World War I

Recognize this man? 

I didn't either, but I just read his history of World War I . Coming in at over 400 pages it is not a light read but S.L.A. Marshall's prose is delightful and he's even-handed in his treatment of heroes and villains alike.  

How about this lady? 

Well, this is the actress (Alicia Vikander) who plays Vera Brittain whose memoir Testament of Youth  inspired the film. I confess that when I say the DVD box I was prepared for the worst (can you say, "Atonement"? That turkey should have been called "Crucifixion," for it was exceedingly painful to watch, er, endure).  Don't judge a film by its cover art.

Compare THIS

 with THIS

See how I could get confused?  I'll try not to judge my appearances so much. Testament of Youth is really a film about facing the deepest fears in life and being either destroyed by what happens when the worst possible thing happens or opening to find the deeper meaning in circumstances.

It is wonderfully modest in portraying war's horror and human emotions. It is tasteful, beautiful and profoundly moving.

Definitely a watchable film for say, World History. 

Speaking of World History, here's a nice tune to introduce the rockers in the class to Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est":

Re-contextualizes Owen but I feel the mood in the song.

Movie as Metaphor...for What Ails Education?

The Pentagon Wars is clearly a "B" movie, 

and a nearly humorless comedy at that, but that does not prevent it from having some explanatory power.

The movie is allegedly based on the book by a retired Air Force Colonel who wrote what looks like a serious and detailed study of bureaucratic malfeasance in the Pentagon's procurement process (James Burton, The Pentagon Wars: Reformers Challenge the Old Guard).

Stacked up against such notable classics as Catch-22 or Doctor Strangelove, it surely fails as a "military-lunacy-film," but it does score points in showing how idealists can get co-opted by the system or simply eliminated. The film does seem to leave open the possibility of a "third way" within the system in the character of one Colonel (later Brigadier General) Smith who feeds tidbits of truth to the press and Congress. Yet his timidity suggests this third way to be a compromise that one ought to not consider to remain morally coherent.

The Connection with Education...  

As he was near leaving office, President Eisenhower famously warned of the "military-industrial complex" which could lead to a consumeristic approach to the planning, production and acquisition of war materiel. The film demonstrates how some of the dynamics can work on a small scale. In this case, with the long drawn-out design and testing of what would (finally) become the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

The education establishment does not consist of generals, but principals, superintendents, professors at schools of education, textbook publishers, lobbyists and politicians. The latter are in abundance and, while they cannot rival the Pentagon's annual budget, education policy and practice far outstrips any cultural contribution the military makes.

And rather than inflated weapons systems that get pushed into the pipeline and have a way of being refined one way or another, the educational schemes that emerge from the "educational-bureaucratic complex" seem to have less "quality assurance" than say, the M16 (one of the best moments of the film is when "Colonel Burton" tells the tale of Vietnam veteran he met who used on the early M16s with the cheap ammo that cost hundreds of lives in the early days of its fielding). When soldiers die, people begin the notice. When educational schemes fail, does anyone notice?

Killing Capacity

My shooting buddies and I have gotten a kick out listening to the "gunaphobes" debate the merits of differing magazine capacities. The ignorance of what is actually decisive in terms of lethality overwhelms. The number one factor is training and skill, not equipment. In other words, the person behind the gun.

In the First World War, Sergeant Alvin York dropped 28 well-armed Germans and captured 132. He used a bolt action rifle with a five shot magazine. Lyudmila Pavlichenko (see above) killed 309 Germans on the Eastern Front during the World War II. Again, a simple five shot rifle, but with the addition of a scope. Closer to home, who can forget Lee Harvey Oswald's murder of JFK? Another bolt action rifle with a five shot magazine. This time in the hands of a former U.S. Marine.

People with ill intent will use whatever they can get their hands to commit dastardly deeds. Instead of focusing on tools and gadgets, the citizens of Colorado would we better served if the politicians found ways to deprive felons and loons of guns. But this requires hard work, not mere bluster. Perhaps that's too much to ask from politicians.

Adolf or Therese?

One of the joys of taking a sabbatical (of sorts) is the change in routine it provides. A most pleasant change in my life has been decreasing the amount of AM talk radio chatter I listen to. Instead of this chatter, I've been reading more. Currently I'm reading St. Therese's Story of a Soul and William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Talk about an odd couple.

Power or Love?

What I've gleaned so far from Therese is an overarching idea (as simple as it is counter-cultural): success doesn't mean very much. As a public school teacher who became immensely bored by both the utilitarian praxis of the "educrats" and mindless slogans such as "every child can succeed," Therese's life is of great interest. She accomplished nothing that changed history, nor was she was responsible for a technological innovation that made life easier; rather, she simply made her entire life an offering to Christ's merciful love. She had one insight and ran with it. Now, she's a Doctor of the Church and her life is a compelling answer to the title of a book by Wendell Berry -- What are People for? Her life indicates that what ultimately matters is love, not the gods of power and success or blood and iron.

Enter Adolf

I've read many books on the Second World War. I even took a course entitled Nazi Germany (the professor was such an expert on the subject that it was no mere academic exercise -- his mannerisms while lecturing mirrored those of Adolf Hitler, which was at once hilarious and eery). But it is reading Shirer's book at this time in our history that I've been truly chilled by Hitler.

As I listen to AM radio (right and left, chocolate and vanilla), I see little corporals running through trench-works; I smell stale beer and acrid cigarette smoke in a beer hall; I hear the thud and scrape of heavy boots on cobblestone streets. Perhaps I have an overactive imagination.

Enter Ideology

What is not imaginary is the delusions of ideology. Not simply the delusions of a particular ideology (be it national socialism or communism), but the fact that ideology is never able to admit its inadequacies. In The Religious Sense, Luigi Giussani notes that ideology takes an aspect of reality and makes it "into an absolute" (p. 95). Herein lies both the appeal of AM radio and its reductionism, which could be fatal to the republic if it were taken seriously.

The McNamara Effect

In his fascinating history of the United States Air Force, Walter Boyne discusses the priorities of Robert Strange McNamara that "created a climate of fear and [placed] a value on reporting rather than on doing."

Boyne continues:

Numbers -- whether it be of the bodies counted, sorties flown, bombs dropped, or Congressional delegation visits -- became the be-all and end-all of the military system McNamara shaped.

Report numbers were transformed from black dots on a page to truths that were quantified, defended, and extrapolated from.

Whole bureaucracies sprung up to create the numbers, challenge them, and mold them into new requirements for more numbers (Beyond the Wild Blue, 2nd ed., p. 160).

Any teachers out there who can relate to a climate of fear and an obsession with "measurable outcomes" and "growth"? I can sure relate to it. We know what the McNamara Effect was on that war in Indochina: hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians dead for no purpose.

What the end game is for public educators who embrace McNamara's approach is yet to be seen. I'm betting Ho Chi Minh wins.