On the Road

3/14/2011

I am glad to be back in the office as I have been on the road for most of the past 10 days.  First, I attended the Association of Military Colleges and Schools of the United States (AMCSUS) in Alexandria, VA where presidents, superintendents, and other staff discuss the state of education in America, best practices at military college and schools in the U.S., and the challenges of our time. I returned for a day and then flew to Tampa, FL for a delightful mixer/reception with RMA alumni.

The Honorable Scott Pearson, U.S. Department of Education spoke to us on concerns in American public education.  At the end of his remarks, I sensed that Charter schools and vouchers were promising means to provide school choice.  As I wrote you previously, the documentary film, "Waiting for Superman" exposed the inequality in educational opportunity and the disadvantage experienced by those attending failing schools. America is in dire need of education reform, and military boarding schools are part and parcel to that reform. The availability of vouchers would create greater opportunity for even more to attend.

Recently, an RMA alumnus (Mr. John R. Wood '47) sent me an inspirational and timeless book written in 1902 by John Allen, an Englishman.  It is entitled, "As a Man Thinketh."  The thesis is that life's circumstances become what we think and dwell on, so that we are literally what we think. 

I quote, "A noble and God-like character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continual effort in right-thinking, the effect of long-cherished association with God-like thoughts.  An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harboring of grovelling thoughts."  In other words, by our very thinking we forge the tools by which we are destroyed or we build mansions of our peace early and thereafter.

Thus, man is the master of his thoughts; the molder of his character; and the creator of his condition, environment, and destiny.  Man must cleanse his mind of debased, impure, lustful, greedy, and deceitful thinking, and his life's condition will adapt as he enters the door of the temple of knowledge.

There is much more, and I commend the book to all.