European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 07, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 16 the stars and stripes Jesse Jackson saturday May 7, 1977 10 commandments can help save schools to save the society we have to save the school. To save the schools we have to liberate them. Liberate them from mediocrity. Liber ate them from maximum Reward for mini mum production. Liberate them from functioning As employment rather than education agencies. Liberate them from neglect. And we must liberate ourselves from the notions that the schools and the profession Al educators have total responsibility for educating our children we must redistribute that responsibility so that education will be seen As a shared function benefiting All who participate. Education can work Only if there s total involvement parents pupils principals preachers teachers business persons politicians civic and Community leaders , the Media. All of these must see that Good educations part of their responsibility. 1 think it can be done but our Public schools must shift their goal from educational existence to educational excellence. Here Are "10 commandments that can Start things happening in your Community and mine. The development of these commandments owes much in substance an inspiration to a remarkable Modesto calif., educator James Enochs who has shared his unique and exciting ideas about american education with me.1 it is essential that a Public institution clearly define itself thai it say unequivocally what it believes in and stands for. Action at the beginning of the school year each principal should publicly make a "511116 of the school address dearly define education goals How the school and staff will operate inward those goals what the rules arc and How accountability of staff and students will be maintained. The superintendent should do the same thing for the entire school system in a state of the schools address. 2 the development of responsible adults is a task requiring Community commitment. It cannot be left solely to the Public schools. Action to enhance a climate of educational striving each school should form a Community coalition of business persons professionals craftsmen unionists journalists Media personalities anyone inthe Community  knowledge and experience can be transmitted to students As information of inspiration Kach principal would devise strategies to make the coalition a powerful ally for his school s pro Gram 3 the principal tasks of the Public schools cannot be achieved if a disproportionate amount of time and resources Mustbe Given to maintaining order. Public schools Are not obligated to serve students who. Through persistent and serious acts disrupt school and violate the rights of others. Action principals must distribute code of conduct to All students on the first Day of school. Students can t observe Rule that Are unclear unknown or capriciously inter Fred and administered. Teacher Sand staff can operate effectively in this sensitive area Only if policy and proce dures Are clearly stated 1. The full responsibility for learning cannot be transferred from the student tothe teacher. Action students must Stop seeking excuses must Stop blaming others and their environment for failing to learn. Student organizations should raise questions about teacher adequacy and accountability but individual students cannot raise the same questions to explain failure to do their est. A. Parents must consistently support the proposition that students have responsibilities As Well As rights and the schools have an obligation to insist upon  parents students and teachers need contractual agreements that spell out what is expected of each. A system of report cards for parents and teacher should be developed using criteria agreed on through teacher Parent conferences or Parent teacher organizations. Parent should come to school when their Chil Dren s report cards Are issued High performance takes place in a framework of  teacher unions need to review their policies and procedures to make sure they i not protect Low performance teachers who need to be singled out for discipline or dismissal. Unions need to take greater responsibility for members performance Levels 7. There s nothing inherently undemocratic requiring students to do things which arc demonstrably beneficial totem. Action a system needs to be established which rewards teachers and Princi pals who take charge of their classroom Sand school. On the other hand teachers and principals who tolerate student disrespect and disruption cannot be permitted to blame their Lack of aggressive leadership on being democratic. 8. Involvement in and commitment to meaningful activities which give one a sense of identity and Worth is essential to Anthony lews All human beings  critical to adolescents. And a scents who cannot find identity in satisfaction in socially accept Able ways will find it  Community service should be required As a condition for graduation from Junior and senior High school. Each student would provide a specific number of hours of unpaid service to the Community. Adult advisers preferably Parent Volun Teers should work with students on a one to one basis.9. The practice of convenience leads to collapse but the Laws of sacrifice Lead to greatness. This principle Mast underlie All pedagogy. It applies to students teachers parents administrators and Community . Parents should establish a two hour student period at Home each night period during which there would be a blackout on television radio and the Tele phone and no friends could come Over to socialize. Homework must be worked at home10 the sound ethical climate must be established for the school system As whole and from each individual school be cause the death of ethics is the sabotage of excellence. Politicians school Board Mem Bers superintendents Central offices. Principals teachers parents and local ministers have the obligation to take an Teressie Lead in setting such ethical Stan a  disc jockeys who reach More students for More hours than teachers must be required to use reasonable portions of air Lime to promote educational programs and achievements to help create a climate in which educational excellence is respected and  business Community must contrib Ute More than band uniforms and majorettes Batons. It must make meaningful contributions of cooperative training and Access to new tools of Commerce like computers. Business owes it to itself and to the Community that supports it to help create an atmosphere in which High level training for specific careers is encouraged. These commandments and examples of the actions they Call for establish and illustrate the concept of total involvement in Public education. The peril of Nixon and Kissinger one of the great British sensations of the 1930s was the scandal of a country Churchman the Rector of Stiffkey. Caught in wrongdoing defrocked the Rector capitalized on his notoriety by joining a travel ing carnival where he was exhibited in barrel. Hie hard Nixon is our Rector of Stiffkey shameless grasping freakish. People talk about whether David Frost or someone else can extract the truth from him. Asif he had any notion of truth. Our fascination actually lies in knowing that there Isno limit and never has been to what the Man will do. And so we watch him on show in our society s Well paid equivalent of barrel. Enjoyment of Nixon is irresistible. Weall tuned in. But the serious Point remains a Point about us. We nominated and elected the Man. Repeatedly. Prof. James David Barbeau Duke a leading authority on the presidency remarks in the current Issue of the Washington monthly that despite the most abundant evidence Ever available re Garding any potential  we failed to see through the machinations of an expert Flim Flam  the essential danger in Nixon As presi Dent was his attitude toward Power. His idea was that if he asserted authority he had it. He could bomb or wiretap or Over throw another country s democratic system. Other presidents have abuse Power but none had his utter contempt for the restraints that have kept this country free the restraints of reason decency above All. Law. Have we Learned to recognize that danger watergate dramatized the Issue and the country responded in a most extraordinary Way. But 1 wonder whether the larger lesson of respect for the limits on authority has really been Learned. One reason for doubt is the distinction that Many continue to draw Between Nixon and the Man who was his principal advise Rand agent in some of his gravest abuses of authority. Henry Kissinger. Of course there is no reason to thin that Kissinger had anything to do with the watergate cover up. But be had every thing to do with acts that were profound violations of our constitutional order. A extreme example the most extreme in our history i think was the bombing of Cambodia in 1973. Following the truce in Vietnam and the withdrawal of american forces. Presidents had previously carried out military action without a formal Declara Tion of War but they had had some show ing of authority need to protect american lives say. Or another congressional act such As the Tonkin Gulf Resolution or a treaty. In 1973 in Cambodia there was no  Tonkin Gulf Resolution had been re pealed. There were no american lives to protect. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissin Ger simply waged on their own a War that they knew Congress would not approve. The one thing that ought to have Bee Learned in recent years is that abuses of Power abroad May have terrible repercussions at Home. The anniversary of one direct example coincided with the first Frost Nixon inter View the killing by the National guard at Kent state on May 4.1970, of students pro testing the invasion of Cambodia. Indeed without abuses in foreign policy the watergate cover up might never have occurred it was probably designed to con ceal not so much the break in itself As what John Mitchell called the White House horrors wiretapping bugging burglaries de signed to conceal aspects of the Nixon Kissinger foreign policy such As the secret bombing of Cambodia. In a broader sense subversion of Ameri can ideals abroad May Lead to the same at Home. That was the teaching of the Intelli gence investigation. What began As Ruth less tactics against perceived foreign enemies had before Long been employed against  shameful example of abuse shame Ful in its pettiness has just been Dis closed by the Senate intelligence committee. Between Early 1975 and the end of 1976 after Richard Nixon left office the Cia conducted surveillance of micronesian to find out what they would ask from this country in negotiations. The idea of eavesdropping on our own wards was approved in 1973 by Henry Kissinger. A onetime aide of Kissinger s. Roger Orris has a Book coming out this summer that throws much new Light on the horrors of the Nixon Kissinger  has an ambivalent Awe of Henry Kissinger and no liking for Nixon. But he concludes that Nixon spared Henry Kissinger in the end by taking the Brunt of Public responsibility for an evil an malice they shared no less than their Suc  no erasure of the past Morris writes can blot out their common outrages from the cambodian bombings to the tapes tothe squalor of later policies in Bangladesh and Chile. No Memoir can change the truth that these men were in historian Christo Pher Lasch s powerful indictment fatally removed from american life " As i was Savins before i was so Rudy interrupted