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The January 6 Committee Hearing “To investigate the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021” – revealed the smartest thing then Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos achieved during her tenure.
The Former Trump Education Secretary says she had 25th Amendment discussions with Pence and Cabinet members. And apparently when others were not onboard, she jumped ship.
The hearings have exposed many of Trump’s “shortcomings” and that’s only after two sessions of a scheduled Seven Chapter blockbuster.
No matter the outcome, we can all agree on this. One of a president’s jobs is to inspire young Americans to be better citizens. Trump did the opposite.
When our children are young, we hopefully try to foster in them a deep and abiding sense of morality, ethics and character.
We try to teach them to always tell the truth, to be kind and generous, to be brave enough to do the right thing even if others aren’t as brave.
TRUMP’S REPORT CARD AS REVEALED
BY THE JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE HEARINGS
TRUMP’S GRADE AS A LEADER – F*
We try to teach them empathy and compassion, that caring about the less fortunate betters society and is also self-edifying.
We teach them to be gracious and thankful and not to brag or bully. Also, don’t lie, cheat or steal.
We teach them to have self-respect and to respect others. We teach them that everyone is equally worthy and valuable, no matter who they are, or what they look like.
We do all this as our children are coming to know how honor and integrity are constructed, maintained and defended. We want to raise good people and good citizens, people who respect society and follow the rules, though not blindly.
TRUMP’S EFFORT TO HELP OTHERS – 3*
We want them to question the world, and if they identify injustice, work to eliminate it.
We as parents are the first teachers-in-chief, the most important ones, but there are many tangential teachers as well, at family gatherings, at school, at places of worship, on playgrounds, and also in literature, on television and on social media.
The president of the United States is one of those teachers. I don’t think many children follow a president or the politics around that presidency on a routine basis, but the sense of the president sinks in.
They know that the president should be one of the best of us, not the worst. When children do well, adults often say, “You could be president someday.”
Trump exploded all of that. He is everything we teach our children not to be. In Trump’s world of immorality, the lessons being taught undo all the principles parents struggle to instill.
He taught our students that there is no absolute truth; there is “alternative fact.” It’s not what you say, but how you say it and how vociferously you can defend it.
He taught our students that the color of one’s skin does indeed supersede the content of one’s character. He is teaching them that there is a skin-color hierarchy in which whiteness is perched on top.
OVERALL CONDUCT – F*
He taught them that it is a perfectly normal to separate some children from their parents and put them in cages.
He taught them to never acknowledge an error, that apologies are for suckers, that what’s right is whatever you say it is.
And, here’s the thing: The children growing up in enormous portions of American households accept, defend and even applaud Trump’s behavior. What lessons are those children absorbing? What behaviors will be modeled on Trump’s example?
What do Trump’s supporters tell their children about his incessant lying; the multiple accusations that he either was sexually inappropriate with women assaulted them or even raped them?
How do they explain Trump’s racism to these children?
The example I fear today’s children are being taught that there are no rules for he who wins.
Trump is teaching them that you can be the worst version of yourself, rise to the most powerful position in the world and scare people into not holding you accountable.
Trump’s Final Grade* – F3F
This column is by Ritchie Lucas, Founder of The Student Success Project and Think Factory Consulting. He can be reached at 305-788-4105 or email at ritchie@thinkfactory.com and on Facebook and You Tube as The Student Success Project.
