Bacon's Rebellion

College of William and Mary President Gene Nichol has stirred up a good deal of controversy at Virginia’s oldest university. The Wrenn Cross episode was only the most visible of his antics. (See “Nichol Bound for Duke?” for a satirical take on his brief but tempestuous tenure there, with links to documentation of less widely publicized flaps.)

Now comes another brouhaha that has already gained national attention on conservative talk radio. Reserve Officer Training Corps students are asking W&M to give them full credit for the military science courses they take, rather than limiting to six the number of credits that can be counted towards graduation. The student senate unanimously voted to give ROTC courses full credit, that all credits earned count to the 120 needed to graduate, and that the changes be made retroactive. But President Gene Nichol, reports Matt Pinsker, a sophomore who is leading the effort, “has not responded to any requests for a meeting to discuss the issue.”

The United States is at war; some 4,000 American soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, one of America’s leading universities extends credit for “Art 327: Hand-building Ceramics” and “Kinesiology 130: Adventure Games” but curtails the credits ROTC students earn for studying military science four hours a week in the classroom and engaging in physical education for three hours a week.

When I was going through the University of Virginia at the tail end of the Vietnam War, students protested in front of the Navy ROTC building. Today, students at W&M are protesting in favor of ROTC. How the wheel turns…

I don’t know what role, if any, Nichol played in putting W&M’s rules into place. But he can certainly play a role in changing them –and making the College more hospitable to the patriotic young men and women who want to serve their country and, in all likelihood, risk spilling their blood in a distant land when they graduate.

For details of this brewing controversy, see this report in the Daily Press, and this story in the Flat Hat, the college newspaper.

Update: I hear from Mr. Pinsker that President Nichol has agreed to an appointment “later this month.”

There are no words to describe the enormity of this morning’s tragedy at Virginia Tech, so I won’t even try. But if there any Hokie readers out there, please know that the thoughts and prayers of every Virginian are with the staff, students, parents and everyone else in the Virginia Tech community right now.

Darragh Johnson’s did does a nice job in today’s front page WaPo story on the insight of children. (“Fear of Climate Change Scares – and Inspires – Kids, Fears About Environment Pushing Kids to Act – Some to Therapy.”)

I recall well that it was Columbia’s Bryant Woods Elementary School students who inspired the adults in our Thicket Lane Cluster to start and maintain a recycling program in the early 70s. They also led in the observance of, and deepened the meaning of Earth Day.

In our column, “All Aboard” this week we note that Patrick Kane’s “Boom Town” class exercises in Reston elementary schools over the past 20 years have demonstrated the ability of fourth graders to do a better job of planning functional settlement patterns than groups of adults or professionals.

Norman Leahy did a great job of putting his finger on the need for Fundamental Change in schools and in education in his Blog post “School’s Out Forever” last Thursday. Our program for Fundamental Change in education outlined The Shape of the Future would accommodate many of the ideas put forward in the comments for flexible schooling. The revenue flow to support Dooryard preschool, Cluster lower elementary, Neighborhood upper elementary plus and Village high and Community continuing education could be allocated to accommodate mixed ages, work and learn, service and learn and other approaches that match student needs.

The key is Fundamental Change. When the “professionals” got hold of the Columbia schools that are part of the Howard County “system” the original insights and innovation went out the window as we document in The Shape of the Future.

EMR

The April 16, 2007, edition of the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine has been published. Visit the e-zine here. Never miss a single issue, subscribe here and get the latest edition e-mailed to you free.

Here are this week’s columns and features:

Honoring Hallowed Ground
Cate Wyatt is reinventing the economy of Virginia’s northern piedmont. The Journey Through Hallowed Ground weaves together heritage tourism, sustainable agriculture, landscape preservation and Main Street renewal.
by James A. Bacon

Rule of Law
Jamestown 2007 is taking Virginia back to basics.
by Doug Koelemay

All Aboard!
An above-ground version of METRO rail can work in Tysons Corner. But it will take two things: Public Way Rights and a Pyramid development strategy.
by EM Risse

Call for a “Roads Blueprint”
Between the new taxes just enacted and financing by the private sector, Virginia should have ample funds to keep traffic congestion under control. The trick is crafting a plan and sticking to it.
by Michael Thompson

Legislative Tyranny
Speaker Bill Howell and AG Bob McDonnell circumvented the Virginia Constitution by passing the 2007 transportation bill in defiance of the multiple object rule.
by Phil Rodokanakis

I Think We Should See Other People
Libertarians have lost patience with big-government Republicans. But it’s not clear where they’d feel more welcome.
by Norman Leahy

Road to Ruin: Auto Busters
Arlington County’s population is growing but traffic congestion isn’t. What makes the difference? Five Metro stations, smart land use and control over local streets and roads.
by Robert L. Burke

Nice & Curious Questions
Ties that Bind: Virginia’s Sister Cities
by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs

My old friend Veritatus has submitted another satire in the form of a news story from Durham, N.C.

Nichol to be Recruited by Duke’s Group of 88

Durham, NC—In the wake of the dismissal of rape charges against three former Duke University lacrosse players, Duke’s Group of 88 professors are regrouping to continue their struggle against racism, mysogyny and privilege. Their plans include recruiting College of William and Mary President Gene R. Nichol, who would resign his position in Williamsburg, Va., and join the Duke faculty as Dean of Inconsequential and Politically Correct Studies.

The fact that Attorney General Roy Cooper after three months of investigation could find no evidence of wrong-doing on the part of the former players, leaves the Group undaunted and reenergized to take up their cause to spread their brand of mindless political correctness to every corner of the Duke campus. Their success to date in cowing the Duke administration and board has given them a taste of victory and capitalist blood.

Soon after allegations of rape and other crimes surfaced in the spring of 2006, 88 members of the faculty and 16 Duke departments and programs denounced the lacrosse players in a public statement asserting that something “happened” to the accuser. The Group committed themselves to “turning up the volume” and thanked the campus protesters who branded the players “rapists” while distributing “wanted” posters around campus. The Group promised that their crusade “won’t end with what the police or the courts say.”

“Gene Nichol will be a perfect 89th member of our group,” confirmed Professor of Empathy Studies Y.R. Feelings. He’s got it all in one package. Feelings went on to identify some of Nichol’s major accomplishments while at the helm of William and Mary. These include:

1) A campus-wide email condemning the cowardice of those who had released into the public domain the name of a woman who had accused a male student of rape. The male student whose name was prominently featured in the media was bounced out of William and Mary. Later the county prosecutor dropped all charges.

2) A running media battle over the failure of the local voter registrar to allow students from other states to register to vote in Williamsburg, VA, home of William and Mary. Apparently the misguided registrar thought that students, in order to register, should declare full Virginia citizenship by paying Virginia state and local taxes and registering their cars in Virginia. The flap died down when it became clear that these new Virginia residents would be entitled to in-state tuition and thereby seriously deplete the William and Mary revenue budget.

3) Removal of the cross from the almost 300-year-old campus chapel in a move to be more sympathetic to persons of other faiths who might be offended by the chapel’s cross. Voices raised in protest largely went unheard by Nichol though the cross will now be displayed in a glass case as an inconvenient relic.

“If we get Nichol, this will be a twofer,” stated B.E. Stronger Duke Professor of Self-Esteem Studies. “This guy Nichol is the grand guru of political correctness, and he’s a china shop bull who can be counted on to create controversy where there is none.”

The Group also is counting on Nichol to deal with the considerable embarrassment of the Duke Chapel, possibly converting it to an indoor practice field for lacrosse.

The Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia has jacked up in-state tuition and fees at Mr. Jefferson’s University by 8.3 percent, or $655 per year. (See the Times-Dispatch article.)

A thought provoking piece from Robert Epstein on education wonders whether we’re doing more harm to kids with our current system than good. Snip:

Our educational institutions today are cursed by at least four fatal legacies of the Industrial Revolution—ideas that may have been helpful a century ago but have no place in today’s world.

First, although cars can be assembled on demand, it’s absurd to teach people when they’re not ready to learn. As the brilliant German educator Kurt Hahn (the founder of Outward Bound) said, teaching people who are aren’t ready is like “pouring and pouring into a jug and never looking to see whether the lid is off.”

Second, although mass education was exciting in the era that invented mass production, it does a great disservice to the vast majority of students. People have radically different learning styles and abilities, and effective learning—learning that benefits all students—is necessarily individualized and self-paced. This is the elephant in the classroom from which no teacher can hide.

Third, although it’s efficient to cram all apparently essential knowledge into the first two decades of life, the main thing we teach most students with this approach is to hate school. In today’s fast-paced world, education needs to be spread out over a lifetime, and the main thing we need to teach our young people is to love the process of learning.

Finally, whereas that first compulsory-education law in Massachusetts was competency-based, the system that grew in its wake requires all young people to attend school, no matter what they know. Even worse, the system provides no incentives for students to master material quickly, and few or no meaningful options for young people who do leave school.

As the father of an elementary school student, I can appreciate how school seems to be more adept at making learning a chore, rather than a joy. Part of that, I suspect, comes from the curriculum itself, which seems to be based more on hitting SOL benchmarks than letting teachers teach and more importantly, giving kids the incentive to learn.

Ideas like those that Epstein puts forward here have almost no chance of being tested, let alone adopted, so long as Virginia’s political class and assorted interest groups remain so firmly wedded to the status quo. That’s a shame, bordering on a crime.

Another “Business As Usual” Republican, Sen. Marty Williams, R-Newport News, has picked up a primary challenger. Patricia Stall, a long-time Republican Party activist, is emphasizing her tax-cutting credentials.

In announcing her candidacy, Stall noted that she had served as the Newport News “KNOW” Campaign” and “Ax the Tax” coordinator that defeated the Sales Tax Referendum in 202. She also served as Executive Director of the Hampton Roads Taxpayer Coalition, an umbrella organization for all Taxpayer Alliances in Hampton Roads. More recently, she has worked to reduce the “skyrocketing real estate tax rate burden” on Newport News citizens.

Says Stall: “I will be a faithful Public Servant to the voters and taxpayers of the 1st Senate District of Virginia and protect them from unfair higher taxes and regional government run by unaccountable bureaucrats.”

I don’t keep close tabs on local races, but the backlash against free-spending “Business As Usual” Republicans seems to have some traction. Even here in Richmond, I’ve been hearing a lot about Scott Sayre running in the Valley against incumbent Sen. Emmett Hanger. The RightsideVA blog has a good profile of Sayre. A zealous advocate of market principles and limited government, Sayre is running a very strong race and could well unseat Hanger.

In my back yard, Henrico County, Joe Blackburn is waging a spirited campaign against Sen. Walter Stosch. Stosch, of course, is an institution in the state senate and will be very hard to unseat. But Henrico is an interesting county. There’s a vibrant small-government impulse here. That applies both to keeping government’s hand off our wallets and its nose out of our bedrooms. Blackburn is pounding hard on the state budget, which has swelled to enormous size during Stosch’s watch in the General Assembly. I don’t hear a lot of specifics coming from Blackburn, but I do believe him when he says he’s committed to setting priorities, making tough spending decisions and advocating the interests of taxpayers as opposed to the special interests that swarm the halls of the state Capitol — something that Stosch appeared reluctant to do.

Meanwhile, the departure of Sen. John H. Chichester, R-Northumberland, and Sen. Russell Potts, R-Winchester, will dramatically change the tone of the Republican caucus in the General Assembly. If GOP voters throw out a couple of “Business As Usual” senators — Hanger and Stosch are possibilities — other Business As Usual players will get the message.

Assuming Republicans can hang onto control of the state Senate, the 2008 General Assembly could see a permanent end of the intra-party deadlock that paralyzed Republican governance for years until the passage of The Comprehensive Transportation Funding and Reform Act of 2007.

But will a less fractious GOP caucus make any difference? Will a Republican Party dedicated to smaller state government display more innovative thinking and fresh approaches to long-standing problems? Will Republicans work to transform the outmoded institutions of governance, land use, transportation, education and health care to meet the needs of the 21st century? Or will they simply continue the politics Business As Usual on a smaller budget?

The future of Virginia hinges upon the answer.