ANALYST: STUDENTS NEED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT VALUES

Schools in this country might be better at teaching self-esteem than English, math and science, and students ultimately will suffer for it, a political analyst told a group of high school students Sunday.

Allan Brownfeld, a Washington, D.C. author and political analyst, said that despite the billions of dollars the United States spends on public education each year, students here perform poorly in basic subjects compared to students in other countries.

But they are being taught that mediocre achievement is acceptable, he said.

"Self-esteem should be based on achievement," Brownfeld said. "To tell people they should think highly of themselves though they know nothing and have accomplished nothing is not helping them."

He added that poor performance in schools is "one of the most serious problems" in the nation.

The students are from throughout Missouri and are attending the seventh annual Freedom Forum at Southeast Missouri State University. The three-day forum, which began Sunday, attracted more than 150 students.

The forum focuses on the American political system and the economy. Brownfeld told the students that in order to preserve high standards in the United States, certain values must be passed from generation to generation through institutions like the family, school and the church.

In the past several decades, values have not been passed down and have slowly deteriorated, he said. And it's something on which today's politicians have chosen to capitalize.

"Perhaps that's why this issue of `family values' is emerging as a prominent one in the presidential election," Brownfeld said. "We must carefully transmit these values from one generation to the next, or they will die."

But he said the problem is not one that should be trivialized or simplified.

Today's kids who go home to empty houses, are reared by one parent, or rear themselves don't receive "the level of love and care that every other generation before them has received," Brownfeld said.

Brownfeld blamed the downfall of religion and education for the demise of traditional values.

He said religion in America is "in a rapid state of decline" but added that nowhere is the country's failure to nurture its children more evident than in public schools.

Despite the fact that the United States spends more than any nation on educating its young people, U.S. students still aren't up to par with students in other countries, he said.

Bob Depro, a teacher of American History and economics from Sikeston, challenged Brownfeld's view of U.S. education. He said many students here perform above average or well above average and that and an American education is still highly regarded worldwide.

"Foreigners desperately want to come to this country to attend college," Depro said.

But Brownfeld said that test scores of U.S. students lag far behind those of students in Japan, Germany and Britain. "It's almost beyond debate," he said.

One student asked Brownfeld who he plans to support for president in November. Brownfeld said although he usually votes for Republican candidates, he hasn't decided which way he'll vote this year.

He said the candidates, despite their Ivy League diplomas, are career politicians who have focused on little else in their lives than becoming president.

President George Bush, he said, has proven to be untrustworthy in that he has switched his stand on abortion from pro-choice to pro-life (when Ronald Reagan selected him as a running mate), has lied about "no new taxes" and has vowed to do anything to become president.

Gov. Bill Clinton also has an "ambiguous" record on several issues, he said. "I'm afraid these candidates want too much to be president," Brownfeld said.

"There is a big difference between the founding fathers who sat down and wrote the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and today's politicians, who go out and hire high-priced speech writers and then read what they wrote."