important to be 
     wasted on whims and wants, on getting and keeping. That 
     selfishness is a dark dungeon. That bigotry disfigures the 
     heart. That they were made for better things and higher 
     goals.
       The shape of our society, the fate of our country, depends 
     on young men and women who know these things. And we must 
     teach them.
       I know this begins with parents. And I know that is easy 
     for a politician to say. Mark Twain once commented, ``To do 
     good is noble. To instruct others in doing good is just as 
     noble, and much easier.'' But the message of our society must 
     be clear. When a man or woman has a child, being a father or 
     mother becomes their most important job in life. Not all 
     teachers are parents, but all parents are teachers. Family is 
     the first school of manners and morals. And the compass of 
     conscience is usually the gift of a caring parent.
       Yet parents should expect schools to be allies in the moral 
     education of children. The lessons of the home must be 
     reinforced by the standards of the school--standards of 
     safety, discipline and decency.
       Effective character education should not just be an hour a 
     week on a school's virtue of the month. Effective character 
     education is fostered in schools that have confidence in 
     their own rules and values. Schools that set limits, enforce 
     boundaries, teach high ideals, create habits of good conduct. 
     Children take the values of the adult worlds seriously when 
     adults take those values seriously.
       And this goal sets an agenda for our nation.
       First, we must do everything in our power to ensure the 
     safety of our children. When children and teenagers go to 
     school afraid of being bullied, or beaten, or worse, it is 
     the ultimate betrayal of adult responsibility. It 
     communicates the victory of moral chaos.
       In an American school year there are more than 4,000 rapes 
     or cases of sexual battery; 7,000 robberies; and 11,000 
     physical attacks involving a weapon. And these are overall 
     numbers. For children attending inner-city schools, the 
     likelihood of being a victim of violence is roughly five 
     times greater than elsewhere. It is a sign of the times that 
     the same security company used by the U.S. Mint and the FBI 
     has now branched out into high-school security.
       Surveying this scene, it is easy to forget that there is 
     actually a federal program designed to confront school 
     violence. It's called the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and 
     Communities Act. The program spends about $600 million 
     dollars a year, assisting 97 percent of the nation's school 
     districts.
       What's missing from the program is accountability. Nobody 
     really knows how the money is spent, much less whether it is 
     doing any good. One newspaper found that federal money had 
     gone to pay for everything from motivational speakers to 
     clowns to school puppet shows to junkets for school 
     administrators.
       As president, I will propose major changes in this program. 
     Every school getting this funding will report their results--
     measured in student safety. Those results will be public. At 
     schools that are persistently dangerous, students will be 
     given a transfer to some other school--a safe school.
       No parent in America--no matter their income--should be 
     forced to send their child to a school where violence reigns. 
     No child in America--regardless of background--should be 
     forced to risk their lives in order to learn.
       In the same way, it is a federal crime for a student to 
     bring a gun into any public school. Yet this law has been 
     almost completely ignored by federal prosecutors in recent 
     years. Of some 3,900 violations reported between 1997 and 
     1998, only 13 were prosecuted. It is easy to propose laws. 
     Sometimes it is easy to pass laws. But the measure of our 
     seriousness is enforcing the law. And the safety of our 
     children merits more than lip service.
       Here is what I'll do. We will form a new partnership of the 
     federal government and states--called Project Sentry. With 
     some additional funding for prosecutors and the ATF, we can 
     enforce the law and prosecute the violators: students who use 
     guns illegally or bring guns to school, and adults who 
     provide them. And for any juvenile found guilty of a serious 
     gun offense, there will be a lifetime ban on carrying or 
     purchasing a gun--any gun, for any reason, at any age, ever.
       Tougher enforcement of gun laws will help to make our 
     schools safer. But safety is not the only goal here. The 
     excellence of a school is not just measured by declines in 
     robbery, murder, and aggravated assault. Safety is the first 
     and urgent step toward a second order of business--instilling 
     in all of our public schools the virtues of discipline.
       More than half of secondary-school teachers across the 
     country say they have been threatened, or shouted at, or 
     verbally abused by students. A teacher in Los Angeles 
     describes her job as ``nine-tenths policeman, one-tenth 
     educational.'' And many schools, intimidated by the threat of 
     lawsuits, have watered down their standards of behavior. In

[[Page E2486]]

     Oklahoma, a student who stabbed a principal with a nail was 
     suspended for three days. In North Carolina, a student who 
     broke her teacher's arm was suspended for only two days.
       In too many cases, adults are in authority, but they are 
     not in control.
       To their credit, many schools are trying to reassert that 
     control--only to find themselves in court. Generations of 
     movies from The Blackboard Jungle to Stand and Deliver cast 
     as their hero the teacher who dares to bring discipline to 
     the classroom. But a modern version of this drama would have 
     to include a new figure in the story--the lawyer.
       Thirty-one percent of all high schools have faced lawsuits 
     or out-of-court settlements in the past 2 years. This is 
     seriously deterring discipline, and demands a serious 
     response.
       In school districts receiving federal school safety funds, 
     we will expect a policy of zero-tolerance for persistently 
     disruptive behavior. This means simply that teachers will 
     have the authority to remove from their classroom any student 
     who persists in being violent or unruly. Only with the 
     teacher's consent will these students be allowed to return. 
     The days of timid pleading and bargaining and legal haggling 
     with disruptive students must be over. Learning must no 
     longer be held hostage to the brazen behavior of a few.
       Along with this measure, I will propose a Teacher 
     Protection Act to free teachers, principals and school board 
     members from meritless federal lawsuits when they enforce 
     reasonable rules. School officials, acting in their official 
     duties, must be shielded from liability. A lifetime dedicated 
     to teaching must not be disrupted by a junk lawsuit. We do 
     not need tort lawyers scouring the halls of our schools--
     turning every classroom dispute into a treasure hunt for 
     damage awards.
       Safety and discipline are essential. But when we dream for 
     our children, we dream with higher goals. We want them to 
     love learning. And we want them to be rich in character and 
     blessed in ideals.
       So our third goal is to encourage clear instruction in 
     right and wrong. We want our schools to care about the 
     character of our children.
       I am not talking about schools promoting a particular set 
     of religious beliefs. Strong values are shared by good people 
     of different faiths, of varied backgrounds.
       I am talking about communicating the values we share, in 
     all our diversity. Respect. Responsibility. Self-restraint. 
     Family commitment. Civic duty. Fairness. Compassion. The 
     moral landmarks that guide a successful life.
       There are a number of good programs around the country that 
     show how values can be taught in a diverse nation. At St. 
     Leonard's Elementary School in Maryland, children take a 
     pledge each morning to be ``respectful, responsible and ready 
     to learn.'' Character education is a theme throughout the 
     curriculum--in writing, social studies and reading. And 
     discipline referrals were down by 70 percent in one year. At 
     Marion Intermediate school in South Carolina, virtues are 
     taught by studying great historical figures and characters in 
     literature.
       Consideration is encouraged, good manners are expected. And 
     discipline referrals are down by half in one year.
       The federal government now spends $8 million on promoting 
     character education efforts. My administration will triple 
     that funding--money for states to train teachers and 
     incorporate character lessons into daily coursework.
       We will require federal youth and juvenile justice programs 
     to incorporate an element of character building.
       Our government must get its priorities straight when it 
     comes to the character of our children. Right now, the 
     Department of Health and Human Services spends far more on 
     teen contraception than it does on teen abstinence. It takes 
     the jaded view that children are nothing more than the sum of 
     their drives, with no higher goal than hanging out and 
     hooking up. We owe them better than this--and they are better 
     than this. They ask for bread, and we give them a stone.
       Abstinence programs show real promise--exactly because more 
     and more teenagers understand that true love waits. My 
     administration will elevate abstinence education from an 
     afterthought to an urgent goal. We should spend at least as 
     much each year on promoting the conscience of our children as 
     we do on providing them with contraception.
       As well, we will encourage and expand the role of charities 
     in after-school programs. Everyone agrees there is a problem 
     in these empty, unsupervised hours after school. But those 
     hours should not only be filled with sports and play, they 
     should include lessons in responsibility and character. The 
     federal government already funds afterschool programs. But 
     charities and faith-based organizations are prevented from 
     participating. In my administration they will be invited to 
     participate. Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the YMCA and local 
     churches and synagogues and mosques should be a central part 
     of voluntary, after-school programs.
       Schools must never impose religion--but they must not 
     oppose religion either. And the federal government should not 
     be an enemy of voluntary expressions of faith by students.
       Religious groups have a right to meet before and after 
     school. Students have a right to say grace before meals, read 
     their Bibles, wear Stars of David and crosses, and discuss 
     religion with other willing students. Students have a right 
     to express religious ideas in art and homework.
       Public schools that forbid these forms of religious 
     expression are confused. But more than that, they are 
     rejecting some of the best and finest influences on young 
     lives. It is noble when a young mind finds meaning and wisdom 
     in the Talmud or Koran. It is good and hopeful when young men 
     and women ask themselves what would Jesus do.
       The measure of our nation's greatness has never been 
     affluence or influence--rising stocks or advancing armies. It 
     has always been found in citizens of character and 
     compassion. And so many of our problems as a nation--from 
     drugs, to deadly diseases, to crime--are not the result of 
     chance, but of choice. They will only be solved by a 
     transformation of the heart and will. This is why a hopeful 
     and decent future is found in hopeful and decent children.
       That hope, of course, is not created by an Executive Order 
     or an Act of Congress. I strongly believe our schools should 
     reinforce good character. I know that our laws will always 
     reflect a moral vision. But there are limits to law, set at 
     the boundaries of the heart. It has been said: ``Men can make 
     good laws, but laws can not make men good.''
       Yet a president has a broader influence and a deeper legacy 
     than the programs he proposes. He is more than a bookkeeper 
     or an engineer of policy. A president is the most visible 
     symbol of a political system that Lincoln called ``the last 
     best hope of earth.'' The presidency, said Franklin 
     Roosevelt, is ``preeminently a place of moral leadership.''
       That is an awesome charge. It is the most sobering part of 
     a decision to run for president. And it is a charge I plan to 
     keep.
       After power vanishes and pride passes, this is what 
     remains: The promises we kept. The oath we fulfilled. The 
     example we set. The honor we earned.
       This is true of a president or a parent. Of a governor or a 
     teacher. We are united in a common task: to give our children 
     a spirit of moral courage. This is not a search for 
     scapegoats--it is a call to conscience. It is not a hopeless 
     task--it is the power and privilege of every generation. 
     Every individual can change a corner of our culture. And 
     every child is a new beginning.
       In all the confusion and controversy of our time, there is 
     still one answer for our children. An answer as current as 
     the headlines. An answer as old as the scriptures. ``Whatever 
     is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever 
     is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if 
     there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, let 
     your mind dwell on these things.''
       If we love our children, this is the path of duty--and the 
     way of hope. Thank you.

     

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