MISSOURI WATCH: CHARLIE, YOU OLD DICKENS YOU

Although he was writing about a society in existence nearly a century and a half earlier, Charles Dickens might just as well have been speaking of contemporary society when he wrote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Today the early English novelist might not concede that his famed observation is more accurate at this moment than when he penned "A Tale of Two Cities" in 1859, but even a casual observer of our society in the dawning of both a new century and a new millennium will recognize its modern-day validity.

We are, indeed, living in what in many respects is the best of times, while at the same time finding ourselves confronted with circumstances that appear to be all but irreconcilable, causing many among the most thoughtful to wonder if science and technology have taken us beyond our intellectual and moral capacities or, at least, our abilities.

This confusing conundrum between progress of physical science and the halting speed of social-political maturity seems apparent wherever we turn, whether in digesting the daily news or confronting challenges unknown to earlier generations. This questioning arises not just at purely philosophical levels but in our daily lives as well. A few such examples will do.

We are being told by our state and national leaders that we have achieved historic high levels of prosperity and the confirming factor is often the level of tax collections in Washington, D.C., and Jefferson City. While most of us are happy that our beneficent governments are well supplied with sufficient cash to carry out their mandated roles, most of us are also working harder and harder to produce these high reserves of spendable largesse. As a result of this grassroots scramble to maintain our current lifestyles, many face the dichotomy of having more and enjoying it less. Some complain their enjoyment level has dropped to such depths that their lives seem empty and meaningless. Was Dickens really prescient?

In today's popular parlance, it is often said that if we can put men on the Moon, surely we can provide the same educational and intellectual achievements for our children who will soon enough encounter today's oxymorons. Such statements confirm the suspicions of the cynical that we have somehow managed to confuse technological certainties with societal. Rocketing astronauts into space is not the same thing as building thousands of school districts, equipping them with competent and inspired teachers and creating learning environments that will overcome whatever other surroundings impact upon would-be-learners. So, today, we are left with the miracle of orbital flight and the depressing failure of those thousands of school districts to enlighten tomorrow's leaders about the world they will encounter.

This is not to say our political leaders have not suggested a perfect his is not to say our suggested a perfect solution for this disturbing educational void, for they have. Like most solutions that are designed to win acclaim rather than resolve problems, our national and state leaders have told us that computers will miraculously reverse the dumbing-down that has troubled many observers for years. Not only will these miracle machines turn our children into inspired geniuses, they will help us run our systems of government, fly our airplanes, manage our finances, create new business customers and permit us to communicate in more ways than we can imagine.

While we are trying to prevent our computer-driven world from collapsing 19 months from now, we might ~accumulate a list of other problems created by this electronic marvel, ranging from pornographic filth to our children to the absence of basic intellectual instruction for today's computer kids. Having recently read and graded numerous test and research papers for college-level courses, I am ready to testify that grammatical and spelling abilities of students preparing to leave academia will barely place them one step above prehistoric levels. Beautifully prepared by computer, the papers are, with rare exceptions, intellectual disappointments. To expose students to information previous high school students took for granted, I have inaugurated a full class period to discussing the identities and works of authors chiseled on the walls of the campus library. (Homer, Greek poet and author who lived a thousand years before Christ, was identified as a TV cartoon character by one student.)

In today's society we are fond of pointing to a rash of miraculous medical discoveries, even including the cloning of sheep, the growing of hair on bald pates and perhaps even the start of a cure for deadly blood diseases, and no one can doubt the wondrous research that has led to their discoveries. But we are also learning the effect of these test tube miracles as we continue to seek the means of distributing their wonders to waiting patients. We are told science has discovered a way to cure male impotence, but we remain impotent in providing basic health care delivery systems for the economically deprived.

In Missouri and other so-called enlightened states, we no longer drive an ice pick into a mental patient's brain to "cure" his illness, but we are no further along in understanding what makes a pre-teen boy steal guns to shoot his parents or classmates or both than when these tragedies began. For every physical ailment we cure, we encounter new information on how the human mind works and doesn't work and the effects of devastating drugs we insist on introducing to it. We must eventually confront the approaching dilemma of how we deal with physically restored but mentally depleted human beings, and mind you, this discussion has not even been broached, much less confronted, understood and resolved.

Logically we know Dickens didn't foresee our world today, for if this had been the intent, his great novel would have been titled "The Tale of Two Societies."

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.