How to Survive the Worst Natural Disaster of All

The worst natural disaster of all mankind didn’t originally begin as any kind of disaster at all. It is not considered and “act of God”. It is not quick and horrifying like a tornado or unexpected like an earthquake. In fact, most Americans would not even consider said topic to even be a disaster, because it shouldn’t be one.

The word “disaster” leads us to believe that it is tangible, that we can see it and its aftermath. Inadvertingly, the disaster I’m talking about is an ongoing one. Most politicians would deny that the problem is even a big deal and Americans are too blind to ever figure it out. What is this disaster? What is this problem that is hemorrhaging the development of our future generation? The decline of human intelligence.

Why is our intelligence fading? Why are we failing to step up to our responsibilities as the next leaders of our future? We as humans are the most intelligent life forms on this planet. We’ve been learning new things since the day we learned to speak, and in turn have been teaching what we’ve learned to our youth so they can continue to evolve. The past generations have been hard-working, striving, eager to learn young lads, unlike the lazy, lackluster, kids of today. Due to that factor, it’s generally safe to say that we’ve reached the pinnacle of our adaptation. Why is this?

“….The school system we’ve created is failing to replenish the stores of future great thinkers…” (Soto) Yes, that’s right. I am blaming our school system. But it wasn’t always this way. Schools were originally meant to be a habitat of knowledge, where eager young children learn and develop their minds to help better the world. Broken down to bone and flesh, today’s schools are only worried about their funding.

You see there’s this list. The List. Every state and county in each state has one. On this list is every school, from Pre-K to High school. The list dictates where the state’s money goes as far as school funding. Every school needs piles of money to better the children, so they figure they might as well use the children to get their funding. How is this done?

Through test scores.

Well, every big test we take, most FCAT, Florida Writes and the NRT, has nothing to do with us kids. Yes, colleges look at them, but more importantly our test scores are being compared to the test scores of children our age in schools all over Florida. That right, “…our children are being treated like a ‘product’”. (Soto) “Our children are being trained, not taught….” (Soto)

This is true, and when parents began to realize this they quickly withdrew their precious children and began to teach their kids themselves. Thus, home schooling was born. This technique is good, because you can control your child’s learning environment and move at their own pace, but the kid is still required to take the FCAT and such. Not such a big deal? Consider this:

The home schooled child isn’t moving as fast as the public school kids who’re pressured into their classes at a very young age. The home schooled child is a little slow or has a problem understanding math or something, so they usually dont do as well on these standardized tests. Sure, once or twice a decade you get some super genius who knows twelfth-grade vocabulary in elementary school, but usually the “…crème de la crème emerge from public or private schools…” (Splotchy) However, most parents engage in the act of home schooling in order to impress their religious beliefs upon their child.

“…why is it acceptable to curse on the radio, show sex and drugs on television, but not acceptable to discuss God in schools?” (The Light)

We live in America, the land of the free (you are free until you disobey the rules.) We are allowed to believe in, preach and practice our religious beliefs until we are blue in the face, but not in or around schools. Why? Because parents get concerned about Little Jimmy and Susie. They dont want good, Christian Jimmy learning about the scary world of Wicca from a book or class subject. What would happen if Jimmy developed an interest in Wicca and strayed? Their idealistic Christian family would have a black sheep.

Adults fear a child’s innocence. They fear our open-mindedness because we have the ability to show compassion for certain “no-no’s” that most adults have demonized. They want us to believe what they believe, not sympathize with the enemy. This is part of our stunted intellectual growth. Without being open-minded we lack the innate ability to visualize ideas, support theories, or even make a legal argument for ourselves. In order to prod us in the direction they want, the government scared parents into believing that certain ideas and media is “morally unsafe” for our “tender young minds” I.E: Censorship reared its ugly head.

If a child is allowed to read and study whatever it wants, it can think and act for itself. For example, Little Jimmy could develop an interest in Wicca because the idea of praising Mother Earth sounds a lot more plausible than worshiping God or Susie could search out and find holes in our judicial system, holes that we all use to pervert it to work for us, not deal out justice. The problem with this melting pot is that threes no way to make everyone happy, so things will be taken away in order to steer the child in the right direction (which would be the direction of the parent or guardian.) Let us continue with Little Jimmy pursuing his interest in Wicca, which is nothing more than modern Hippyism.

Now it is a moderately-known fact that most obscenely-prestigious Christian and Catholic families do not allow their children to read “Harry Potter”. It is an innocent book, full of wonder and splendors that any child who loves to read would enjoy, but it is not allowed because the parents of Jimmy fear that such a book would inspire the child to imagine that he has magical powers. Jimmy would then delve into Witchcraft and quickly become a Satanist. (Because “if you’re not with God then you’re against him“, says my manager at work.) Its an absurd proposition, right?

There has recently been a case in a school somewhere that was mentioned on the news of a very popular fiction book known as “The Chronicles of Narnia” being banned from a public school because a student’s mother was afraid that her son could not tell the difference between reality and fiction. Thus that innocent book, which has become a fantastic movie, is now on the “Books-we-don’t-want-our-kids-reading-because-we-fear-our-childs- maturity-level” list. I personally had to have a permission slip signed by my father in order to read Stephen King in class. Like most of the kids my age, I am well versed in King’s literature and thought that piece of paper was a very stupid idea. Any child in the eleventh grade is surely mature enough to read books on murder without becoming a murderer themselves. Jeez.

So many books with good life-lessons have been banned because parents are afraid that they will “pervert” our minds or quite possibly teach us something new, God forbid. On a side note, if parents gave their children responsibilities at a young age and treated us like mature adults then we wouldn’t have sixteen year olds giggling at the words “penis” and “vagina.”

Whilst on the topic, I feel the need to address Curricular Censorship. Parents dread the day that they have to sit their child down and have the “sex talk” Most parents don’t even have that talk anymore, and while I’m sure the child will learn about it on their own from friends and rapists, do we really need more teenage mothers? If half of my friends were taught right by their mothers I wouldn’t have lost a good friend because she is pregnant with a twenty-four year olds child at the age of sixteen. I also wouldn’t have a friend with a one year old son and a second on the way at the age of eighteen. With the economy like it is, does anyone think that they’ll have the means to support those children? Coincidentally, parents don’t want their kids learning about sex from a teacher that might have a biased opinion. This is why most schools in the U.S. no longer offer “sex ed” Now this could have something to do with the frighteningly numerous teenagers who get excited over a naked mannequin and try to watch the beginning of “The Crucible” when the teacher is gone for the day, or it could be because teachers don’t feel it necessary to try anymore. (Go back a few paragraphs to the “responsibility” issue because I don’t “feel” like repeating myself)

Oh and lets not forget that if teachers tried to get us to remain abstinent, not only would they get laughed at and possibly beaten up, but they’d be badgered by parents who thought their child was being force-fed some religious belief. But if the teacher tried to teach us about safe sex, they’d be in trouble with the parents because it is against some religions to use condoms or birth control? COME ON! Like a fourteen or eighteen year old couldn’t DECIDE for themselves? Besides, you cant deny that knowing a condom can help isn’t the end of the world.

To prove some previously mentioned points I received the aid of my best friend Jackie Cook in Riverdale High. She recently wrote an essay that had to do with some very frightening observations she has made.

Now Jackie and I come from country families. We grew up with lots of chores and tasks to do, were made to keep our rooms clean and were whipped if we disobeyed. We were taught that we have to do everything to the fullest and we do. Jackie is a freshman and is striving towards being a biochemist last time I checked, and I might not have the best grades, but I have a very deep, understanding mind and I work hard at the things I have to.

Jackie has noticed that kids her own age can’t do simple math. In the ninth grade. Cant do subtraction or addition without a calculator, whereas we weren’t allowed calculators. Her own father, before he died two years ago, did math on paper even in his own watermelon farming business. Those same kids cannot read an analog clock, but can read their cell phones just fine. And when Jackie subconsciously goes the extra mile to help others because that is what she was taught, other kids think she’s weird. The other kids in her grade cant be bothered to share a pencil or get their own notebooks for class.

Does any of this strike you as bad? Did anything I just typed send up flares or flags? Sparks? Anything? What used to be a “human issue” can now be considered a “natural disaster” thanks to our lack of interest in our future and attention paid to the past.

I’d like to sit back and dare someone to prove to me that our plight as the “higher species” is not, in fact, a “natural disaster,” but seeing as no one else ever brought the subject up, I might be sitting back for a very, very long time. This may not be an “act of God,” like I said before, but it is natural. To error is but human, and the human is natural.

-This essay brought to you by a slightly disgruntled adolescent who feels the need to morbidly twist a simple writing project into…..All of this