We Need Textbooks That Are 100 Years Old… Not 10

October 5, 2012 1

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – Let me say to you something that’s going to shock you. There was a line in last night’s debate. The president was crying into his weak red China tea, “It’s a tragedy. This guy wants to come in here and cut education spending. We got kids reading out of ten-year-old textbooks. It’s a crime. No wonder we’re falling behind around the world. It’s a crime.” Because they’re reading out of ten-year-old textbooks? I put on my Twitter feed last night I think the kids ought to be reading out of 210-year-old textbooks. Maybe they’d freaking learn something. Hell, I’ll take 110-year-old textbooks. Maybe they’d learn something. Here’s where we have progressed to in America. We are now to be judged by the age of our textbooks. Check out the rest in today’s transcript…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike: Civil liberties not mentioned one single time, Constitution mentioned once, 96 times the word ‘cuts’ was mentioned. You know what that means, nothing is going to get cut except the Constitution. What they mentioned the most of and obsess over they obviously have no intention of doing anything about. What they mention the least, the Constitution, is what they have intention of doing the most damage to. Civil liberties not mentioned one time. I have an email from a gentleman informing me, [mocking] “You need to stop with your stupid details. Don’t you get it, Church? The sheeple out here, they don’t get details. They want broad generalities. They want broad philosophies. We have a choice here, either that idiot Obama or the CEO Romney. I’m picking the CEO Romney.” Well, pick the CEO Romney. The broad generalities, philosophical debate that you want to have or that you think everyone must participate in is the problem, sir.

Let me say to you something that’s going to shock you. There was a line in last night’s debate — AG, I don’t know if you can find it. The president was crying into his weak red China tea, [mocking] “It’s a tragedy. This guy wants to come in here and cut education spending. We got kids reading out of ten-year-old textbooks. It’s a crime. No wonder we’re falling behind around the world. It’s a crime.” Because they’re reading out of ten-year-old textbooks? I put on my Twitter feed last night I think the kids ought to be reading out of 210-year-old textbooks. Maybe they’d freaking learn something. Hell, I’ll take 110-year-old textbooks. Maybe they’d learn something. Here’s where we have progressed to in America. We are now to be judged by the age of our textbooks.

May I say to you that the books I search for the most and try to find are not of ten years ago? They are of 210 years ago. Where is it written that the only thing that matters and can advance mankind is stuff that was written yesterday? What about that stuff that was written by Aristotle? What about the stuff that was written by Cicero? What about the stuff that was written by William Shakespeare? What about the stuff that was written in Dante’s Inferno? What about the stuff that was written by Jefferson, Locke, Hume, Smith, Burke? Was that written yesterday? Does that have any influence on us today? Taylor of Caroline? But no, [mocking Obama] “Textbooks are ten years old. Kids are dumb. They need textbooks made yesterday by people like Van Jones, people I know.”

I’m listening to this and I’m thinking to myself that is it in a nutshell. History just began when Bill Clinton was elected. Obama did invoke Bill Clinton. When he got in trouble after the second question, he did throw the Clinton card down. Somewhere Clinton was going, [mocking Clinton] “Go ahead, Barry, you’re done. Romney’s got your butt, buddy. It’s gonna be Hillary in four years, smooth sailing from here on out, bud.” You know when you have to play the Bill Clinton card you’re in trouble.

Getting back to the ten-year-old textbook, I would say if you actually want your children to learn, then find textbooks that are multiples of ten years old and start reading them. As a matter of fact, you might not even need textbooks. You might just need books. Go to my site and click on Library. The books in that library, some of them are older than ten years and they’re really good stuff. As a matter of fact, folks, let me give you some books that are over ten years old that you would benefit from reading. I have them here on my desk. This is in the library, Robert Higgs’ Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government. This is where the ratchet effect comes from. Another great one, 19 years old, M.E. Bradford’s The Reactionary Imperative. Here’s one about 40 years old, The Creation of the American Republic by Gordon Wood. Here is one 189 years old, New Views of the Constitution of the United States, John Taylor of Caroline. These are all books that weren’t written in the last ten years. If anyone that’s failing in schools and doesn’t understand civics, doesn’t understand or refuses to comprehend real American history, pick those books up and read them. As a matter of fact, if you read Higgs’ book, you’ll have the key to unlock why the government keeps expanding and why nothing that was said last night by either candidate is going to stop it. Here is the offensive sound bite for your own edification.

[start audio clip]

President Obama: . . . Americans would say that doesn’t make sense, and all that raises revenue. If we take a balanced approach, what that then allows us to do is also to help young people, the way we already have during my administration, make sure they can afford to go to college. It means the teacher I met in Las Vegas, a wonderful young lady, she describes to me she’s got 42 kids in her

class. The first two weeks, she’s got some of them sitting on the floor until finally they get reassigned. They’re using textbooks that are ten years old. That is not a recipe for growth. That is not how America was built. Budgets reflect choices. Ultimately we’re going to have to make some decisions. If we’re asking for no revenue, then that means we’ve got to get rid of . . .

[end audio clip]

Mike: He just said that’s not how America was built. Who built that? [mocking Obama] James Madison, you didn’t build that. Thomas Jefferson, you didn’t build that. Really? You don’t think they had textbooks that were ten years old? That’s not how America — really? Seriously? Have you ever been to one of those little schoolhouses out there on the prairie like they had on the TV show, the little red one in the middle of nowhere? You really think they didn’t have textbooks that were ten years old?

End Mike Church Show Transcript