Moral Intelligence and Public School Bullying

On December 4, 2013 Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million member American Federation of Teachers (AFT), spoke on C-Span about bullying, particularly of gay students. Ms. Weingarten said, with surprise in her voice, that she doesn't understand why gay students are still bullied in public schools, because in 2013, "It's cool to be gay." She also said she is gay, and now speaks about it openly. As a psychotherapist, I tell clients that being surprised by another person's behavior often results from erroneous assumptions about the person, usually because you see them as you want them to be rather than as they are. As Ms. Weingarten talked about the love that not only dares speak its name but never shuts its yap, I imagined how it would sound if a heterosexual male schoolteacher said, "The way I do sex is cool."

Ms. Weingarten misunderstands the moral intelligence of Americans, both regarding the vapidity of being "cool" and their beliefs about sex. She is expressing a mindset that mentally abuses all children (especially her new teachers' pets, gay students) and worsens the bullying she wants to prevent. Moral intelligence is the foundation of human achievement. Without a basis in moral intelligence science is used for destructive purposes and art ceases to uplift. Moral intelligence comprises three mental faculties: 1) intuition about the significance of life; 2) understanding a code that distinguishes good choices from bad, and; 3) the courage to take individual responsibility to combine intuition and understanding into moral action. Moral knowledge is collective wisdom passed from generation to generation. Moral courage is freely made individual choice, which is weakened by unionism and statism. Moral intelligence is based on the intuitive capacity to recognize the God-originated significance in all life, without granting special significance to any group. It is the opposite of the self-directed, humanist search for meaning. It is the understanding that divine love is the sole significance of creation and human beings are the pinnacle of consciousness of that love. This understanding begins in childhood as the child forms a personal relationship with God. Moral intelligence involves the working knowledge of a religiously based code, which is why religious education is essential for children. Perhaps a New Humanity will arise that no longer needs religion. Until then, moral intelligence depends on the adaptation of religious knowledge to the problems of life. American morality is based upon an iteration of Christianity that places the challenge of moral responsibility on the individual. The epidemic of public school bullying arises because the culture of public schools stands in opposition to Judeo-Christian religion. Atheists can behave morally, but they are living against truth if they think they came up with their own moral code. Teachers like Ms. Weingarten may grasp the significance of life (although the content of the AFT website suggests otherwise). They may have courage of action. But they have lost the wisdom of Torah and Bible. Jews have a special momentum of moral intelligence because their law is monumental and profound. For thousands of years Jewish civilization has been more than anything a discourse in moral intelligence. American Jews still retain some energy to live in their beliefs, but they largely lost their base in religious law. The extraordinary mental dynamism of Jews is misdirected into humanist anti-morality, which is why so many American Jews like Ms. Weingarten are guiding schools into chaos. University of Texas at Arlington criminologist Seokjin Jeong analyzed data collected from 7,000 students from all 50 states. He thought the results would be predictable and would show that anti-bullying programs curb bullying. Instead -- he found the opposite. Jeong said it was, "A very disappointing and a very surprising thing. Our anti-bullying programs, either intervention or prevention does [sic ] not work." Anti-Bullying Programs Don't Work, Teach Bullies to Bully Better Like Ms. Weingarten, he is a surprised because he knows little about his subject. Some people are born homosexual, some become homosexual, and some have homosexuality thrust upon them by abuse. Ms. Weingarten influences children to join the middle group. This creates unconscious anxiety that worsens bullying. Anti-bullying programs aggravate that anxiety. Moral intelligence is tested by three major problems: aggression, greed, and sex. Of these, sex is the most complicated. Sex identification is the most pervasive and persistent aspect of separative consciousness, remaining as a psychological attachment through life. And sex is more than attachment, it is a form of love; without love human beings tend to become sick and lose the will to live. And of course, sex is necessary for procreation, which is why God had to make a special accommodation for it in man-woman marriage. When asked why I believe God does not sanctify same-sex marriage, I reply, "Because He doesn't have to." The replacement of traditional morality by the pro-sexuality fallacy has been a catastrophe for children. The historical schoolyard bully was a burly boy who waited after school to beat up other boys. Though there are millions of American men who still remember him and wouldn't grieve to see his name in the hometown obits, they survived his bullying and many developed strategies for standing up for themselves in the process. The historical bully has been replaced by legions of female bullies, and they don't wait until after school. Based on being in at least 40 public schools over the last 10 years, I believe the most common form of bullying is "straight" girl against girl. Not Ms. Weingarten's "cool" ones, the victim is a fatherless, shy, precious youngster who rarely develops strategies and suffers alone. The shift from male to female bullying happened because of the pro-sexuality fallacy, of which pro-homosexuality is only one part. The pro-sexuality fallacy regards sex as a right, not a moral issue. Freedom, legal rights, and self-expression are now focused on sex. The sexualization of children is especially dehumanizing to girls. This fallacy has been devastating to lifespan marriage, the institution children depend upon the most. Bullying results when confused, anxious, angry children trying to be accepted in a lewd, violence-saturated culture turn their unhappiness on each other. Ms. Weingarten was back on television on 12/10/13 on the Megyn Kelly program. She fielded softball questions about unfit teachers being protected by unions and blamed the problems of public schools on "poverty." She likes her falsehood and she can keep it. Period. The problems in public schools are caused by moral poverty, not material poverty. In the New York City schools of the 1950s, there was a program called released time. Once a week children were released early to religious instruction of their parents' choice. This program, entirely under parental control, needs to be reintroduced nationally. The fact that the AFT chose a lesbian activist from New York City for their president is a knockout game to American morality. Teachers like Randi Weingarten, whether male or female, who think it is helpful to disclose sex preference information about themselves need to be fired. Parents of high moral intelligence must organize and take back the schools or shut them down. They have the power to take back school boards, curriculum, hiring, change tax law, refuse federal money, and enact right-to-work laws. The bullying crisis in the schools mirrors the way American adults are humiliated and harassed by their government every day. The difference is we pay for the abuse. And American parents who understand the significance of life and the Judeo-Christian moral code cannot protect their children until they regain their courage of moral action.