Parallelograms, Taxes, and a General Rant about the Decline of Civilization

 Parallelograms, Taxes, and a General Rant about the Decline of Civilization

By Bobby Neal Winters

There’s a meme that goes around on social media.  There are variations of it, but it goes something like this: “Why did we waste so much time learning about parallelograms when we could have been taught how to do our taxes.”

If I’ve learned one thing from the Internet over the last 25 years or so, it’s that you aren’t going to change the people’s minds who post this stuff by arguing with them directly.  The ego gets involved, and there are very few people--very few--who have the strength of character to say: You are right; I am wrong; I will change the way I am thinking. (Those who do have that strength of character will win the big game in the end, but it comes at the price of eating a little crow in the meantime.  But I digress.)

There is a larger issue here, but I will deal with the details of this particular meme.

First off, we really don’t waste a lot of time learning about “parallelograms.” I assume they really mean the subject of geometry, and that referring to “parallelograms” is simply a way to trivialize the subject.  Geometry is useful. You need geometry to build buildings.  While there is a lot of stuff taught in a geometry class that can’t be put into direct use measuring, the total knowledge imparted is scaffolding for the knowledge that will actually be used. 

Knowledge is connected together like the two-by-fours in the framing of a house. Each piece helps keep the others in place.

Second, this is not an either or situation.  I learned about geometry in school and I learned how to do my taxes in school.  I did this in different classes. Mr. Sloan taught me geometry; Mr. Scott taught me how to do my taxes.  It may have actually been during the same year.  But it was in different classes.

So the meme presents us with what is known as a false dichotomy. (I sometimes get accused of making my readers run for the dictionary, but I am just repeating that this is not an either or, but in more pompous language.)

I’ll now give the creator of the meme a little credit.  As I shifted “parallelograms” to “geometry,” let’s now shift “doing taxes” to “financial literacy.”

It only took Mr. Scott a few class periods to teach us how to do our taxes. (We were only plain,country folk. There’s not much to learn when you don’t have money.  If you do have that much money, maybe you ought to hire someone to do them.) He also taught us how to write checks, the difference between a debit and a credit, and the basics of bookkeeping, as it was a course in bookkeeping.)

Having now spent about 500 words to refute 21, let’s get down to the real question: The state of education as a part of the state of our civilization.

Education starts in the home.  When a woman with her man has a baby, that is the beginning. That is the foundation of e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. What happens within that family unit, and family units collectively, determines what happens in our civilization.

At one point, we had a system where woman and man would stand before God in the presence of their families and loved ones, and pronounce their lifetime commitment to each other. They would then begin to build a life together as a partnership.   As a natural part of that partnership, children would arise, and the children would be cultivated, groomed, and generally prepared to enter into the world.

This still happens sometimes, and when it does you can tell the difference, but too often the children are--I was going to say treated as pets, but you train pets to some degree--treated as some wild animal that just turned up at the door: they throw food at them occasionally and just hope they grow up.

Raising a child is a hard thing, especially if you do it by yourself. But here’s the thing: You are part of a family.  If you have a committed relationship, you’ve got a partner.  If that commitment was made in front of your family, you are a part of a family. If it was done in a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple, then you are part of a community. You don’t have to be alone.

But if a child has a good start at home, the rest is easy.  We can learn about parallelograms and taxes. It can be done.

Bobby Winters, a native of Harden City, Oklahoma, blogs at redneckmath.blogspot.com and okieinexile.blogspot.com. He invites you to “like” the National Association of Lawn Mowers on Facebook. Search for him by name on YouTube.