When I was in third grade, our 64-year-old teacher, Mrs. Eckstrom, sat down with us and told us something that, at the time, sounded ridiculous. She said, "Boys and girls, you may only be 8 years old today, but someday, you will be running the world. You will be making the decisions. I hope you do a better job of it than we did." It was like looking through the wrong end of a telescope — it seemed so far away.
Now, all these years later, as I look back through the other side of that lens, aside from scientific advances, I don't think we have done better.
Today's world leaders were once in third grade, but as they got older, they continued to start wars. We never mastered a sane and rational way to resolve disputes. We continued to hate people because they were different from us or because they had different beliefs. We never stopped polluting our rivers, oceans and atmosphere.
We didn't instill a universal value of self-dependency. Instead, far too many people have been conditioned to be victims, creating a dependency on the government or others.
We have allowed our children and grandchildren to become disrespectful toward adults and people of authority. As a consequence, we can't even find enough people to drive our school buses or teach our children.
And speaking of education, despite how much we know about the life-changing value of a good education, there are still far too many parents who can't even be bothered to go to a parent-teacher conference.
If I had to stand in front of Mrs. Eckstrom today, I think I would be embarrassed to report on how we did. I don't have a solution, but I hope and pray parents raise today's third-graders to do a better job when it's their turn.
I'm Bill Lamb, and that's my Point of View.
