May 2, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 17 to study “discipline” with some of the recent U.S. veterans augmented by retired police officers in an atmosphere where, whether they learning anything or not, they do not present a danger to their more studious peers. People who have attended truly awful schools generally report that, about 10 years after graduation, most of the high school troublemakers are dead or in prison. Keeping them on academic hold was a waste of school space, and a terrible waste of the time of teachers who wanted to teach and students who wanted to learn. Mindlessly violent people, chronic bullies, class “cutups” who function with edged weapons rather than paper airplanes, are not a problem for the education system: They are a problem for the justice system. Putting them in the military is no solution because they contaminate good soldiers with their presence, and while they sometimes get killed in “accidents” when they push the bullying too far, they do no credit to their uniforms. Above all, they do not belong cluttering up classrooms where the brighter students from the same communities want to learn something. As we can no longer subsidize tenure, we can no longer subsidize thuggery. Third, we need to recognize the limits of special education. Students who require special education deserve society’s help and protection. They should be encouraged to proceed at their own pace and to make whatever contributions are possible. However, the programs that help these kids need to be scrutinized in terms of cost control just as rigorously as every other form of academic program. A real nightmare situation can occur when a child whose abilities are ordinary, perhaps even somewhat superior, is “classified” by mistake. One of the kids I tutor – not around here – has Asperger’s syndrome. The supervising teacher who worked in his special education program told me he had an IQ of 26. I told her that her reading of his IQ was not possible because the kid is a capable mathematician who carries on intelligent conversations. I believe the student did not do well on the test because he found it boring and failed to check off all the questions. The result did not reflect the intelligence of a student who can handle algebra, enjoys feature films and often predicts twists in the plot, and writes touching poetry. Would any amount of further testing by people who did not understand this situation have helped him? Who would pay for such testing? Special education needs some review. The way to save special education is not to throw money at it. The way to save special education is to ensure the teachers are dealing with the real issues. Final problem: How will producing a society where every adult graduates from college deal with the real problem -- non-production of usable goods and farm products. IQ is fairly inflexible, and handing out college diplomas to people whose IQ is 100 or below will not produce an educated elite. It will produce a stratum of people who feel they are too good for manual or menial jobs, but are unqualified for professional or administrative work. Professor Louise Barnett, who teaches American Studies at Rutgers, recently published a sampling of trials in a study of U.S. war crimes in the Philippines from 18981902 and in Vietnam in the 1960s. She produced evidence that many war crimes were carried out by U.S. personnel who would have been rejected for military service had the military not lowered its IQ standards because of a lack of recruits. So many young men claimed college deferments that the military fell back on officer candidates who were not college material, and enlisted men who were not high school material. The results were massacres and brutality that soldiers in their right minds found embarrassing if not horrifying, and which did not win us hearts and minds overseas. Using “combat” as an excuse is an insult to the majority of soldiers who obeyed the rules and redounds to the shame of those whose argument is basically racist. All urban Germans and Japanese over the age of 70 are “combat veterans” because they all survived incendiary bombing raids that killed friends and family and leveled their neighborhoods. They seldom perpetrate arson as a peacetime pursuit. Holocaust survivors did not turn into a generation of murderers. Many of them warned the rest of us about violent tendencies and where they can lead. They were right to do so. The education system that shrugs off academic failure and encourages Americans to wrap their whole lives around formal schooling they cannot absorb, instead of learning and practicing useful trades that could feed their families and rebuild an environmentally friendly and healthy infrastructure, is a giant step in the wrong direction. Technology exists to scrub the carbon imprint out of coal, and most of the implementation is being done in China and Germany. Brazil now makes mostly ethanolcompatible cars. Morocco generates solar energy. More U.S. college graduates? Why? “We have to educate our way to a better economy.” No, fans and foes, I did not say that. I merely quoted U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who explained that the United States is in the process of becoming a Third World country because we are now 16th in the world in the quality of our education. The cure, he said, is to make sure that every American has more than a high school education. Back in the real world, Ridgewood just had a school board election at the traditional date. The budget was adopted handily after projected spending was held to the mandatory two percent cap. Four candidates competed for two seats. Three of the four informed, intelligent candidates were CPAs with two college degrees apiece. The fourth was an attorney with the Department of Education who also had two college degrees. All four of the candidates said, at Candidates Night and in their campaign literature, that cost control was an important aspect of service on the board of education. The candidate who ousted an incumbent with a good track record was the one who advocated moving school spending into reverse, with a goal of cutting school expenses three to five percent per year. The message here may be that schools are already expensive enough – perhaps even too expensive. Let us confront some hard facts. Duncan at least tacitly admits that the U.S. public education system is a failure. Most people have known this for a good many years, but I credit Duncan with the honesty and integrity for putting it on record. The system is broken! How do we fix it? The first step is to get rid of tenure. Many teachers in northwest Bergen County are excellent, but around the county, the state, and the nation we have inflicted a stultifying number of “educators” who have paper credentials, but no actual qualifications, on kids who might be able to learn something if they were exposed to real knowledge by teachers who care. Duncan reportedly spent a lot of time tutoring at the Sue Duncan Children’s Center, an after-school program. This is commendable, but are we not missing the point? Arne Duncan and his mother Sue Duncan, both of whom are worthy, dedicated, and distinguished people, spent large amounts of time doing what the school teachers were being paid to do. Arne and Sue Duncan were able to turn a lot of lives around through their own personal contributions. What did the failed teachers who had custody of the students before them do to justify their own salaries? Second problem: school discipline. The epidemic of concern about gangs, hazing, and bullying reflects on a serious problem that money alone will not cure. A large number of students are in school to entertain themselves in ways that are stupid and cruel and have nothing to do with education. Giving thugs and bimbos a place to hang out should not absorb any significant part of the taxpayers’ money. Children would not be bullied – sometimes to death, often to life-time neurosis and depression – if every student were there to learn. Many are. Some are not. I would suggest that the chronic trouble-makers be given a chance Saying what they tell you to say Ridgewood The Ridgewood Village Council last week voted to appropriate $404,000 to acquire a new fire pumper for the Ridgewood Fire Department. A sum of $315,000 in grants will help defray the cost. The nuts and bolts of the agreement were voted by ordinance and a series of resolutions at a special public session that punctuated the April 25 work session, and had been duly advertised. One resolution approved a temporary capital budget with an appropriation of $404,000, with $89,000 from a re-appropriation of bonds and notes and $315,000 from grants. Another resolution approved plans and specifications for furnishing and delivery of a 1,500 gallons-per-minute pumper, and a third resolution awarded the contract of $379,835 to the lowest responsible bidder, Pierce Manufacturing, Inc., in Appleton, Wisconsin. Council approves funds for pumper Questioned as to whether the engine being replaced by the new pumper would be kept on line, Mayor Keith Killion and Village Manager Ken Gabbert said the newly approved pumper would not be ready for a year, but that the possible sale of the older engine to another department would be investigated. Resident Boyd Loving asked what the $24,000 in additional equipment listed in the paperwork might comprise. He was told by Gabbert that no details were available at the meeting. Gabbert said that if Loving got in touch with him, he would provide information. The mayor and council and the residents in attendance were generally pleased with the fact that outside grants had defrayed most of the cost of the new engine purchase. J. KOSTER The Jersey Jubilation Handbell Choir will present its Spring Concert on Friday, May 18 at 8 p.m. at the Ridgewood United Methodist Church, 100 Dayton Street in Ridgewood. The program will include spirituals and hymns, classical arrangements, patriotic songs, an arrangement of Leroy Anderson’s “Plink, Plank, Plunk,” and original compositions for handbells. The Jersey Jubilation Handbell Choir was established in September 2004 as a not-for-profit performance level community choir whose purpose is to bring the unique sound of handbells to audiences in the area. The 13 ringers come from Bergen, Passaic, Hudson, Morris, and Salem coun- Handbell Choir announces concert ties, and from New York City. The choir presents a wide variety of music and rings five octaves of Whitechapel handbells and five octaves of Suzuki handchimes. The bells and rehearsal space are provided by the Ridgewood United Methodist Church. The choir is under the direction of Christine Braden, who has been ringing and directing handbells at the Ridgewood United Methodist Church for over 30 years. She recently completed 12 years of service on the Handbell Musicians of America Area II Board. A freewill offering will be accepted and refreshments will be served. For additional information, call (201) 4472751 or visit www.jerseyjubilation.org.