Every day in the news, we hear accounts of politicians who lack common sense. One of the latest common sense issues was California’s lack of “common sense” forest management. The result of this lack has been devastating for Californians. Likewise, the decision over the past four years to allow immigrants to flow across America’s open borders demonstrates a lack of common sense. It seems like everywhere you turn, one can find instances where people demonstrate a lack of basic practical reasoning, often resulting in poor decision-making.
Kathryn Morgan (Columnist for Future Educators) provides a good example of the lack of common sense in education. She shares a situation in a school district that had spent $30,000 building an outdoor play center. The district bulldozed it after a few years of use because students were getting splinters while playing. The school needed money to build a new one for $60,000. Some of the fathers had volunteered to come in on the weekends to sand the wooden parts of the play center and cover it with a plastic coating to help eliminate students getting splinters. The school told the fathers that “they couldn’t because it conflicted with the custodian’s union. The custodians couldn’t do that work because they didn’t have the time. So instead, they knocked the playground down.”
Several years ago, I came across an article concerning common sense that I shared with my Legal Issues in Education class that I taught at ORU. I want to pass the article along to you. The source is unknown. It is titled “A Sad Announcement.”
Today, we mourn the passing of an old friend, Common Sense.
Common Sense lived a long life but died in the United States from heart failure early in the new millennium. No one really knows how old he was, since his birth records were lost long ago in bureaucratic red tape.
He selflessly devoted his life to service in schools, hospitals, homes, and factories, helping folks get jobs done without fanfare and foolishness. For decades, petty rules, silly lawns, and frivolous lawsuits held no power over Common Sense. He was credited with cultivating such valued lessons as to know when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, and that life isn’t always fair.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn), reliable parenting strategies (the adults are in charge, not the kids), and it’s okay to come in second.
A veteran of the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and the Technological Revolution, Common Sense survived cultural and educational trends, including body piercing, whole language, and “new math.” But his health declined when he became infected with the “If-it-only-helps-one-person-it’s worth-it” virus.
In recent decades, his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of well-intentioned but overbearing regulations. He watched in pain as good people became ruled by self-seeking lawyers.
His health rapidly deteriorated when schools endlessly implemented zero-tolerance policies. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, a teen suspended from taking a swig of mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student only worsened his condition. It declined even further when schools had to get parent consent to administer aspirin to a student but could not inform the parent when a female student was pregnant or wanted an abortion.
Common Sense lost his will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became businesses, criminals received better treatment than victims, and federal judges stuck their noses in everything from the Boy Scouts to professional sports.
When an individual too stupid to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot was awarded a huge settlement, Common Sense threw in the towel.
As the end neared, Common Sense drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments regarding questionable regulations, such as those for low-flow toilets, rocking chairs, stepladders, and auto emissions.
Common Sense finally succumbed when, while the United States was fighting a war on terrorism, a federal judge declared the Pledge of Allegiance to be unconstitutional.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility, and his son, Reason. He is survived by two stepsiblings: My Rights, and Ima Whiner.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.”
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