I had a great day yesterday until it came time for lab last night. There is a young lady in that class who, at the tender age of 21, already thinks she knows everything. Since the class includes students from the age of 19 up to 46, when she acts like she knows everything and shows up late and interrupts, it annoys them almost as much as it annoys me. Apparently, she wasn't paying much attention the first day of class.
Torn by what to do, I'm trying to decide before I see her again Monday for lecture how to handle this. Last night, she interrupted me several times, and so I told her that if she wanted to dominate the conversation she could talk to herself in the hall. I do not wish to be part of the problem; I wish to be part of the solution.
Many people in positions of control and many people who believe themselves to be better would actually encourage us to be chickens. Although as I said yesterday we are really eagles, these elitists discourage excellence and achievement. They desire to make us 'equal' and render things 'fair' because eagles are 'birds of prey'. To them, an individual is a villain, that he has virtue only when he is part of some movement larger than himself, unless of course that movement is Christianity or Judaism. The motives of the movement are assumed to be altruistic and the motions of the individual are assumed to be selfish and debilitating to society despite what they do. In their minds, life would be better if we all scratched around in the dirt with the rest of the barnyard rabble.
When you have phony masterminds in charge, we see a great effort to render people all the same. The assumption is that when everyone's the same, that we will have peace and happiness. Supposedly there is virtue in this, but I cannot think of a single instance or reference in which 'chicken' is associated with anything noble. There are however legion of examples in which 'eagle' is associated with the virtuous and noble, pardon the pun.
I feel fairsure that these masterminds would have me beat down this young lady. There are some vagueries in her attitude, but I am torn how to handle those without discouraging her. She could be great, you know, and I do not wish to hamper her progress, should she be destined to be the next Rosalin Franklin or Clarissa Barton. As I wrote yesterday, I desire for men to be eagles and soar.
At this point and on her own, this student has very little value. Compared to professionals in my field and in hers, she is a fledgling at best. Throw her into the workforce now, and it will shake her off to fall to her doom. Since she believes she already knows everything, it is extremely difficult to talk to her let alone teach her. She insists on talking over me, talking to others whilst I am talking, and tallying the times she is right (which is kind of the point of the lab- to get the right answer; do you want a medal?). The trouble is that she is not altruistic, and I fear that she will continue to usurp leadership and act as conscience and thought for the group entire. Her lab group is already resisting because she comes across as a know-it-all, and they have picked up on how condescending she acts. Note- I am not saying she IS arrogant and condescending; she merely comes across that way. She keeps intervening and manipulating, doing the work for them rather than letting them reason it out for themselves, which means neither she nor they will grow as much as possible from the experience.
The current political movement does not want us to excel. They give out 'participation medals' and encourage sameness of outcome regardless of input. They discourage excellence or free thought under the auspices that this is noble because it won't hurt the esteem of other people. In truth, man is naturally independent and inclined towards self-reliance. My students understand full well that after this course, they will no longer be in the same groups or even with the same classmates, and by the time they become professionals, they may have to rely on themselves. This young lady isn't doing them the favor that she believes she is.
Wittingly or not, these great planners are endorsing oppression. They do not want individuals to be agents or sovereign of their own lives. They might even reach out to this young woman, project altruism onto her, and invite her into their ranks to plan things for everyone else. America however was built by a combination of wisdom and virtue, and although this young lady might have great knowledge, she has not demonstrated wisdom or virtue. Wisdom is knowledge rightly applied (Hyrum Smith), and altruistic though she may believe herself to be, the way this young lady comes across is anything but virtuous. It has offended her group mates and members of other groups who actually asked me to deny her application to join their group.
Central planning destroys the nature of man. Like the farmer in yesterday's post who insisted that the eagle was a chicken, these elitists insist that we are chickens, that we should scratch out a meager living in the dust with the rabble, and that anyone who says we are more than human chattle is completely nuts. However, natural law says that men are eagles unless they corrupt themselves and become subject to nothing else than despotic government.
At the end of the Constitutional Convention, two prescient comments describe the new Animal Farm in America today. Benjamin Franklin said in a statement read by James Wilson, "Thus I consent because I know no better and because I am not sure that it is not the best." James Madison said "The Constitution was written for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Last week, I wrote about how I still believe in the people and their virtue; this young lady is the exception to the rule. Liberty is essential for individuals to rise to their potential while it allows the devious to combine against them to their detriment. All that stands between success and failure as people is whether we possess enough self-discipline such as will direct us to choose to be choice.
Consequently I find myself in a delicate position. If I allow this young lady to project her will and her pavlovian attitude towards her classmates onto such, I hurt them and condemn them to scratch with the chickens. If I do not reach her, then I may hamper her ability to in and of herself rise with the eagles. Her group's current troubles arise from her intervention and intrusion in the learning process necessary for the growth and success of her group. I do not wish to limit her to small dreams or small accomplishment. I fear that unless I handle this well, she might be so condemned or that, if I do nothing, the group might be condemned to ignominity. I told someone yesterday that my intent is for my students to be better than I am; I get no ego boost in beating them down and proving myself wiser. As they improve, America and society on the entire globe will advance concurrent with their advances. That is what I desire even as others of my colleagues dumb down education to make the previous generation seem smarter than the rising one. I pray God to inspire me how I can take all of my students up on that mountain top, point their eyes to the sky and convince them of this truth: "You are an eagle. Fly!"
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