Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 4, 1992 TAG: 9203040284
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SALLEE EBBETT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The first occasion occurred the day the American worker was accused by a Japanese official of being lazy and illiterate. And I went into my business classes and defended the American worker to my students in a mildewed pair of U.S.-made pantyhose.
The second time was a week later, the day the Japanese prime minister said the American worker put in a good three-day workweek. This time, I was wearing pantyhose made by ringworms instead of silkworms. (Yes, I know they're really made by nylon worms!) I had four perfect rings running around my left foot and ankle.
That day I also learned that my teen-age daughter had failed geography because she skipped class 35 times in one semester - and I was never notified.
I tell students in my business classes that there will come a time when they'll experience a "global click" - a moment when everything, all the bits and pieces from the different parts of their lives, will come together in a complete fit; a moment when they'll see with perfect clarity and understanding.
Such was that day - two pairs of defective American-made pantyhose, two disparaging comments from America's No. 1 competitor in the marketplace, and, closer to home, an uncaring education system that allows an exceptionally bright student to run amok without attempting to involve the parent.
No wonder America is losing ground to a country she helped build. No wonder our workers are ridiculed. An interview on the Today Show on NBC-TV told us that 65 percent of the American population is functionally illiterate. Not surprising, when we can't keep our students in the classroom, or from killing each other in the schoolyard.
Answers? I've only one: a return to ethical management in schools and business. Yes, it's possible. And every parent had better start to care, start making the schools do their job - to educate the children. Not let them slide by.
I educate the ones who didn't succeed in the public schools. They're in a career school now to get training in basic business skills to land entry-level jobs that may very well not be there because all the jobs have gone overseas. We need ethics here, too.
The third pair of pantyhose? Last week, from a different store, and they were mildewed too.
No more American-made pantyhose for me. I'm a teacher, a professional who gets paid less than a lot of blue-collar workers. I can't afford to buy American-made products that are consistently defective. Guess I'll buy French silk.
Sallee Ebbett of Roanoke teaches accounting, tax and business subjects at Dominion Business School.
by CNB