European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 25, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Polc 16 the stars and stripes april 1977 James Reston optimistic Carter bets on american people president Carter is touching on some of the deepest questions of american and even on some of the deepest puzzles of human in his crusade for a More austere Energy must we run out of Gas before figuring out How to keep going on the Long Ameri can historic journey have we Learned nothing from the past was it necessary to have a civil War to get rid of slavery a world depression to modernize the Ameri can Economy two German wars to bring America to the defense of a civilized world Carter quoted William without giving him on the importance of finding some moral equivalent of our decision about the presi Dent will test the character of the american people and the ability of the con Gress to this difficult Effort will be moral equivalent of War except that we will be uniting Bur efforts to build and not to since Carter has brought it it is interesting to look Back at what William James actually said in his famous he hated but admired the military ideals of and Fidelity to common and he won dered with foresight and common it would not be possible to inspire and enlist these same personal qualities in the endless struggle for peaceful Reform and a More decent so William James wrote Early in the War has been the Only Force that can discipline a whole and until an equivalent discipline is Orga i believe that War must have its but i have no serious doubt that the Ordinary prides and Shames of social once developed to a certain arc capable of organizing such a moral equivalent As i have sketched it is but a question of of skillful and of opinion making men seizing historic opportunities strenuous Honor and disinterestedness abound priests and medical men Are in a fashion educated to it the Only thing needed henceforward is to inflame the civic temper As past history has inflamed the military temper these Are old fashioned words and but they i precisely what Jimmy Carter has vaguely in he fears we could loiter As we run out of Fossil fuels into a spectacular Energy crisis which could threaten our our influence in the and even our National and he sees this not a problem but As an historic Opportunity to find a moral equivalent for the martial William James enlisted Wells in support of his and Wells defined it even More eloquently than where is the mind of our people Wells was there no Power of thought among free men and women Strong enough to swing them into armies that could take chaos by the Throat must thoughtful people be bul lied forever Are there no Wells to think at least As earnestly As one climbs a and to write with the uttermost Pride Are there no men to face truths As those boys at Mons faced and to stick for the Honor of the and for truth and Beauty As those lads stuck to their trenches what is to come out of this struggle just anything that May come out of or something we mean shall i come out of it it is Clear that Carter Means that some thing important shall come out of this impending Battle with and it is significant that he has chosen to take on the opinions sex Oringd in and on this Page represent whom of int Authon and Are in no Way to be considered As the views of the stars and stripes or the United Stales the Auto and the Auto probably the Moat powerful Polit ical combination in the nation in the first major political Home front test of his presi Carter could have fiddled with it de fined the problem in ominous like Ford and without bringing in a Tough program of disagreeable taxes to Deal with after we Are not going to run out of Gas in his first or even if Hes in his second in he is betting on the argument he dramatized in his Campaign for the that the american people Are Good and and will re Spond More readily than the professional politicians to an honest statement of the National even if they have to Sacri fice to do like William he is fascinated by the notion of civil even by a new civil service by Young men and women to local daycare Aid to the the and the but there is this difference James was merely speculating about the moral equivalent of about changing the attitudes of the people toward the whereas Carter is actually thinking about putting these controversial ideas into prac in Carter seems even More pessimistic than William James about the Drift of human but paradoxically More optimistic that something can be done to inspire a new sense of civic service and actually inspire a moral equivalent of  Jesse Jackson education is a Challenge to us All its the age of the one Way Guaran guaranteed guaranteed pm guaranteed health guaranteed guaranteed admin guaranteed except one what about guaranteed production ask get an outraged reply that guaranteed guaranteed measurements that discriminatory and that the bark of the Tail that wag Ging the dog to nowhere is its bite drawing More blood than in american Public education where the guarantee of performance Doest even extent to producing High school graduates who can read and the especially in Urban is for Public education to get out of the Edu cation Public educations identity crisis is so severe that its locked out the communities and children who need Educa Tion the most today big education Story is not whats happening in the classrooms but How goes the struggle of  men agencies  guess who winning its happening but the most ludicrous and cruel examples Are in big cities where teachers and administrators Are most where budgets Are big and the children the least consider its annual budgets is just Over billion billion to oper ate a system serving a half million Chil a majority of them who attend classes in More than 600 buildings oper ated and staffed by Only of them classroom eight percent of the budget pays Sala so its easy to guess what Chicago schools do Best they pay they employ they protect and perpetuate and because of Union Power and contractual Treyve institutionalized needless to theres not much Money or imagination left Over for an employees or teachers ultimate Reward is based on seniority and tenacity rather than service and if cities like Chicago dont Nei ther will the people we must depend on to rebuild them Are the people who live in its their children who will make the final but not if they arc not educated the Chicago Campus of the University of Illinois admits Young men and women who Are in the upper half of their High school graduating whether the schools Are in cushy suburbs or the inner to its the universities found that i columns comments i Many of its Chicago High school graduates there the upper half cant read above the eight Grade my operation arranged the testing of one Chicago High school to see what he knows compared to others around the we found he was Reading below the third Grade among other he thinks that George Washington is the Man who discovered his Mother was school officials were embarrassed but no one could be held accountable no one had guaranteed hed unless he drops he most Likely will graduate in two Young men and women like these Are being falsely they Are functionally illiterate but they Are being passed off to the world and themselves As functionally what meaning does a diploma have if the person who has it cant cant cant cant get a and cant understand that Hes been violated theres a conceit in education today that holds you dont train you train the idea is that you Only train hands if they dont have so schools like Chicago go through a mindless Cha Rade of preparing people to go to even though they cant teach them to vet who Ever met a bricklayer who didst have a functional grasp of Basic Al Gebra and trigonometry if the cities Are to be dont we need bricklayers and glazers and car Penters no educational forces have gained a stranglehold on the education in the people in control have Only a secondary interest in face it the in Terest of the organized is protective office work its Only the unorganized children and parents who Are in there is no childrens and parents association with Power that has As its principal Job the Protection of its not Clear who made the mess some some some some it is Clear who must accept the Chal Lenge All of pain and sacrifice must necessarily accompany change and the we must be willing to pay the Price to achieve the Noble end of saving our educational interest must seize the Power in the education some combination of massive parental Organiza Tion and Media must be forged to create a new Day in american in my next two ill explore some of the opportunities and options that might help to id lot Angeles times